Problem-Solving Strategies for Time Management

Welcome everybody to the Business Divas Group, and today I am honored to have Irma Jarrón here with me. In the, in the Business Divas group. And just a moment and I will read her bio. Excuse me, I thought I had it up. See, none of us are perfect. Irma Perón, president of Perón Group, works with organizations on their people, their processes, and and their purpose, such as earning business through high-value internal and external customer loyalty strategy and action. She is a graduate of Cornell University and certified in organizational development. Irma is a consultant, speaker, and author of the 2-time award-winning book WinX: The Problem Solving Model to Win Exponentially with customers, employees, and your bottom line. Welcome, Irma.

Well, thank you. It's an honor to be here, Dotty. I, I'm grateful.

So, and I'm grateful to have you here because time management, it's one of those things that everybody says they need to figure it out. And everybody has the same amount of time as everybody else. And some people win at it and other people, they just get lost and the day is gone. I can't tell you how many times I've said, I don't know where this day went. So what is the, you know, why is it that we all struggle with time management?

Well, I mean, there are, you know, there are a lot of things, but I think the biggest issue is that people are very unclear about what they should be doing. Some people are even unclear about what they want their employees to do, if they have employees. I'll ask an employee, and I'll ask their boss the same question, they have two different answers. So, you know, what's most important to get done, and then how do we divide that time up and make sure that we fix both the fires and get proactive, and put all those things in a nice neat package so that when you go home at the end of the day, you know that you were working on things that'll take you to that next step to meet your goals.

So one of the things I heard you say is to figure out what is most important. So have a priority list. Is there— how do you manage that?

Well, it's funny because when I start working with companies, And it happens all the time. I'll ask them what they use, and a lot of people have a to-do list, right? We all have a to-do list. I have a to-do list. But the mistake they make is they put all of their to-dos on today, right? So you have 50 different things on today instead of looking at that and saying, what do I want to get done today? Having a separate list and putting that on a planner, on a schedule. So that only those things that are most important are there. So they're both fires, you know, the important things. If you're going to lose a client, if you're going to lose business, if you're going to get a divorce, whatever those things are, personal and professional, you want to make sure that you have one piece of that on the day. And then at the end of the day, you could check those off. Now, that doesn't mean that those other 1,000 things don't get done.

Right?

You have to move them in as you can, and you really have to prioritize what is important. What can I get rid of completely? And how can I kill the time wasters? If that makes sense.

Yeah, it does make sense. And I love that phrase, how can I kill the time wasters?

There are many of them.

So what is the biggest mistake that business owners make when it comes to managing their time?

Well, not, not planning. Again, it's not knowing the con— the common things that happen is, you know, you'll go and you'll have this big list, you'll go into work, you won't know what to do because you really have a lot of stuff to do, and then you start piddling, right? So you get a cup of coffee, you call a friend, you like clean the desk. You know, little things that just distract you to take you away from really saying, what do I need to get done? What do I want to get done? What is really important? And, and if I say that a million times, it's really understanding and analyzing where you are, where you want to be, and then how do I get there? And then scheduling your time. Accordingly, in a systematic way, in bite-sized pieces or in big chunks, but scheduling it and not letting other things distract you, which, which is not always easy because some of those other things could be employees, they could be clients, and it's really deciding what the common denominators are so that you could work those out through problem solving. Okay.

So one of the things I know that I've tried many times is different programs, different ways to manage my time, different scheduling, all of that. Have you found something that really works for you that you would highly recommend for other business owners?

Yes. So personally, Well, there's a couple different things. Um, and you know, I'm very embarrassed. I have a partner who does some work in this area. Her name's Rita, and I'm catching up with her tomorrow. She has a program. The one that I use right now, and I've been using forever, is FranklinCovey. Um, their system has worked for me. The key is this: any system you use takes discipline. And when I work with people, I tell them, look, I can give you a great system, but I need to know, do you like computer or do you like paper? Like, I like paper, you know, I'm old, right? So I like to write things down. But if you like a computer and I try to shove a piece of paper in your face, not going to work for you. But I like the Franklin Covey planner because it gives me the opportunity to put everything in its place. From meeting notes, where do they go? Post-it notes are like the biggest disaster of the world. People put these things on Post-it notes and then they have to look for things. So I really like that. Um, you could go to frankencubby.com. You can call me and I can connect you with my partner who has, you know, some other options which are a little bit more in depth. It depends on how big your business is as well, but I know your audience is, is mostly small business.