How many times have you said or heard “there’s just not enough time in the day”? In my former career, I said it all the time. It was the reason my dry cleaning was never dropped off (much less picked up), why home projects left up to me remained in a “get there one day” pile, and why my husband had to do pretty much everything from bill paying to grocery shopping to pet care. I just didn’t have enough time.

After launching YuDu, things changed a little. I started to focus on time efficiency and time management. As a concierge and personal assistant, you basically have to become an expert in managing not just your own time – but that of your clients as well.  As with learning a language…survival is the best environment to learn!

Have you ever tracked your time? I mean down to the minute? There is even time tracker software out there right now that you can download for free to track how you spend your time. (You can email me about that later). What most people find when they start tracking there time is – Wow! I waste a LOT of time. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a firm believer that some times you need a little non-productive time where you are thinking, being creative, relaxing – giving your brain a break and the opportunity to problem solve or even think up opportunities. My point is that most of us feel like we “have no time” when really we are not managing our time. So what I am going to do today as part of our time saver secrets is show you how to manage your time, point out some time wasters, and then give you a few tricks of the trade.

Just keep one thing in mind – YOU and Bill Gates have the same amount of hours, minutes and seconds in your day.

Some of these you many know but don’t follow and some of these may take you some time to realize that you need to do, but I’m telling you – if you want a balanced life, where you are excited about getting up and energetic about your tasks at hand, you need to pay attention to these 5 Steps for Improving Time Management.

1. LIST. I have a motto that I use at night that is “its 10 pm, do you know where your priorities are?” Some of you may remember the evening news anchor in the 80’s that used something similar to ask parents about where their children were. In my opinion, knowing your next day’s priorities is just as important (maybe that’s why I only have cats!). How many times have you woken up in the middle of the night going, “Oh crap! I have to do that tomorrow!” Keep a list. And if need be, keep it by your bed. And if you are 100% digital, keep it in your blackberry/sync it to Outlook. Whatever it takes to keep your list updated and relevant – do it.

Because we are a Life Balance company, I have to insert here that included in this list needs to be YOU time. This may be a 30-minute walk or a 2-hour gym workout. Maybe it is getting your nails done, your hair highlighted, or watching Jersey Shore. Whatever it is, it needs to be on your list and it needs to be a priority (which is something we talk about next). I guarantee that if you work on these tips and save time, you will have time for this YOU time. And you’ve earned it.

2. Prioritize. Listing your tasks is not enough. You have to prioritize. What absolutely has to be done the next day? The day after? I like to say that I’m going to have 3 deliverables. For me, it may be: entering payroll, finalizing our client’s research project, and finishing next week’s presentation.  And to make it fun, I also include rewards, like watching Grey’s Anatomy that night or sending pictures out from last weekend if I get those deliverables done. Now there are a bazillion classes/seminars out there on how to correctly prioritize. Last year I spent an afternoon looking at several of them trying to find out what I was missing out on and I honestly believe you need to do what works for you. If Stars and Colors make your list work and determine the top priorities then do it that way. You can list it all and then re-list 1-10 if that is your preference. The point is – you need to decide what is important.

3. Delegate! Now of course I’d love for everyone to call me tomorrow morning with all the tasks they do not have time or do not want to do…but delegation does not necessarily mean to a concierge/errand running service. Delegation can be to your bookkeeper, lawn service, copywriter, SEO specialist, graphic designer, etc. Recognize the talent that you bring to your company (and your household) and then seek the expertise of others. The market is full of entrepreneurs who can bring their specialty to your work without costing an arm and a leg.

This of course sounds normal and easy but do you do it? I mean, do you really do it? My female clients take a long time to delegate their first YuDu errands. Even if someone has gifted them YuDu hours! Why is this? I think it is because – in general – women like to be in control. No one does it like us, “it’ll take longer to explain than for me to just do it”, the list of reasons goes on and on. We want to be super woman. We want to have it all together, to look like we did everything with NO help. We baked cupcakes for a school event, worked out for 2 hours, had a personal best week of selling our product/services, attended all the best networking events, had dinner with our husband and STILL managed to clean the house, weed the lawn, and donate time to Habitat. To all my female reading audience out there, let me tell you that anyone you see accomplishing all that, has someone like YuDu behind them! Every great businessperson (Gates, Jobs, Roddick, to name a few) has an assistant. They have someone to delegate to and the best news is – you don’t have to have a million dollars to delegate. And in some instances, you can actually make more money focusing on what you need to do (i.e. your job) or at the very least, having a higher quality of life (did I mention a bike ride with your kids).

4. FOCUS. STOP Multitasking!  If you keep up with YuDu on FaceBook (and I encourage all of you to do so!), you’ll remember that we posted an article about the health dangers of multi-tasking. Some people pride themselves on the ability to multi-task.  Women are supposedly great at it. Well, I hate to break it to you but without focus on one pending task, you are doing yourself and your clients a disservice.  Your brain can only focus on one thing. When you think you are multi-tasking, you are actually just changing tasks and while women may be able to do this changeover quicker than men, there are very negative costs that can affect your relationships with clients and with friends/family. There are time costs for switching from one task to the other and studies show you produce a lower quality of output, increased number of mistakes – leading to longer output time because you had to go back and redo. And think about it for a minute: have you ever been in a meeting with someone who is looking at their phone while more than they look at you? Is that meeting productive while they are “multitasking with those other messages”? And don’t you feel just a little slighted? Where’s the productivity there? Why is this person WASTING your time? Your time is precious!

5. ACT. Stop putting off things that must be done and figure out why you are putting them off. If you are putting it off because you are scared to fail, keep in mind that life is a learning process! If it is something you know how to do, but just don’t really like doing, make it the first thing you do and get it out the way.  Of course, this does not necessarily mean you have to do it, but either you do it or delegate it to someone who does. Examples are the previously mentioned yard work and bookkeeping tasks.

If you take these 5 Steps to improve your time management, I am certain you will find a little more time for what you really want to do.  If you need help, you know where to find us.