If you can devote more hours to your business, it will make a sizable difference in your income. What I want to show you is simple: with openness and flexibility, you can achieve your business goals faster.

We all have a couple of things in common. We want to belong to the privileged group of people with a 7-figure income. For that, we need to be organized.

Of course, some of us prefer to find out things rather than learn them: we are the explorers who start using a new machine or home appliance without reading the user’s manual or check things on Google. While this is an okay mindset in general, it is definitely not how you should act in your business endeavor. In other words, whatever can be learned from online training courses is a must-do thing for us.

Fine, would some people say, but that is boring. I love to discover things and always find it exciting to rely on my own capacities (meaning inventiveness and brains). I need my daily dose of adrenalin and exploring on my own is one of my favorite sources of my adrenaline shot.

To that I’d say, “Fine, go experiment – but don’t do it in business”. When dealing with matters that matter (sorry, pun intended) like product development, marketing campaigns, product lunch, etc., the best way to economize on time is by studying. Learning from others. Ideally, from knowledgeable and experienced guys, those whom we like to call gurus.

A few paragraphs before I said you need self-discipline, openness, and flexibility.

Here’s what I meant:

• Self-discipline to resist the luring sirens of procrastination. Learn to work against this temptation, otherwise, you will be lost.
• Openness to embracing new methods, new directions, untraveled routes, and uncharted territory. That requires courage and an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Flexibility is necessary to learn from your own mistakes. What turned out to be a dead-end should let go. Even if you previously planned to apply certain methods and means, if they do not bring you the results that you were expecting from them – let them go.

I understand your problem because I used to have the same one. When I was managing my translation and interpreting business, for instance, I had to push myself to deal with my company management and admin issues rather than doing translations, immersing in the wonderful world of words. I enjoyed working with languages and found translations intellectually challenging, however, being the owner of the translation company it was inevitable to do the administrative tasks and execute my sales-marketing plans, rather than floating on the vast sea of linguistic pleasures. My responsibility was much bigger than finding the appropriate expression for a term in another language: I was in charge of the business success of my team.

So, if I may suggest, open an Excel sheet or a Word document and put in everything you routinely do on a day. If possible, indicate how much time you spend on each activity. Now, highlight those that are not really necessary and those that are slowing you down. Ask yourself: “Could I do without it?” or “Could I do it faster?” You will see that you can save a few minutes every day, i.e. a couple of hours every week.  Following this advice will not put you at any risk – and may be beneficial.

There are many other ways to save time, but I believe in the ones that work for me and are simple. Simplicity is beautiful, don’t you think? If you have your own methods to save time, share them with me in a comment.