How to Boost Your Productivity: Achieving More in Less Time

As business owners, we're expected to wear an awful lot of hats. Maybe you're juggling finances with building maintenance, let alone running a column, or perhaps even managing a team as well. How do we get more done? Here's my five-step process for doing less and achieving more. Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. Phil Jackson, your queen of salons here, coming in your eyes and ears with another dose of wise owl wisdom. This time in response to a listener question. So this was a question that was sent into my monthly Q&A slot. If you'd like a question answered on the Q&A slot, by the way, phil at buildyoursalon.com. You know I love hearing from you anyway. But a lady called Chantal sent in a question saying, Dear Phil, I'm really struggling with getting things done. I have lists everywhere and never seem to get things crossed off. The lists grow and grow. I run a busy column in my own salon and my team is busy too. I know I should be doing more marketing and I am doing a lot of admin and client messages in the evenings and at weekends. How can I get more done? My goodness, Chantal, it sounds like, firstly, I need to congratulate you because business is booming. You're busy. Your team's busy. You're doing a great job. I would maybe, as an aside, look perhaps at pricing. If everybody's working at capacity all the time, perhaps there's a little bit more elasticity there. Perhaps we could buy some time back in our columns. But let's focus on productivity today because I've pulled this question out and given it a whole episode because productivity is my jam. I love it. I love managing to get more done. I love systems. I love I'm a nerd. You know I'm a technology geek as well. And I would love to help you manage to reduce the overwhelm a bit and get more done in your day. And step one is firstly to get everything in one place. All of these lists, if you're talking about multiple lists, we have a problem. And you say you have lists everywhere. Now, because we are business owners, small business owners, trying to separate personal stuff and work stuff does not work terribly effectively. Social media has made sure the line between work and play is completely muddy now. So don't feel afraid to throw everything all on one list. And yes, I will have, for example, on my list for today is to record two podcast episodes and buy a cauliflower. It's fine. Just chuck it all in one place. Now, where that list lives is entirely up to you because I'm a technology nerd and because it's always with me.

Of course, Mr. iPhone is my friend. And once we set up our lists on our phones, well, we can ask he shall who shall not be named to add things to our list when we're on the fly as well. And that's the key to keeping everything in one place is you've got to be able to add stuff to the list really, really quickly, because otherwise you're relying on your memory. And we know that our memories, particularly as we age a little, darlings, let's face it, our memories aren't 100% reliable. And occasionally we do forget things. And that anxiety about thinking, have I actually forgotten something is actually really huge for a lot of people. So keep everything in one place. Make sure you can add things to your list really easily. So I use the Reminders app because I'm an iPhone user. I'm sure there is an Android equivalent out there somewhere. You can have different lists for different things. But honestly, you just need one. I call it my catch all. Or you need an inbox or somewhere where all of these tasks can get put. So that reduces the number of lists we have straight away. Secondly, there are too many things on these lists, Chantel. If you've managed to get to multiple lists, there's too much going on. So while you're moving everything over to your new virtual list, your new phone list, I want you also to be brutally ruthless about what makes it onto the list. I want you to delete some stuff. So I want you to go back to your goal setting, go back to the beginning of the year. What was it that you said you wanted to achieve this year? And if any of those tasks don't align with that, seriously think about trying to cross them off and just get rid. Now, sometimes things come along which we don't want to let go of completely. It's just not the right time. But seeing those things again and again and again on our to-do list means the to-do list gets very, very long. It gets overwhelming. But also we kind of get blind to these things as well. So I have something. And this is an old, I think it's a Brian Tracy trick. I have a someday maybe file. So it's a folder. And mine's a physical folder where I park projects. So I have things that I don't want to take any action on now. It doesn't need to be on my to-do list right now. I just need it to go somewhere away from my to-do list until I'm ready to take that project on.

