time-management Archives - Page 4 of 5

Part 1: A Timely Interview with Matt Rissell of TSheets

June 18, 2008 by Liz

A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

Part 1 in a 4-Part Interview with Matt Rissell

At Tech Cocktail8, I met Matt Rissell, CEO of TSheets. He’s a great conversationalist and in a business that serves folks who work solely offline, those who work mobile, and those who work mostly on the web. He seemed a perfect catch for an interview to find out more about closing the gap between the online and offline business worlds.

Matt, your tagline says “Time is money. Track it.” What does that mean exactly?

Great question Liz. First, let me begin by saying that we are passionate about helping people â€“ in this case, specifically, the business leader. More than ever, time has become more and more valuable as we cram as much into each day as possibleâ€¦

The old saying, “time is money”, has been around since, well, probably the beginning of time, but for some reason people seem to ignore this simple truth. 80% of the population is actually unaware of how valuable time is, how they invest it, and if they have employees, how much is wasted. TSheets wasn’t created because “I had a great business idea” but rather, I was the small business owner who was frustrated with managing labor expenses. With approximately 20 employees I went on a hunt for a time tracking solution. What I found were tools that weren’t practical for the small business owner. Thus, I had my friend build one. After our first month using TSheets for our time tracking, we reviewed the timesheet reports, and it became blatantly obvious that there was some serious time timecard fudging going on. Literally, my companyâ€™s ROI in the first month was $2,000 in reduced labor expenses and increased efficiency! I began to realize that time really does equal money.

To answer your question on a personal level – have you ever found yourself at the end of a busy day, week, month or even year when you realize that things are coming to a close and you begin to get this feeling of, “I know I have been busy but what the heck have I been doing? Where did the time go?â€ It happens to me all of the time. However, now I have a time tracking tool that tells me where I have been investing my time. I set up Job Codes and can now track how much time I have spent with my family, at work, exercising, and even the time I spend volunteering. It’s incredible to have a clear picture of my timeâ€¦ and to be honest, it gives me a real picture what my real priorities are.

I work with are businesses, universities, and individuals. Their needs are different. Their days are varied, often stuffed with meetings, research, or thinking. Many are professionals who find tracking time is not among their favorite things to do. Why would they even look at it?

Liz that’s a great point! We understand that time tracking probably isnâ€™t going to rank very high on the personal â€œTo Doâ€ list. It’s funny, because we are always saying around the TLab (the TSheets Office) that tracking time is as much fun as getting your teeth pulled. But our PASSION truly is – to simplify the life of business leaders by making time tracking fun and easy! Truly, everyone has the opportunity to be a business leader, whether they own their own business, are an employee or student. It’s a mindset not a position. We believe that time is just as valuable for the student, as it is for the professor or the business owner — so our service accommodates each person’s life â€“ regardless of their role.

Because of TSheets’ mobility, it has practical applications for all types of people at each stage of their life For instance, freelancers can track their time spent with each client. Bloggers can track their time writing, researching, or time spent surfing the Web. Students can set up job codes such as homework, internships, and class time. Businesses can track their hourly employee times. Sales Managers can identify areas of weakness to train behavior as opposed to simply managing results. Athletes can track Cardio, Weight Training, and sleep. The impact of having a clear picture of your priorities can literally be life changing.

Would you be interested in knowing how TSheets can track time from a cell phone?

Sure, how do you do it and why would I want to?

That’s the cliffhanger until tomorrow. . . .

Thanks, Matt!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Blogging well takes less time. Buy the ebook and find out the secret.

Time to Check Social Media Return on Investment

January 22, 2008 by Liz

Infinite Room Is NOT Infinite Time

We live in a world of Social Media, where we can choose from a seemingly unending list of new universes — places where any small group suddenly finds we can join up to be our own majority. Like-minded thinking is one of the pleasures of getting together on any social site.

Don’t like how I think?
Click on.
No harm. No foul.

The infinite Internet has room for everyone.
It’s not hard to find like-minded thinkers anymore. As the number of Social Media sites grows, we can’t keep adding to our lists.

We don’t have infinite time to spend.
We need to know that time we’re spending is time well invested.

