Latest / The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners / 225: Ideas to Implement - Complete a Time Study to Boost Productivity Now

Transcript

225: Ideas to Implement - Complete a Time Study to Boost Productivity Now · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I'm always so glad that you are here.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Each week, I want to create a follow-up episode that is all about the actionable steps that you can take from this week's longer podcast.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: So every week, my goal is to distill the episode down into just a couple of bullet points that you can take action on immediately to make a big impact in your business.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I want you to take what we've talked about and actually implement it and do the thing.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I am your host of.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: The Efficient Advisor, libby Grewy and I built a 100% referral-only planning practice from scratch that I grew to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year to lean into being a mom, a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter and, frankly, a travel-obsessed human.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: And I'm here just to walk alongside you and to show you how to do exactly the same thing to help you take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: We are about to transform your practice, so get out of the way, advisor ADD and move over exhaustion.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It is time to take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Now this week's episode was all about one of the most effective tools that you can use in your business to really identify where you are wasting so much time.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: You know advisors wear so many hats and we juggle so many tasks.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It's so easy to have one of those days where you just work, work, work, work, work, work, work and then all of a sudden at the end of the day you look back at what you've completed and you're like I was so busy but I didn't actually get anything done.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's happened to you I'm sure it has, but it happens to me all the time.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: So conducting a time study can really be a game changer for advisors to improve your productivity, to streamline processes, identify where you need new processes, really just regain control over your day.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So in the episode I shared kind of the big, so this is again just a consolidated episode.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So kind of go back and listen to.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: In the episode I shared kind of the big.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So this is again just a consolidated episode.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: So kind of go back and listen to the long episode.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But the big benefits of a time study for advisors are really one figuring out time wasters, so things that you're doing, low priority tasks, just ways that you waste time, and I give some examples of how I waste in time in my business.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It helps you improve efficiency right.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: You can create more realistic schedules.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: You can really figure out where, if you're going to commit to something new, how it fits into your schedule.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: It really enhances your focus and really can provide a lot of work-life balance or work-life blend.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: You know, a time study really helps you identify opportunities for personal time versus work time, right without sacrificing productivity really in either area.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: So, most importantly, you have to conduct an effective time study.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So you have to choose a time period where you've got nothing else weird going on.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That kind of reflects a quote-unquote normal schedule.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: So you don't want to do it where you know you have a bunch of doctor's appointments, or you're taking Friday off and you don't normally do that, or the kids are starting school or you've got something weird going on.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Try to do a two-week study.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be back-to-back, where you are tracking what you're doing for 15 minutes at a time and track all your activities from the moment you start your day until you wrap up at the end of the day.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: You want to just note what you're doing and you can use a time tracking app like Toggle or Clockify, or you can use the simple spreadsheet that I give you in the download to this episode.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Then you're going to want to go in, because the most important part is the analysis, right, and really maybe it's not even that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: It's the implementation of what you learn from the analysis.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: But you have to analyze.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It's not good enough to just take down what you're doing.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Of course, the awareness, right, self-awareness is really important, and when you start to see how you're spending and wasting your time, you immediately start to change some of those behaviors.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: But you're going to want to actually go in and categorize your activities, identify what's admin work I like to do this with just a highlighter, but what's admin work?
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: What's business development?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: What is marketing?
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: What's client work?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: What's personal time or working on personal things that you might do during the day.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: You also want to note any interruptions and really keep track of what makes you happy.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Right, are there things that suck joy out of your life and are there things that bring you joy?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Because those are important.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And then we're going to look for patterns.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I get into more detail, of course, in the longer episode.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: But you're going to want to look for patterns, you know, compare it against your priorities and really assess what's wasting time and where the bottlenecks exist.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, we're going to do a start stop, continue, exercise and make adjustments and changes and start reiterating your schedule and start trying new things.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So the big actionable items for this week are really do a time study, pick two weeks and do a time study for you and have your team do it as well.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Of course, not from like a hey, I want to know what you're doing, surveillance-y way, but from a hey, let's all work together to be as efficient as humanly possible way.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: So you're going to want to conduct the time study, then you're going to want to go through and actually do some serious analysis on it, and then you're going to want to take it and implement it into a model week and I'm going to talk next week with you guys about designing your perfect schedule.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: So pick a time on the calendar, go ahead and get it blocked out now and print out the sheet that goes along with this episode, or download one of those apps toggle or clockify and start tracking your time.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: You will be amazed.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Every time I do it.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I do it twice a year alongside our group coaching program, and every single time I do it I glean so much insight and I come out of it a better version of myself than I did going in.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I hope this was a helpful episode for you.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: People have already commented out in the Efficient Advisor community on Facebook that they're doing it, so join us in the Efficient Advisor community if you wanna be surrounded by 2,300 other advisors who are like-minded, open-minded, sharing, caring and answering all your questions.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Of course, I also hang out on LinkedIn.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for listening.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: If you would do me a solid and share this episode, or share this longer episode from Tuesday with another advisor that you know, I would greatly appreciate it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: If this podcast has impacted you in any way or changed your business in any way, shape or form, I would appreciate leaving a review.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: It's how other advisors find the show.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much and have an amazing rest of your week.