Have you ever caught yourself saying “wow, where did that week go”? or “That year flew by”, or “I’ve lost track of the days”, or “When will I have time to do that”, or “There aren’t enough hours in the day”…
These are just a few of the lines we hear from very busy people, and sometimes I catch myself saying it too. The reality is that ever since man created a way of measuring time, once with the stars and lunar cycles, but now usually found on your wrist, on your wall, on your phone or other electronic device, we are constantly being told remember and we are informed about TIME. .
Time is a commodity that once used cannot be recovered. If you are not making progress towards your goals or if you are caught up in the rush of business and life, stressed out because you have too much to do and too little TIME, then there is a simple formula to help you regain control of your TIME.
It’s not about time management, it’s about self-management. You can CHOOSE how you want to USE THE TIME.
A simple process I use is the 10:70:20 formula. It is 10% Future, 70% Present, 20% Past. Every activity we engage in will fall into one of these categories and will depend on your Role or the Role of your team members.
Take for example a freelance painter who works 40 hours a week. Using the ratio 10:70:20, you could plan your week like this.
4 hours per week in Future. This would be networking, sales activity like prospecting, future job search, referral tracking, etc.
28 hours per week would be allocated to plan work, do site measurements, get supplies, travel to jobs, clean up site. Basically all work “In the tools”.
That would leave 8 hours a week to take care of the PAST. To order all billing, pay bills, do administration, keep track of customers, etc.
Unless TIME is allotted for each of these activities, it won’t be long before the hustle and responsiveness of the business takes over and the PAST becomes overwhelming and, as the saying goes, you’ll be “stuck in the past.” “. “.
Intend to be effective with your TIME, choose to Plan how you will use it, Choose to make TIME for everything and you WILL HAVE it all.
Step 1 in managing your work-life balance with 10:70:20 is to make a list of all the activities you engage in each week. Repeat in your mind what you do every day from the time you start work until you finish the day. What are you doing? For example, receiving and making phone calls, quotes, tools, sales meetings and presentations, billing, etc.
Step 2 in managing work-life balance is to record next to each activity the category it fits into. It is an activity that contributes to the FUTURE, PRESENT or PAST. To help you, think of a job life like the painters example above.
Step 3 in managing your work-life balance is to record how long activities take each week. Add up the hours in each category and total the number of hours spent in each. What are their percentage ratios?
Step 4 in managing your work-life balance is to assess which area is not in the 10:70:20 ratio. If you don’t keep up with your manager, take time each week to do so. If you don’t think about what the consequences will be.