Time to Check Social Media Return on Investment

It’s easy to get comfortable on a social media site, especially if we’ve never fit so well anywhere before. But, now that the choices are so many, maybe we should check to be sure that the time we’re spending is time is adding something, not wasting away.

Here are five values to check the return on your time investment. Maybe you’ll find some time to save.

What’s the big idea? What do people do there? Do they exchange information, look for jobs, act like schoolkids? Is that focus important to you? Do you look forward to time spent there?

Who’s there? Are the people there friends, fans, or contacts? Are they there for relationships or information or votes? Are there people to learn from and people you aspire to be more like? Can you see them? Can they see you?

What are they saying? What do you take from the conversation? What ideas are on offer? What ideas directly apply to what you do? How often do you see real value?

What’s the time/goal orientation? What do the people focus on? Do they come to achieve; then leave? Do they hang out for conversation? Are their goals in line with yours?

What is the payoff? Is this site redundant with another place you visit? Can you accomplish the same thing in a better way? Would more time here return more value? Would more time somewhere else make this site a non-starter? What do you get there that you can’t get anywhere else?

I quit visiting certain places, got back that time, and have suffered no loss. Well, actually, I’ve gained. The folks I interacted with in those places are in all of the other places I’ve still visit. So I’m trimming my social media portfolio to only those that work for me and my business.

What about you? Time to rethink your Social Media Investments?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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The Big Challenge is OVER, Keep that Energy Going ON

December 26, 2007 by Liz

Sometimes Timing Is Everything

This week’s challenge in the the b5media Business Apprentice Team Challenge . . . Kay’s finally settling into her role as entrepreneur. Kay hardly has time to read the whole web. What one blog post or article might I recommend that will help her move forward at this point?

In the apprentice story, Kay has made it through her first, and hugely successful, Christmas rush. Now Christmas is over and I’m guessing that Kay is only human. Sometime, win or lose, a big push in business can cause a dip in enthusiasm about the business we love.

The sheer investment of energy can leave feeling like we need a rest. Moving forward to face the next challenge can seem like something we have a right to put off. Unfortunately, a business won’t stand still while we’re resting and refueling. If we stop to do that we can find ourselves in crisis mode again when the new challenge rolls around.

The best business advice for a time like that is to have great habits to fall back on. An article over at LifeDev is just what this situation needs. It’s a simple method for time management. Simple is the key because, at a moment of regrouping, the way to entice ourselves back into involvement is by accomplishing little things that mean a lot.

Time Management, Simplified: How to Be Productive With No Worries simplifies the system and streamlines David Allen’s Getting Things Done for folks who want to reduce the time spent learning and maintaining Mr. Allen’s system. Leo Babauta who wrote the post says:

The fewer tasks you have, the less you have to do to organize them. Focus only on those tasks that give you the absolute most return on your time investment, and you will become more productive and have less to do. You will need only the simplest tools and system, and you will be much less stressed.

Boy do I agree.

In fact, that’s just what I’m going to start in today.

How do you keep your momentum going? Has a blog post ever made it easier for you?

Only 8 blogs are left in the Apprentice Challenge if you like my choice and this post, would you give Successful-Blog a vote in the poll in the sidebar at TAXGIRL?

The Blogs remaining in the challenge are:

Accounting Solver . . . Biz Chicks Rule . . . Greener Assets . . . Home Biz Notes
Leadership Turn . . . Small Business Boomers . . . Successful Blog . . . Yielding Wealth

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Working Smart or Working Away the Time of Your Life?

November 21, 2007 by Liz

Whoa! Look around us!

Everyone is so . . . busy. We’re almost can’t see each other.

We’re juggling, talking, typing, scanning instead of reading, talking instead of thinking, putting off time with our family and friends. We all know so much about productivity, goals, keeping connected, and following our passion to build the business that we love. It’s enough to make a brain shut down into auto-mode.

I know I occasionally find myself staring out from a glazed look, walking into walls. How about you?

Being determined, motivated, set on a path with a laser beam focus is a good thing. . . . right? It is, if every now and then, we check that our destination is still where we want to go and that we’re enjoying the ride on the way.

