The Art of Doing Less

5th October 2020 By The ActionKnowHow Team

The Art of Doing Less to Achieve More

Ever found yourself missing a family event or working late just to keep up with the tasks you have to do in your business?

If the answer is yes then this blog is for you. You see, all of us think at some time in our working life that doing loads HAS to the be the answer to success, less = no work, more activity = more cash, right? Well I think it’s fundamentally flawed thinking. As a fairly old (almost 60) ex lawyer I remember when we used to be paid by the word, minute and hour, our worth was measured in the hours we billed and how much of that billing hit the firm’s bank account ie not disputed or a bad debt.

You are worth more than cash

That is not how we measure ourselves of course, nor is it, in 2020, an enlightened way to run a business when this year has taken the whole world and shaken it up and our personal and business lives with it. Working yourself into the ground burning both ends of the day and not feeling worthy unless you are in front of your PC tapping out more work is a big fat horrible danger signal that your life has got seriously out of kilter.

The way law firm partners thought when I worked in a traditional practice was how much could we flog the staff to earn this month? Do you know how many hours a lawyer works to bill 6 or 7 hours each day? Normally around 10-11 hours. Hardly a shock that by early 2000 (when we did a sharp exit) we saw many lawyers buying camper vans and heading for the hills.

Unprecedented levels of burn out across all professions

This is not just about lawyers though, you can insert any professional title in there and its the same, our internet obsession and the change of business to be 24/7 or at least operate always 7 days a week via a 12 hour day have changed the rules. We are not clear – I think – on what is expected of us any longer or how to manage the new way of working which means we can work any time without it being all of our time. That is my big question and one I have asked myself repeatedly, I have some but not all of the answers, my life is a journey but I can share what I have learned so far and what is working for me.

Examine your thinking

You need to look at doing things better and handling less using a higher brain function ie thinking and evaluating what to do, so its done once and right so you are not reacting and just processing your ‘to do’ list. Your ‘to do’ list also never ends, it just gets longer with more stuff being added daily. Sounds like you? Think again!

Another way

If you have a long ‘to do’ list and are spending your day worrying about fitting it all in and constantly being given or adding new tasks its time to rearrange your thinking. I use a project book, one of those split into coloured sections so I can use a colour coding for each project area I am working on plus a master board, nothing fancy just an A3 drawing block with all the projects in a big mind map on one page so I can check what is important and what is moving/slipping or needs attention.

For each project I colour code the name so I know a green one is live and underway, a red one is in trouble and needs my attention and the blue one is pending ie I am waiting on for someone else to make progress, violet ones are dreams ie ideas I may or may not revisit but they sure as hell are not having any time now devoted to them so they are on paper but have no flesh or time devoted to them now.

My green, blue and red projects have space in my project book, a page for each project tasks with my main aim written at the top. All of these plans and lists have scheduled time in the diary. If it’s not scheduled it does not happen. This stops reactivity, burn out and stuff getting missed. It also allows me to plan my time accurately around home life, my beloved husband, friends and dogs are always going to come first and have time devoted to them.

Oh yeah, how does that work when the sh*t hits the fan then?

Sh*t happens, ill-health strikes without warning, I went out one Saturday afternoon, fell over and spent over 3 years recovering from a traumatic leg injury needing major surgery and twice weekly physio. I did not miss one day off work, did not lose one client and earned more money the year I was injured than I had done at any time in the last 5 before it. I was super organised, and the schedule enabled others to take over some of my tasks easily without the fuss a disorganised working life can bring. Now in 2020, another type of illness in my family grounded everything to a standstill and I needed to change everything about the way in which I had worked for over 30 years. This sort of framework enables you to do or delegate without the need for full engagement at those times when you are under par or lacking physical and/or emotional energy.

Will you fall off the wagon periodically even if you adopt these systems? Of course, but done regularly and getting you the results you want will make them easier to get back into when something unexpected happens. Fancy some support in getting this sort of plan in your life? Email support@actionknowhow.com for details of courses and programs that would help you sort out your framework and paint a better picture for living in your life and business.

Time For Money

10th June 2020 By The ActionKnowHow Team

Time For Money

I was thinking about time this week and how it’s almost always imagined as a straight line. It got me thinking about the time we all need for our businesses and how so many of us feel there is never enough. Of course we all have the same amount of time in a day but it’s how we choose to spend it that counts. This is true in all areas of life but crucial in business, particularly service businesses.

