William Penn
was once quoted as saying that “time is what we want most, but what we use
worst.” That is truly nothing but the truth and is something that is realized
day in and day out by every single person around the world today. When discussing the future, C.S. Lewis called
it “something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour –
whatever he does, whoever he is.”
Within any type of business (not just voice
talents), time plays a significant role along the journey towards achieving long-term
success and longevity in that respective industry. You have to be able to manage your time
wisely every single day without letup, maintaining a defined structure and
sticking to a defined schedule that is specifically designed to lead you
towards fulfilling your professional goals.
One of the
biggest problems with that journey, though, is that there are so many different
time traps and pitfalls that can cripple your professional growth and cause you
to just get left behind while all of your competitors run right past you. You need to be able to identify these time
traps now so that you are fully aware of them and the dangers involved, because
that is the only way that you are going to know what to look for on the road to
success.
We could spend
hours talking about all of the different time traps that exist today within our
homes, offices and lives in general. However, that would be a time trap in itself because you would spend
all of that time reading about time traps and still not know how to avoid them.
Therefore,
let’s use this time wisely and spend the next several minutes that it will take
you to finish reading this blog to talk about the key steps that you need to
take to avoid getting trapped.
Do Not Just Make Schedules, Stick to Them
It takes a
few minutes to make a schedule, but it only takes one minute to break it. Maybe you should take a moment to reread that last sentence and truly
let it sink in because it seems to be something that a lot of people do not
seem to fully understand.
Making a
schedule for a person’s workday seems to be one of the easiest parts of the day
overall. Saying that “making a schedule
is half the battle” is a major exaggeration, because (if that was a true
statement) then it would mean that sticking to that schedule is just as simple
(or as difficult) as making it.
In order to
avoid time traps, you need to be able to work hard at sticking to the schedules
that we make. Otherwise, we will still
be wasting time and also wasting the paper that we used to write the schedule
out in the first place.
Do Not Take the “Golden Hour” for
Granted
What is the
“golden hour”? Unless you have a
background in photography, you probably have not heard of that term
before. The “golden hour” happens only
twice a day – it is the first and the last hour of sunlight throughout the
day. During this time, a photographer is
able to do some of his best work because of the natural lighting and glowing
effect that his outdoor pictures will have. Many outdoor photographers do the majority of their work for the day
during these peak times because they know that they are going to be able to
generate some amazing results by doing so. What if an outdoor photographer misses those times or spends them doing
something else that is non-productive? They still may be able to get some work done that day, but they are not
going to be able to have the same quality results.
Within the
voice talent business, you have to be able to take full advantage of your own “golden hours” or peak times when
you are able to get the best quality work done every day. If you are becoming sidetracked by personal
issues or even non-productive concerns that are related to your work, then you
are going to let these “golden” opportunities pass you right by.
During the
peak time of the day, do not get caught up in the administrative side of the
business (i.e. nonproductive phone calls, checking e-mails every few minutes,
social networking websites, etc.). These
things can be done just as well during the off-peak times of the day or even
the week without causing any detrimental damage to your business. By letting those “golden hours” pass without
taking full advantage of them, though, you will be setting yourself up for
failure and then you will have all of the time in the world to waste when no
one hires you for any work.
Self-Employment Does Not Justify
Cutting Corners
Just because
you have your own business and do not have to punch the clock for someone else
does not give you the right to excessively cut corners while you are on the
job. What too many people fail to
realize is that making the decision to become self-employed does not make
anything easier – it only makes everything
much more difficult! Sure, there is
an overabundance of benefits and incentives that can be enjoyed through
successful self-employment but you still have to put in the work. The term is “self-employment” – not “self-vacation” or “self-procrastination.” You should hold yourself accountable the same
way that a boss would hold you accountable in the corporate world of
9-5ers.
Try to avoid extended lunches and breaks throughout the day! Keep in mind that you are working as a company of one. In the corporate world, there is always going
to be someone else working on the clock to keep productivity up for the company
when you are going on break or lunch. If
you are working for yourself, then you are essentially shutting your business
down each time you take a break. How
long would it take before those extended lunches and excessive breaks force you
to close down your business for good? That is definitely something that you should always have in the
forefront of your mind each time that you step away from your office or studio
to take a break.
Stop Wasting Your Time, Maintain Your
Focus
It is so easy
to waste time throughout the day. Even
if you do have a schedule that you are sticking to day in and day out, how much
work is getting done during the time that you had scheduled to work? The digital age and advancements in
technology have made it both much easier and more difficult to get work
done. How so? Well, it is easier to get work done
throughout the day because of the efficiency of your studio equipment,
computers, high speed internet connection, smartphones, etc. However, it is also easy to get caught up on
everything else that these devices provide you that have nothing to do with
your work. How many times have you been
working on something productive on your computer and then decide to play
Minesweeper, Words for Friends or some other computer game that seems to be calling
your name? How many times have you been
lured away by iTunes, Spotify or some other cool program that you seem addicted to
using on a daily basis?
Facebook is
an amazing tool that you can truly
use to effectively grow and expand your business. However, you can also use Facebook to have
personal conversations with all of your friends that happen to be online at the
same time. There are literally hundreds
of different games and applications that you can play and don’t even get me
started on the time traps of viral videos that your friends and colleagues
recommend you to see that you can’t seem to stop clicking “Repeat” on for hours
at a time.
“Get In and Get Out”
You need to
be able to pull yourself away from these things. Keep a “get in and get out” mentality when
you are scheduled to work. If you need
to use Facebook, for example, get in there and do what you need to do for your
business. As soon as you are done, get
out! Easier said than done, I know! You need to apply this principle to
everything that you do throughout the
day.
If you are
able to follow these key steps and implement them on a daily basis into your
business, you are going to realize that you are able to get a lot more work
done each day. You are going to feel
much more productive on a regular basis because you actually will be productive, diligently pushing
yourself and your business higher and higher towards reaching the peak of the
mountain of success. Keep climbing, stay
focused and avoid all time traps because the destination is closer than you
think. You just need to stop wasting
time in order to get there faster.
