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a worker in your own business, you get all of the<br />
downside and none of the benefits of being an<br />
entrepreneur. When we’re not maximizing our time<br />
and resources to work on our business instead of in<br />
it, then the money we “save” easily becomes a net<br />
negative.<br />
One of my favorite business books carries the<br />
counterintuitive title Procrastinate on Purpose.<br />
Author Rory Vaden points out that time is fixed<br />
and there will always be more things to do than the<br />
time of the day (and night) allows for. Prioritization<br />
or reordering of your schedule will still not add<br />
hours to your day. Something has to give.<br />
healthy finances<br />
So with time at a premium, how does a busy mom<br />
become a successful entrepreneur or businesswoman?<br />
Rory advises on five tools to maximize your time:<br />
Eliminate, Automate, Delegate, Procrastinate, and<br />
Concentrate. I will use my own words to briefly describe<br />
how I see each of them:<br />
ELIMINATE:<br />
Not everything is important. Even if it’s urgent, it still might not<br />
be that important in comparison to other matters you must tend to.<br />
If the clock is ticking on a special Chanukah coupon you wanted to<br />
offer, you should not make time for it at the expense of improving<br />
your product or service. Eliminate it—for now, at least. One example<br />
we find often is when we see well-run companies offer a refund<br />
instead of fixing a problem with a sale. In effect, they eliminate a<br />
time-consuming hassle to better use their time elsewhere.<br />
A UTOMATE:<br />
Create systems that do the work on your behalf without your<br />
direct involvement. Whether this is achieved through an online<br />
software, automatic registration renewal, or streamlining the same<br />
process for everyone, automation can literally multiply a fixed<br />
amount of time into endless utilization.<br />
D ELEGATE:<br />
Just as it sounds. Hire someone cheaper, younger or more<br />
adept at a particular job to do specific tasks for you. If your time<br />
is valued at a certain dollar amount per hour and there’s someone<br />
who can do this work for half that, you have just created value out<br />
of thin air and given yourself the most precious gift of all: time.<br />
PROCRASTINATE:<br />
There is a famous adage known as Parkinson’s law, stating that<br />
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”<br />
If you are faced with an obligation where you cannot apply one of<br />
the methods above, then wait to tend to that matter until it can no<br />
longer wait. Don’t give it more time than it needs.<br />
C ONCENTRATE:<br />
When the time comes to actually perform the task, maximize<br />
your time by dedicating 110% of your focus and concentration to the<br />
particular task at hand at the most opportune time. An hour on the<br />
phone with a top client during peak season where you’re on Do not<br />
Disturb mode is more productive than an hour of performing dozens<br />
of tasks in the background.<br />
49<br />
healthandheelsmagazine.com<br />
Time is our most precious commodity—whether we’re running a<br />
business, a household, or a marathon. If we put in the time to make<br />
our time work for us, we’ll be on our way to making it big time.<br />
Malky Blum is the founder and owner of HomePros, the online<br />
workout platform for busy moms; GymPros, among the largest Jewish<br />
gymnastics centers in the country; co-founder of the JGL, the Jewish<br />
Gymnastics League; and part-time business consultant. Malky is a<br />
lucky wife and mother of two who joins as many ninja classes as she<br />
can every week. In her spare time she laments the<br />
fact that women never have spare time.