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Are you too busy for marketing?

This is a guest post from Lee Cottier, Productivity Ninja. People in small businesses often tell us that their marketing fails to gain momentum because they just can’t find the time to consistently focus on it. We asked Lee how people can find the time to concentrate on marketing.

Running a small business is hard work. Making time to market your small business, often alongside the day job, can be even harder. The Clear Thought team tell us that it is possible to market a small business brilliantly in just 11 days per quarter, that’s less than one day per week. But, we know that asking you to find an extra half hour in week is a challenge, let alone a whole day

We’ve left behind the old school ‘time management’ approaches (they don’t work – even if you think it is, time’s not the real problem). Instead we work on achieving more effective ‘self management’: of our attention, energy, actions, habits, choices, motivation etc. We know our clients already work hard, but frankly being just busy (and tired!) isn’t the same as being effective.

So where’s this ‘extra’ one day per week for marketing possibly going to come from?

Well, everyone’s circumstances and challenges are different of course, but here are just a few of the areas where we often find there are gains to be made:

• Email management
• Personal workflow (what you might know as ‘to-do’ lists wrangling)
• Planning and scheduling
• Information management and retrieval
• Collaboration and meetings
• Procrastination and preoccupation
• Distraction and interruptions
• Fatigue, energy and motivation

For some of us, improvements in just one of these areas could gain back as much as an hour a day every day of extra productivity, so taken together the 1 day per week we need for our new marketing activity is very achievable.

Still not convinced?

Let’s look more closely at just one of those areas, and some of the strategies we recommend:

‘Inbox Zero’: Make friends with your email again – AND get some actual work done

Why it’s a problem:

• Multiple studies of our email addiction agree – we’re spending far too much time just managing our inboxes, and not enough getting on with our “real work”.
• For some of us that’s hundreds of incoming messages a day, and as much as 40% of our working hours spent just dealing with them (source).
• Just this week, a revealing LinkedIn survey showed that over half of us are ‘checking our emails’ in excess of 20 times every day.
• All this is a massive drain on our attention, focus and energy, and a major barrier to being productive – and a big part of the reason why our niche email workshops are so popular.

OK, so what can I do to fix this?

1. Turn off notifications: remove all visual and audio ‘you have new mail’ notifications. You did know that’s possible (and allowed) didn’t you?
2. Turn off email: Even better turn off your mail client completely most of the time. Yes I really did say that. For those of you who are worried the world might end if you did that, I promise you it’s quite safe.
3. Schedule time for email: Only engage with your email when you choose to, rather than automatically complying the instant it nags you to. We recommend defined times in short bursts, for example 5-10 minutes at the top of every hour, or longer 20 minute sessions 3 or 4 times per day.
4. Stop constantly checking: Instead ‘process’ your mail (more on what that is below), then get back to doing your actual work. As Merlin Mann (who coined the term ‘Inbox Zero’) says “stop taking orders and make the sandwiches”!
5. Use the tools: Learn how to use the features of your mail client to triage your mail for you. Filtering the lower importance and lower value email (which you can then review once per day), will help you to give your proper and prompt attention to those messages that really matter.
6. It’s an inbox not a data vault: Your inbox ‘should only be for things that you haven’t read yet’ (again that’s from Merlin Mann) – when you ‘process’ this mail your aim is to convert incoming mail into to-do list action items, calendar appointments, download and file attachments, etc.
7. Move it out: As soon as they’re processed mail items should immediately be moved out of your inbox: either deleted or archived, or if it does require action that can’t be completed there and then (in less than 2 minutes) to a ‘needs action’ or ‘needs reply’ folder etc.
8. Lose the pile: That last one’s really important so I’m going to say it again. Don’t just leave that opened mail sitting there in your inbox (or even worse flag it or mark it as unread again ‘so I know to come back to that one later’). After all, no-one keeps all the opened letters they’ve ever received and their envelopes in one massive ever growing pile on their doormat!
9. It’s not a to-do list: Stop using your email inbox as your to-do list (it’s horrifying how many people do this!). There are far more appropriate tools for this job, and it will reduce the temptation to keep your mail client open all the time, increasing its power to distract.
10. Feel the relief: Working this way will help you achieve ‘Inbox Zero’,which feels great, and is hugely important part of a robust personal productivity approach.

And remember, email addiction is just one (bad) work habit that might be reducing your productivity and effectiveness.

We’ll be covering this one in more detail, and many of the other areas mentioned above, in the afternoon session of next week’s workshop, so you can release the time you want to concentrate on your marketing – and therefore winning more of the work you enjoy doing.

If this post if of interest, you may also like:

• Blog: One piece of content, 20 ways to use it »
• Blog: Effective note taking »
• Blog: How to remember not to forget »
• Video: Time through the sales funnel »

Lee Cottier is a Productivity Ninja with Think Productive, a nationwide provider of fun workshops and practical at-desk coaching to help employees increase productivity, beat stress, feel more in control of their work and develop playful, productive momentum. Lee is based in Bristol, and moved into learning and development following a decade in a corporate career. He’s a qualified teacher and respected trainer who knows what it’s like on your side of the desk.

Published on 12 January 2011