Explore multi-income sources and passive income opportunities.

These opportunities can be fruitful but can also cause friction and additional stress when time is not managed. Don’t go into it blindly.

At Front Edge, I manage multiple clients and developers on a daily basis and I thought I would share with you what I have learnt and how it has benefitted me.

– Don’t respond in detail immediately: This sounds counterproductive and may sound like procrastination but rather, it keeps you focused on what you planned for the day. It also allows you to consider the incoming request from different perspectives as your mood and motivations fluctuate.

– Do respond in summary in a timely manner: Let the sender know you received their message. Let them know they are valued and put their mind at ease by acknowledging their message. It is ok to delay a detailed response and commit to it once you have had time to consider the request in full. Just let the sender know when they will hear from you next.

– Use your calendar for everything: Schedule all meetings and tasks in a calendar app. Fill up your calendar with essential, productive and busy work. Prioritize client meetings and schedules over internal tasks but never delete your internal tasks, just reschedule them when necessary.

– Don’t overlap your calendar: Schedules don’t lie. If you overlap your calendar events, you are over-committing your day and setting yourself up to fail. Understand your commitments and prioritize your calendar appropriately. Move internal work to suitable times and maintain your client commitments.

– Check your calendar first thing: Make it a habit to check your calendar before you start any actual work each day. Understand your daily commitments and try to stick to them. Let the calendar remember your schedule and archive it from your brain. A to-do list can be overwhelming but a schedule focuses your attention on that day’s tasks.

– Be flexible: Your schedule WILL get thrown off, fires WILL need to be put out and things WILL come through that require you to drop everything. This is just the nature of the business and it is OK to toss out the day’s schedule. Be easy on yourself but try and realign your calendar before lights out. Don’t end your day with the ‘new’ calendar in your head, shift things around in your calendar app and end the day with less on your mind.

Time management is learned but use tools to remove clutter from your brain. Leave your brain for the present and to handle the task at hand. If you remain over-extended, ask for help, delegate when you can, and reconsider your schedule. What can you remove from your calendar to allow the remaining tasks to help you build new skills and generate wealth?

Your time is valuable, so schedule appropriately to achieve the returns you want.