X. Thou shalt delegate.

What jobs can be done by you and only you?

Making sales presentations and selling product is an example. You need a specific license.

Paperwork can be done by someone else. Research too.

Preparing presentation binders can be farmed out. You might make use of an intern or find how your office handles hiring part-time help, which you would cover.

You are a professional. You should focus your time on activities providing the greatest return in business revenue, new clients or client retention.

10 Time Management Commandments

There are few, if any, new ideas in time management.

But it’s an area where we quickly forget what we learn.

We need constant reminders, and these 10 commandments can help.

I. Thou shalt have a plan for each day.

You write a plan before you leave the office the preceding day, when everything is fresh in your mind.

It should have several measurable goals including calls made, LinkedIn messages sent, appointments scheduled and sales made. Keep score.

On a day you don’t book any sales, you might still have laid serious groundwork for future business.

II. Thou shalt not put off the difficult tasks.

Prospecting is rarely everyone’s favorite activity. Get it out of the way first, when you are fresh and energetic.

If you are having an issue with a difficult client, make that call first thing in the morning.

The person you are calling is also starting a new day -- nothing has happened to spoil it.  They should be in a good mood.

III. Thou shalt remember to prospect every day.

It’s easy to set aside the “important” tasks for the “immediate” ones. Someone stops at your desk saying “This paperwork must be completed immediately.”

What if you were out that day? It would wait.

Prospecting is important.  It fills the pipeline, it gets your name out there.

Why will people come to you for business if you aren’t making yourself top of mind?

IV. Thou shalt honor the time-blocking concept.

It’s so easy to get distracted. You plan to prospect two hours in the morning, then the phone rings.  It’s a client with a service question. A friend calls.

Suddenly, the two hours is gone.

If you prospect by calling businesses, swap desks with a colleague.

Go to a conference room and close the door.

That way you can focus on one task for the entire time. It’s like Study Hall at school.

V. Thou shalt not kill time by surfing the Internet.

It’s been said the average smartphone user checks their phone about 120 times a day.

We spend time on Facebook, we check for travel deals, we trawl through Ebay. We check e-mail constantly.

Try pretending email is similar to surface mail, which is delivered once a day.

Try limiting yourself to only checking email once or twice a day.

VI. Thou shalt not squander small blocks of time. 

Someone is meeting you at the office for lunch, but they arrive 10 minutes late. You’ve been waiting, doing nothing.

Have a group of small projects you can knock out (writing a letter or email) or work on a little bit at a time (organizing and updating the slides for a seminar presentation).

You’ve made good use of that extra time.

VII. Thou shalt not allow friends in the office to steal time from you. 

Ever have another agent or advisor drop into your office, grab a seat and start talking about their weekend? It’s as if they are saying: “I don’t feel like working, so I’m going to talk with you instead.  I’ll just interrupt your work flow.” They are stealing time.

If you sit in an open plan office, start by removing the visitor chair.

If you have an enclosed office, pile papers on the seats.

If they ask: “Can I move these?” explain you are busy right now, but can talk after 4 p.m.

VIII. Thou shalt keep track of time spent on the phone. 

Ever have a client who calls just because they like to talk?

Do you know someone who can’t get to the point?

If your phone has a timer, keep an eye on it. If not, the three-minute egg timer with sand running through works well.

You need a strategy to get off the phone. When I was done, I would say: “Gotta hop!”

One of my clients complimented me: “You call. You make your point. You get off the phone.”

IX. Thou shalt do paperwork after hours. 

During the day, you can get clients and prospects on the phone. News is breaking, the market is moving -- you have reasons to call.

In the early morning or early evening, it’s difficult to get people because they are having their morning coffee or commuting.

That’s the time to catch up on paperwork and enter data into the computer.

X. Thou shalt delegate.

What jobs can be done by you and only you?

Making sales presentations and selling product is an example. You need a specific license.

Paperwork can be done by someone else. Research too.

Preparing presentation binders can be farmed out. You might make use of an intern or find how your office handles hiring part-time help, which you would cover.

You are a professional. You should focus your time on activities providing the greatest return in business revenue, new clients or client retention.