So I would seriously think about some kind of someday maybe list for you as well. But do less. Cross stuff off. Reduce that list down to the things that are going to move the needle on your life and your business that are going to help you achieve your goals. Next up, I want you to look for things that are repeating, recurring tasks. Things that take your time week after week or month after month. I see lots and lots of salon owners and small business owners doing their own bookkeeping, running their own payroll. These are things that we can get rid of really, really quickly. So I want you to be looking for repeating tasks. They tend to be the things that we can automate. So, for example, I used to pull reports to send over to my accountant once a month. Then I realized, actually, with a bit of work and a bit of a call to the support line, my salon software could send those reports automatically month after month. It's one thing I don't have to remember. My accountant doesn't have to nag me every month. Those kinds of things, those recurring tasks, are ripe for automation. The other thing I would think about while we're on that point and point number four, what can we be delegating to everyone else? And you've already said the rest of your team is busy, and that's great. But they might well be looking for a few extra hours. And there's always one little gem in every team who's really good on social media. So we could start delegating some of those things. I would have a bookkeeper. I would have an accountant. If you're that busy, I would think about some kind of virtual assistant who can help with your admin. But while we're talking about admin, and you're saying you're doing lots of admin and client messages in the weekends and taking stuff home in the evenings, we've got to get some boundaries in place. If you need to, have two phones, not just one, so that we can leave our work phone locked away in a drawer when we're supposed to be present with our family and friends, and we're reducing the overwhelm. But it's about managing client expectations. So, for example, we had an answer phone in my salon because we don't have a receptionist. We made the decision quite a long time ago to not have reception cover. And our answer phone message, yes, you can leave a message, but it also tells you that we will return calls at 10 o'clock, 1 o'clock, and 4 o'clock. So customers aren't leaving a message and then waiting by their phone for the next 10 minutes, expecting us to jump back on a call with them straight away. We're managing expectations. And you can be doing that with your client messages too. Automated WhatsApp messages are a possibility. Definitely Facebook Messenger messages could have an out-of-hours message being sent over saying,

thanks for your message, we'll be getting back to you first thing tomorrow morning, and here's our online booking link just in case you need that in the meantime. So managing expectations, delegating, and boundaries are step number four. Now, whatever's left on your list, I want you to turn from items on a to-do list into appointments with yourself. We are used to working to appointments. We're an industry that runs on appointments. So what I want you to do is take each of those tasks, and the first thing you need to do is estimate how long that task is going to take. Now, initially, you'll be rubbish at it. Everybody is. But everybody also has a tendency to either over or underestimate the amount of time that something takes. Now, the interesting thing to me is that we're pretty consistent. So all we need to do is keep noticing that we... So, for example, I overestimate the amount of time that something will take. I had to book my car in for a service last week, and I booked out 45 minutes to make that phone call. It took about two. So all we do is notice how long these things take, and then over time, our time estimates get more and more accurate. So estimate how long something's going to take, and then book it into a column with yourself. And yes, I'm talking about if you have an admin day, run it like you would your busy salon column, because that will give you some discipline as well on what you can't do. And I had this, actually, with one of my coaching clients, Naughty Girl, last week, who gets to the appointment time and then says, Oh, actually, I've got three things that are more important than that. If a client turned up expecting a facial, you wouldn't say, Oh, actually, I've got more important things to do. You would deliver on that client promise. And these appointments are sacred. You have to deliver on the task that you've set yourself for today as well. So in summary, firstly, get everything all in one place. Secondly, while you're doing it, cross off as much as you possibly can. Third, look for the repeating stuff. Look for stuff that we can automate. Fourth, let's get stuff delegated out as much as we possibly can. And fifth, whatever's left, please make sure we're turning into appointments in our diary and taking them off our to-do list. So I do have a to-do list. I capture things during the day. And then as they get turned into appointments, I cross them off. So by the end of the day, my to-do list should be empty. And that feels really, really good. That said, I would love to hear if I'm missing anything, if there's something you're using to keep yourself productive, to help you do less and achieve more. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your eyes and ears again. If you have a question for me or you'd like to guest on the Build Your Salon podcast, please reach out. Let me know. Phil at buildyoursalon.com.

You know I love hearing from you. Anyway, even if you've got no question for me, just let me know how things are going. I'm off to go and buy a cauliflower. Until we speak again, take care. Sit down and see what's going on with the queen of salons. Hair, beauty and more. Successful tips for business owners. All on Build Your Salon.