5 Time Management Tactics All Top Leaders Swear By

As the leader of your own network marketing business, you’ve probably realized you have more than enough on your plate, and it can be stressful or too much. This certainly isn’t an ordinary career where you only hold one position and are expected to carry out a certain number of duties and responsibilities day in and day out. As a network marketer, you are in charge of it all – essentially, you are a “one-man show”, thus effective time management tactics are crucial to the overall success of your business.

Considering that you probably spend the majority of your time networking, whether it’s looking for, meeting with or following up with prospects, attending company events and/or conference calls, calling team members, etc., you always need to make sure you’re well prepared for each of these situations and don’t overwhelm yourself.

By implementing a few time management tactics that have been proven time and time again, you’ll be able to get everything done with extra time to spare for your own personal needs.

Time Management Tactics #1: Set goals and write lists

Everyone in their lifetime has written a list at one point or another. Whether it’s for groceries or personal errands, lists are effective in identifying what you need. If you haven’t already started making lists for your business, now is better than ever for you to start. This is going to allow you to exactly pinpoint what you need to do to reach your goals.

Start by writing down a list of your goals for the year in order for your business to thrive. For example, you may have “recruit 100 prospects this year” as one of your goals.

The next step is to break this yearlong list into something more manageable. Create a list of what you can accomplish this month in order to reach that goal. For example, your list could be “recruit 8 prospects this month”.

From here, you can separate your list into what you need to get done this week. In order to hit that goal, you will need to recruit 2 people per week. Prioritize what is most important to reach your goals and write this out in your list. Make a weekly habit to create this list every Sunday so you can visualize how your week will play out.

After you create it, make a daily to-do list every morning to identify what needs to be completed that day. Once you have the bigger picture in mind divided into manageable tasks, you will easily figure out what needs to be done today to reach your goals.

Time Management Tactics #2: Plan ahead

Now that you have these lists created, you know exactly what needs to be done. If your list includes recruiting 20 people per week, you will have to schedule this into your life.

And so, my biggest tip to you is to utilize a calendar or planner. When I started in this profession over two decades ago, we didn’t have the modern conveniences of iPhones or laptops, so we used actual handheld planners and calendars. I would suggest you take advantage of your laptop’s calendar and sync it with your phone that way you will always have it with you to plan ahead. Always staying ahead and making sure your calendar notifies you of your next upcoming event is important, since you spend most of your time scheduling meetings or calls. It would be a shame if you forgot about your 2:00 meeting with the next potential superstar distributor.

Make it a habit to add notes about the person or meeting scheduled that you don’t want to forget. You might think you will remember, but it’s always best to document everything. When you make this a habit, you are instilling proactive behavior and it also helps when you forget where you asked your prospect to meet or the name of the prospect you are meeting up with, you won’t have to go skimming through your e-mails, text messages, and notes frantically wondering where you wrote down what you can’t remember.

Time Management Tactics #3: Don’t overbook yourself

Whatever you do, always avoid overbooking yourself. It does not make any sense to have 5 meetings scheduled back-to-back in one day. Think about it: you want at least a thirty-minute window before and after each prospect meeting so you can compensate if they show up early, show up late, want to talk longer than the 30-minute meeting you had planned, and have enough time to prep for the meeting and reflect after. If you have a 30-minute meeting scheduled with a prospect at 1 PM, make sure to not schedule your next meeting any earlier than 2. The last thing you want to do is rush. I’ve seen this mistake happen time and time again and it just isn’t worth it.

No matter what, you should always try to stay within the window you had planned for your meeting. If your prospect or team member seems to keep going off track, reroute the direction of the conversation to what was planned so you can effectively utilize your time.

Time Management Tactics #4: Create templates

Because you have the same meetings, phone calls, and email interactions frequently, spend some time making templates. If you regularly have one-on-one phone calls with your team members, create a standing agenda. You can use it with each team member to make meetings more efficient.

For example, a standing agenda could be:
1. Actions from last meeting
2. Updates in recruiting
3. Planned events or upcoming travel
4. Questions or requests for help
5. This week’s top 3 goals

By having an agenda, you can drive the conversation and ensure the meeting stays on topic.

I also highly suggest creating email templates.  If you find yourself generally sending the same e-mail content to team members or potential prospects, it makes no sense to rewrite these over and over again. Create a simple template to incorporate into each e-mail, leaving room to add a personal touch to it. This way, it will not sound so automated.

Time Management Tactics #5: Delegate and automate

Some tasks are just not necessary for you to do yourself nor are they really worth your time. If you can’t afford to spend time cleaning your house, doing your laundry, grocery shopping, etc., delegate them! Decide how much an hour is worth to you and evaluate if it is cheaper to pay someone else for an hour of their life instead.

If you have trouble keeping organized, it would be wise to hire someone to do some personal assistance for you. Even one hour a day to schedule your meetings and prepare your calendar for you could be life-changing! If you absolutely need someone to go over what meetings you have scheduled for the day and what you need in order to be prepared, you should outsource to have an assistant help you. There are several virtual assistants online that can help with general duties such as these.

You can also save time by automating other tasks as well. Instead of worrying about the same bill each month, sign up for auto pay. Deposit checks and send money using your bank’s mobile app instead of stopping at the nearest branch. Grocery shop online using Amazon Fresh and have it delivered to your door rather than spending an hour at the store. Even if each of these tasks only take an hour or so, you are gaining extra hours to utilize into growing your business instead.

As you can see, there are many ways to optimize your time and create processes for your tasks. You will see a major change in how you handle your business by implementing these strategies today. You’ll also feel relieved knowing you are managing and organizing your time effectively. If you want to further master these, I invite you to read my book, where I go into deeper detail to tell you how to make them a natural part of your days. You can get it here.