June/July 2009 - Issue 62 - www.clareevans.co.uk

Welcome to all new subscribers.

Hello ,

Welcome to all new subscribers since last month.

Well, it's been a while coming but this has now become a June/July newsletter.  See, even the best of us have challenges, so I know how you feel when you're having to juggle everything all at once, having too much on your plate or life just getting in the way. I'm sure you had plenty of other things in your inbox to keep you busy.

June is birthday month. Mine was earlier in the month and several friends and colleagues also seem to be celebrating and even more now that online networks send me regular birthday reminders.

As well as being busy attending several local business shows and networking events, I put together a number of workshops for a small local business - a mix of training and coaching for their busy team.

Not just a workshop packed full of time tips but sharing ideas, looking at the real issues and coming up with strategies that the whole team can use. A great way to help not only their own individual productivity but also helping the whole team work better together.

As usual, you can get extra news and tips from my blog http://www.clareevans.co.uk/blog or Follow me on Twitter and keep up-to-date automatically.

Enjoy the rest of this month's newsletter and the summer sunshine.

Clare

P.S. If the formatting looks weird- let me know. Looks fine to me but may not on different systems and browsers.

Most of us are currently tightening our belts and being careful about how and where we spend our money, in the current economic climate, how many of us are as careful about where we spend our time?

Time Management might not seem like a particularly exciting subject but when you think about where you spend your time and what it's actually costing you, it puts the importance of good time habits into perspective.

One of the most relevant quotes I found and use often, is:

The greatest saving of all is better utilisation of our time. This directly affects practically every phase of the business in terms of expense and profits. [Leo Burnett]

From a business perspective this makes a lot of sense - especially when you consider how much your and your staff's time is worth.

If you can maximise the amount of time you spend productively then it's going to affect your ability to earn more money and grow your business - especially if you are paid or charge by the hour.

A few numbers that might help put this into perspective:

- 90% of managers squander their time on ineffective activities
- Office distractions add up to nearly 2 hours a day
- A distraction is likely to occur every 11 minutes
- 80% of interruptions and distractions are trivial

Now using an average salary of around £25,000 a year, this works out at £15 an hour. So, wasting just an hour a day adds up to around £300 each month. More if you or your staff are paid more than the average.

Wasting time on emails, phone calls, being stuck in traffic, paperwork and meetings could be costing you around £1000 per year on top of this.

According to a recent Microsoft Survey, only 60% of an average week is productive - that's only three days a week. The other two are wasted on unproductive tasks, distractions and time wasters.

- 63% of people with poor time management skills experience health issues.
- 48% of people feel their lives have become more stressed.
- Nearly 50% of people say work/life balance is now even more important.

Planning your day, week and month effectively, enables you to focus on the right things. Reducing your distractions and interruptions and working more effectively gives you more time to spend with clients.

You'll avoid being busy but not feeling your achieving anything at the end of the day. You'll have more time to do what you want - whether that's time to work on your business, spending time with family and friends or just more time for yourself.

And for those of you who are planning and/or taking your summer break soon:

- 60% of people check their work email over the weekend
- 50% of people check email on holiday

So if you'd like to be in the 40/50% that are able to leave their work in the office and enjoy a relaxing and stress free holiday or if you'd just like to learn more about how you can Plan For Profit - start developing good time habits and find ways to use your time more productively.

Give me a call on 01273 588297 to find out more and to book a free consultation to discuss your specific situation or email me at info@clareevans.co.uk.

Until next month,

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