The time for money trap

Years ago when I was a fledgling lawyer every minute of my time between the start and end of the working day was accounted for. All in neat little lines, recorded on a hand written sheet, 6 minutes or one unit of time per line. It was so I could learn how to bill clients and account for the time I spent that could be billed. It was a crucial tool for all of us, as our worth to the firm – our employer – was only measured in billable units banked. That is the time we could charge was one total and the amount we recovered from the client was another total. This meant we all accurately recorded and invoiced time, as a dispute over billable hours affected our own bank balances and job security. So we got pressure both ends, time we could bill and firm and client scrutiny over the charges we made.

The big lie you tell yourself about time for money

Nothing changed in my own business! I carried forward the same principle of swapping time for cash when I started my own business as this was the service model I knew. It’s safe to say I did not understand there were different models and I had, when I started my own business back in 1994, never heard of value pricing. As a lawyer my time was charged out at an hourly rate and no matter how hard I drove myself my billable hours were always capped by the number of hours I could bill for and of course the time I could work. Holidays, ill-health, time off with family all were seen as encroaching on the billable time. Many of us worked long hours, late into the evening, weekends were eroded both ends, Saturday morning client appointments and Sunday afternoon and evening catch ups so we could all start the week with a clean slate. 60, 70 or 80 hours a week were usual and I was never alone in the firm, we were all at it. Not a single one of us could make more hours in a day, we just squeezed more work into the working day from our souls.

Switch off off to switch on

Working with clients now I see the same habits and trends. Switched onto their mobile devices and no plan each morning or start of the week on what time is to be used for the various activities we all have as business owners. Little wonder by the end of each day nothing much has been done and the ‘to do’ list remains undone day after day. Sucked up into the reactive mode of the day where emails, calls and random events take you over, it’s little wonder you lose the planned activity momentum and feel overwhelmed.

One of the first things we work with clients on in all of our programmes and one to one consulting is the planning of time and ensuring the standard duties of marketing, invoicing, and what we call heart or soul of the business ie the drive that meant you set up and started it all in the first place comes first. That’s right, in front of all the clients, emails, trivia and must do today stuff it’s about ring fencing the time you need to make your business function and that includes time to replenish your energy or it’s all for nothing.

Deadlines are often self-imposed. It’s true only a certain percentage of the work you will do for your clients and customers is so urgent it must be done same day. If that is the sort of client you are attracting and it doesn’t sit well, it’s time to make a change. Write a comment below or email me at Toni@www.actionknowhow.com for a free time planner.

Selling Services by the Hour

21st February 2018 By The Actionistas

Time For Money

We were thinking about time and how we almost always imagine a straight line of time. It got me thinking about the time we all need for our businesses and how so many of us feel there is never enough. Of course we all have the same amount of time in a day but it’s how we choose to spend it that counts. This is true in all areas of life but crucial in business, particularly service businesses.

The time for money trap

When I was a fledgling lawyer back in the 1980s every minute of my time between the start and end of the working day was accounted for on a sheet of paper. All in neat little lines, recorded on a hand written sheet, 6 minutes or one unit of time per line. I billed clients and accounted for the time I spent that could be billed/not billed. It was a crucial tool for all of us, as our worth to the firm – our employer – was only measured in billable units banked. That is the time we could charge was one total and the amount we recovered from the client was another total. This meant we all accurately recorded and invoiced time, as a dispute over billable hours affected our own bank balances and job security. So we got pressure both ends, time we could bill and firm and client scrutiny over the charges we made.

The big lie you tell yourself about time for money

Nothing changed in my own business. I carried forward the same principle of swapping time for cash when I started my own business as this was the service model I knew. It’s safe to say I did not understand there were different business models and I had, when I started my own business back in 1994, never heard of value pricing. As a lawyer my time was charged out at an hourly rate and no matter how hard I drove myself my billable hours were always capped by the number of hours I could bill for and of course the time I could work. Holidays, ill-health, time off with family all were seen as encroaching on the billable time. Many of us worked long hours, late into the evening, weekends were eroded both ends, Saturday morning client appointments and Sunday afternoon and evening catch ups so we could all start the week with a clean slate. 60, 70 or 80 hours a week were usual and I was never alone in the firm, we were all at it. Not a single one of us could make more hours in a day, we just squeezed more work into the working day from our souls. It was hard work and very debilitating.

Switch off

One of the first things we work with clients on in all of our programmes is the planning of time and ensuring the standard duties of marketing, invoicing, and what we call heart or soul of the business ie the drive that meant you set up and started it all in the first place comes first. That’s right, in front of all the clients, emails, trivia and must do today stuff it’s about ring fencing the time you need to make your business function and that includes time to replenish your energy or it’s all for nothing.

Deadlines are often self-imposed. It’s true only a certain percentage of the work you will do for your clients and customers is so urgent it must be done same day. If that is the sort of client you are attracting and it doesn’t sit well, it’s time to make a change. You can chat it through with us, get in touch using the details below.