How to Avoid the Spiral of Lost Productivity
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According to Bloomberg Businessweek, 90% of financial advisors do not feel in control of their business? I believe it. At my firm, we see it reflected every day in our advisor clients as we help them learn how to get more done in their day and make more money in the process.
It’s common for advisors to be so busy that they forget to lift their heads up to notice that busy doesn’t mean effective or efficient. Many of our clients come to us feeling overwhelmed and stressed with too many priorities, exhausted from long hours and lack of effective systems, frustrated with their referrals and a lack of time to dedicate to growth and distracted throughout their day. Their heads are swirling and they aren’t taking very good care of their health.
If you’ve ever felt like this, perhaps these five tips to improve your productivity can help ease your stress. If you need more help, we’re always just an email or phone call away. Let’s dig in.
Turn it off
As your world gets more automated and connected to everything electronic, you can’t help but hear more dings, rings, whistles, and beeps. Every time you hear one of these noises, you’re distracted and drawn into the inevitable “stop, look or listen” reaction. You can’t help it. Society is creating a pack of Pavlov’s dogs. The truth is, you can help it with one simple act. Turn off those notifications that interrupt your train of thought. If you need to focus on something to get it done, silence everything for a designated amount of time and complete your project uninterrupted. Do this alone and watch your productivity soar. I dare you to keep all notifications off if you are not required to keep them on.
Plan your day
Imagine if you were building a new house for your family. Without specific plans that outline every detail of the house, you’re likely to end up with something far different than your vision. The same is true for your day. If you don’t set a plan for your day, you’ll get to 5pm and wonder why you didn’t get anything done that you wanted to complete. Yes, it’s likely that you may have to put out a fire or address a nervous client at some point. But having a plan enables you to jump back into your plan with greater ease, avoiding the downward spiral that typically follows any interruption. When you can avoid that spiral of lost productivity, you’ll get more done in your day.
Be selective
I get it, it’s hard to say “no.” That said, you can’t buy time because it’s not for sale. One of the few ways to put time back into your day is to spend it with the right people. If you’re giving your time away to the wrong people, you can’t get it back. It’s lost forever. This applies to your clients and COIs as well as to your broader network. Be strategic and protective with your time. Analyze if a specific event is where you need to be before simply checking the RSVP. Think about who is getting your “face time” before offering it. And consider all the other ways you can be “with” people that doesn’t turn a one-hour meeting into a three-hour excursion. It’s up to you to protect what time you have in your day.
Let go
Are you feeling over-extended? I’m not surprised. Many of our clients feel the same way because they find themselves volunteering for this and that, over and over again. Volunteering is a great thing. That said, you need to know when it’s time to pass the torch and have faith in the next person who needs to shine and/or gain experience. The baseball team, the Girl Scout troop, the board, and/or the committee will all continue without you if you need that time back. Yes, it’s difficult to let go, especially if you’ve invested so much of yourself to a cause. Every time you say “yes” to one thing, you’re forced to say “no” to something else, simply because you have a finite amount of time to juggle. If you’re not willing to say “no” to that other thing (like dinner with your family), then it’s time to let go.
Set boundaries
Picture the bowling alley with the rubber bumpers in the gutters that keep the ball going down the lane, giving your daughter a better chance of hitting the pins. Boundaries are like those bumpers. They are designed to give you a better chance of meeting your goals. If you set boundaries around the type of clients you wish to have (and you stick to those boundaries) you’ll build a practice full of those ideal clients. Same applies to your productivity. For example, if you set boundaries for the length of your client meetings, you will be less likely to turn an hour meeting into a two-hour social gathering. Boundaries give you permission to say “no” and help you manage the hours in your day more effectively. And your client will appreciate the extra hour back in their day (they're busy people, too!).
None of these productivity tips will take any money from your budget to implement. They will, however, take effort, commitment, change of behavior and of course, courage on your part. You know as a financial advisor that a good investment will yield a great ROI. What action are you willing to take to get an ROI of more hours through enhanced productivity?
Michelle R. Donovan owns Productivity Uncorked LLC where a one-two punch helps financial advisors to be more productive and more profitable. Michelle’s books have become Wall Street Journal best-sellers, Amazon best-sellers and published in seven languages. If you want to enhance your productivity, set a time to chat with Michelle, email her at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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