The Going Not the Getting There

I see it in clients. I’ve felt it in my friends. I’ve done it myself. It’s a heads down sort of thing that takes over our thinking. We become so aware of time, so time-managing, that we manage to set aside anything that might, even possibly from far off, appear to be construed as doing nothing.

What’s wrong with doing nothing or better yet doing something just for fun — not balance . . . F-U-N? What’s wrong with enjoying the folks we care about as we move through our lives?

Nature has no straight lines.

Our priorities can get so straight that they become twisted and upside-down. We can get so focused on our destination that we forget to pay attention to the journey and the people who make living our lives magical, meaningful, and worth living.

Way, way back in the olden days, Harry Chapin sang this in a song.

It’s got to be the getting there, not the going that’s good. –Heads and Tales, Greyhound

We’ll never get this moment back . . . oops, it’s already gone!

At the end of my days will I regret the work I didn’t do or the time I didn’t spend with my husband, my son, my dad, my mom, my brothers, my nieces and nephews, my lifelong friends, the new exciting people I’ve just met?

If you knew that your time left was only tonight, what would you do then?

I’m going with Bruce Cockburn’s answer . . .

If it was the last night of the world, I’d have champagne with you. –Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu, Last Night of the World

Yep, that’s what I’d do.

I’m making a sign and putting up right above my monitor.

Will you make a sign too? It’s the time of your life.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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TOO Busy? Find Out in Less Than a Minute

November 4, 2007 by Liz

Got Less Than a Minute?

Sara asked, “Are We Really That Busy?”

Are we?

We seem to have so much to do and so little time.
We don’t even have time to think about the time we don’t have.
It feels dangerous, but if we stop, we’ll never catch up. . . .

Are we TOO busy? Are we squandering the time of our lives?

It’s easy to find out for yourself. Let’s have an experience. It won’t take long, I promise. After all, it’s about being busy. This simple test will only take as long as you’re willing to invest in yourself. You can do it in less than a minute.

Take the Test

Ready? Will you try this? I’ll give you two links. For each link, follow these quick, simple steps.

Read the word that is the link anchor text as you click the link.

Put your dominant hand on your forehead as you look at the site you land on and say the link anchor text word 3 more times.

Leave the site you land on when you feel you’ve gotten what you need from it.

Ready? Here are the links.

Link 1 anchor text: time poor

Link 2 anchor text: time rich

Decide for Yourself

Well, what do you think? Really. After all, as we think, so we are. [that concept predates our calendar The words we choose affect how we think and the way we perceive our lives.

Were you too busy to even click the links? What does that say about how you value your time?

If you did click the links, which made you feel in control of your life?

Are we really that busy?

OR do we only think we are?

Business Rule 17: Do You Do Things Right?

October 11, 2007 by Liz

Do It Right, Do It Over

In they army they have a saying, â€œHurry up, and wait.â€ In business that same saying can be, â€œHurry up and do it again.â€ In textbook publishing, we had our own version, â€œThe project is over, time for the prototype to begin.â€

Meet Hurry Up Harriet.

Harriet is the boss or the client who calls at the last minute to announce that she needs something done right away. Sheâ€™s clear and concise on what it is, . . . if youâ€™re lucky. Sheâ€™s sketchy and rushes through the details, if youâ€™re not.

Either way, Harriet is precise about one thing the exact time and date that she needs the work complete — 48 hours sooner than any human has performed such a task.

Because itâ€™s your job — and youâ€™d like to keep it — you set forth on the quest of making Harrietâ€™s impossible happen. This requires a significant investment of overtime and work at home, but you do it. Through some miracle and no life, you come through with 7 seconds to spare. You feel like a wrangler at a rodeo. You throw your hands up to check the clock. Youâ€™re about to give your perfect, checked-over-three-times document to Harriet, when you get another call.

It’s Harriet on the line.

She says, â€œOn that document I asked for, Iâ€™ve been thinking, could you also include . . . ?â€ She adds three or four things.

â€œI can wait for the new version until Friday,â€ she sings.

How would you feel about that?

Based on the three previous projects that went the same way, you realize that Harriet will repeat this behavior at least twice more before the current project is over.

On some projects, we never have time to do things right,
but we always time to do things over.

It’s hard enough having to do work for a Harriet.
What’s worse is the days when I act like one.

Do you have Harriet days too?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.