Time Management: Our Favorite Four and Their Relationship to Promotional Products
Time management is an acquired skill, and like with any other skill, practice makes perfect. Here are a few of our favorite time management techniques with ideas for applying them to a promotional products approach to accounts management:
To-don’t: many people naturally create a to-do list, but ignore what should be their to-don’t list. From this list, categorize and delegate work to trash, to others, or to technology. If it doesn’t belong in the to-don’t list, prioritize it.
Update client lists regularly, only use preferred suppliers, track your time: do this to highlight time-consuming/low-yield tasks
Prioritize: is it a hot-button issue? Can you do it better than anyone else? Are you passionate about it? Is it a highly valuable task? Make it a priority. Lastly, be strict on what makes it into your priority category. Be critical when prioritizing work, and once you do, be disciplined enough to complete it!
Focus on popular products, encourage repeat customers and repeatable orders (i.e. calendars!), invest in quality supplies and tools
Schedule: close your door! Okay, maybe not all the time, but once you have your priority list, put it in your calendar and be disciplined enough to complete it! There a thousand of time management tools out there. Here at Think it we use Office Google. Google’s office setup comes with many helpful apps like Google Calendar. We schedule available/unavailable office time, time for phone calls, time for emails, time for education, and much more. It even includes the ability to reserve conference rooms and resources; create an environment for focus and set yourself up for success!
Give important projects a time cushion, know your client’s busy times and work around them, educate yourself (spend time now to avoid mistakes in the future)
Batch: hand-in-hand with scheduling, batched tasks increase productivity. Process emails, take or make phone calls, and work on projects in batches. Not only will it keep you from going crazy, it will better your organization and hold you accountable for task completion.
Have a new product? Big announcement? New facility? Schedule an open house to invite established and potential customers alike!
