One of the popular “moans” I hear when coaching with clients is “I don’t have the time“, and then in the next breath they tell you how they go to pub every night and meet friends or how they must make sure they are home to watch the latest soap opera or reality TV. So when they say “I don’t have time” I will often smile and say but you do.
Then I will just run a few questions by them and try and find out how long they spend watch the TV or down the pub, and at times it even shocks the people I work with. So let’s look at some rough and average figures. Recently I asked a new client about something and she gave me the classic answer it is OK for you, but I don’t have the time. Now I knew Miss X loved her soaps and reality TV so I asked her how many hours a week do you watch your programs, without batting an eyelid, she said guess 24 hours a week, so I said that’s around 100 hours a month.
And to be honest she did looked shocked so i went on a bit…………..Miss X how many hours do you put into your job at the office and she said 30 hours a week. And then it hit her…………………….She said I do have time don’t I. I said well when you think you put almost as much time into watching TV as you do work then yes.
We then sat down and I showed her how to plan her day and how she could still watch some of her TV, but if she halved her TV time she could find an extra 48 hours a month to put into her business. So you see when people say “I don’t have the time” we need to look into where they do put their time.
But this also goes for us who work from home, we will often say those famous words “I don’t have the time. We need to make time. Over the next few months can I challenge us all to keep a close note of where our time goes to. If we find we are spending to many hours on Facebook or Google+ we need to turn it off. (A side note to that is if it is making you money, keep at it, but if all you are doing is looking for long lost friends and chatting to mates, then switch it off). Set aside some Social Media time each day of around 30 minutes and stick to it. But do not use it doing your hours of business.
If time is really an issue with you ask a friend to work on a time plan with you, and help you to stick to it. There are many other ways on where you can find time, and in up coming posts we will look at some of these. So please ban those words “I don’t have the time” from your life and start and make some time.
Andrew Milburn Is An eBay Consultant Based In Lichfield Staffordshire
