No Social Media for YOU!

Welcome to my first time saving tip for busy veterinary business owners and managers.....

One of my big issues as a business owner is time – I don’t ever seem to have enough of it. 

As well as running Vetanswers I also have a family – a very, very busy family!  Both my children are in Scouts and my husband is a Scout leader.  As an aside, if you have children I can highly recommend getting them involved in Cubs and Scouts ESPECIALLY if you have a complete aversion to camping as I do.  Now before you start... there’s no point telling me how fabulous it is to be in the middle of nowhere, in a flimsy tent with limited cooking facilities and then try to convince me what an awesome holiday it is.  From my perspective as a mum – it’s just more work without my home luxuries.  See, a camper I am not!

Now back to my point – not only is my family involved in Scouts, both children play two instruments each, one plays Aussie Rules footy and rugby and the other does Jazz.  Then there is getting to and from school, homework and I’m also heavily involved with my daughter’s school:  running the school parent helper programme; as well as both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Stalls and Glow products stalls at all the discos; and designing posters, flyers, etc. for school events.

Umm... I think I’ve just discovered why I don’t seem to have enough time to work on my business!

And I’m sure you’re all nodding your heads and saying “That’s me too – that’s my life.”

So my challenge (and possibly yours too!) is that although I’m passionate about my business, I don’t want to give up any of the other stuff.  I want to be available in the afternoon to help my children out with their homework, I like helping out at the school – it’s fun and my kids love that I’m involved in their school life.  I don’t want to be the grumpy, stressed mother and partner but I do want to be the successful business owner.  Can it be done?  I honestly don’t know but I’m going to give it a red hot go.

So as part of my focus on '2013 Thinking Outside the Square' here’s the first in my ‘Time Saving Tips for the Successful Veterinary Business Owner/Manager’.

No Social Media for you!

Ok, I admit the name is really just a bad word play on a Seinfeld reference (No soup for you!!) and isn’t strictly correct.  It’s more like...

“No social media or emails for you UNTIL you’ve completed one essential task from your ‘To Do’ list”

Now this means that when you start work each day you must immediately start working on your selected project.  You DO NOT open your emails or ANY social media until you have finished!

As you’re probably aware I’m a social media junkie and I do tend to spend hours on it – all for work purposes of course!   But I’ve realised I have to be smarter with my time so I’ve been trialling this idea over the last few days and I think it’s working.

Some tips & tricks.

1. Make sure you’ve completely shut everything down the night before so you’re not tempted to have a ‘just a little look’ before starting the next day.
2. Review your ‘To Do’ list the night before and have a clear idea of the task you need to work on in the morning.
3. Prepare all the information you’ll need to complete your task the night before – just in case some essential information is in an email and before you know it... you’re answering a few ‘quick’ emails before you’ve started your task.
4. Trial it for at least a week and then review what you have achieved during that time.

I do have to admit....

I had to spend about two hours the other evening cleaning out my emails as I got a little involved in my tasks and my inbox got out of control.  I obviously don’t have my system down perfectly yet but I’m definitely seeing more work getting done and less time checking emails and social media updates.

So now it’s your turn! Tell me if you think you’re ready for the ‘No Social Media/Email for YOU!’ challenge in the comments section below

I’d also love to hear any tips you use to make the best use of your precious and limited time.