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Time Management Tip

How to achieve more with less time, staff and money.

The current economic environment is the toughest we have seen in 20 years. This has lead many businesses to turn to a cost cutting strategy. The challenge is to work out how you can do more with less -- less resource, time and money.

Many of my clients have been asked to cut costs, stop recruiting and some have had to reduce staff. This creates more stress and pressure for you as the manager.

Essentially you have to do more with less.

Unfortunately the most common approach is to work harder, work longer and get your staff to do the same. BUT this leads to more stress and your staff quickly become disengaged. In some organizations I have spoken to it has taken less than two months for staff to become disengaged.

Disengaged staff are less effective according to Gallup research. Organizations with disengaged staff are less profitable. So how do you do more with less and keep staff engaged.

You must think differently.

The first step is to step outside your current mindset and view point. Einstein said You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.

So now you decide to think differently. This is much harder than it seems. It almost always requires the help of someone outside the business who keeps challenging you to change your view point and see things in a different way.

The key to doing more with less is first to do less with less.

In all businesses, in all processes there is room to become more efficient. The 80-20 rule applies to almost everything. You need to identify the tasks that add little or no value and STOP doing them. Again this requires you to step outside your current thinking. The biggest insights usually come from people new to your team or outside the business.

Now find the 20% that has the most impact

What are the tasks that sit in the 20% (from the 80-20 rule) of tasks that have huge impact. Increase your focus on these. How can these be done more effectively, more creatively?

One of my clients has had a 30% reduction in staff compared to a year ago. They are producing their key outputs on time, with outstanding quality. The manager told me the other day that a year ago he would have thought it was impossible – yet today it is reality. They used the do less with less approach.

Are you going to be a victim to the current economic conditions or are you going to thrive. Most businesses will just survive, some will die and some will thrive. How can you make sure your team and your business will thrive?

While looking at a house, my brother asked the estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, 'Does the sun rise in the north?' When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, 'Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff.'

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Thanks for spending your valuable time with us.

Have the time of your life this week.

Michael

Michael Erwin https://www.time-management-central.net