24 hours a day is all we get

There are times I feel overwhelmed with the daily routine of doing business. Now, don't get me wrong - I am never overwhelmed with business and always want more - it's the process, procedures and routines that seem to bog me down. And sometimes even get in the way of doing business.

We all have the same amount of time in each day – 24 hours; no more and no less. Some people just manage their time better. Though it’s called Time Management, it’s not really managing time; it’s managing the activities that take up your time.

Small business owners, just because of all the hats worn each day, have more types of issues to deal with and more items to prioritize than others. We seem to be putting out fires instead of preventing them. Or we tend to deal with so many minor interruptions that the big issues, which really should receive our attention, remain on our desk at the end of each day. Since I'm needing to remind myself of these techniques to manage my time, I thought I'd share my 2 cents worth. There are three major time stealers – Mail, Telephone and Meetings. Today, since my inbox is exploding, let's talk about handling mail. This works whether it's paper or electronic mail.

A process I learned years ago and continue to use today is what I call the 3-option process.

Touch/read each piece of mail only once. Keeping mail without acting on it is a huge time-waster. How often to you pick up (or open it), review it and put it back down (or close it)without doing anything with it? When internal and external communication comes across your desk, decide as you pick it up how you’re going to deal with it. You have 3 options:

1. Throw it out (or delete it) – it’s not worth your time, so don’t even keep it. An example would be unsolicited junk mail.
2. File it for future use – possibly a report or magazine article that has great info which you’ll want to refer to later.
3. Respond to it, then file it or throw it away (or delete it).

This can also be applied to text messages. I