Discover the secret to creating extra hours in your day

Increase effectiveness, efficiency and productivity using Liz McKeon’s template for creating extra hours in the day for your salon and sticking to it. Time management is an essential tool in business management. It combines planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities. Time management takes discipline, requires planning and you must stick to the plan for it to work and get extra hours back.

Set clear goals to gain extra hours

Identifying your short and long-term goals will enable you to differentiate between what’s more and less important. With clear goals you can plan and prepare a sequence of steps to achieve them. Preparing daily ‘to do’ lists can increase your productivity by 20%, help to clear your mind and save you both energy and stress.

Prioritise and stop procrastinating

Prioritise the tasks on your list ranking them in order of urgency and importance. You can use your ‘to do’ list and prioritisation as a base to schedule the day or the whole week, including time for breaks and interruptions. Having a schedule to work from means you won’t have to waste time and energy thinking about what you have to do next. Just follow your schedule. Procrastination can be a major obstacle to success. It’s important to look at the cause of your procrastination. Are you waiting for the ‘right time’ or ‘perfect mood,’ are you underestimating the time required or worried about the difficulty of the task?

Good systems and taking a break

Being organised and having good systems for filing emails, computer documents and papers will save you many valuable hours in the long run. Spend some time initially setting up your systems so you don’t have to worry. Learn to delegate less important tasks or tasks that would be better performed by someone else. It is also vitally important to schedule some breaks which will keep your mind fresh, ensuring you are able to return to work with better focus. Working without breaks is often less productive. Don’t allow technology to control you. In particular, don’t become a slave to email and social media. Take control and spend the core of your time on the most important tasks.

Creating healthy boundaries

Healthy people have healthy boundaries, which means saying no. Remember your time and resources are limited. You have to stick to what’s important and know when to just say no without feeling guilty. Don’t delay tough decisions. As a manager you must learn to be decisive when it counts. At times successful salon owners must make unpopular and difficult decisions that are necessary and they must be implemented immediately.

Five steps to a streamlined day

1. Record all your activities for one week to reveal the opportunities and gaps in your time management.
2. Take the first 15 to 30 minutes of every day to plan your schedule.
3. Put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on your door, when you absolutely have to get work completed.
4. Allow time to answer emails and return calls.
5. Schedule appointments and create time blocks for high priority activities and conversations.

Liz McKeon is a hair and beauty business coach who offers training and workshops. For more information go to lizmckeon.com.