Time is money: How to reset your workday

Time is money. For most people, that is just a saying.

For those of us who are self-employed, how we choose to spend our time directly affects the income we earn.

Starting our own business was also supposed to give us more freedom over our schedules, with more time off than just weekends and a two-week vacation a year.

Yet my clients sometimes complain that their employees have more time off than they do. One appraiser sold his business because of the long hours and went to work for a mortgage company, just to put his pencil down at 5 p.m. without worrying about payroll and everything else that comes with being the boss.

So why are so many of us business owners working more, taking fewer vacations and carrying more stress than salaried employees? I believe part of the reason is that most of us never learned about time management.

Poor time management

Early in my career, I worked at a successful CPA firm in West Los Angeles. Many of the clients were celebrities. The partners were great CPAs and nice guys, but because they lacked time management skills, the office was frequently unproductive and in disarray, even though they worked late into the night.

Here is what their schedule looked like. On a typical morning, the accountants, bookkeepers and admin staff arrived promptly at 8:30 a.m., and the partners would meander in sometime between 10 a.m. and noon. We appreciated that quiet time before they arrived because it gave us a chance to get organized, grab our coffee and ramp up.

The problems began after the first partner walked through the door. They headed straight to their own offices, diving into phone calls and emails while the rest of us waited for direction. When we needed anything simple, like a decision or a signature, we had to chase them down the hall.

Like most offices, the staffers took their lunch from noon to one, but the partners could be gone all afternoon, to a client meeting, the gym or one of their other businesses. They would generally return after 4 p.m., energized and ready to do billable and administrative work. One of the partners would rub his hands together and exclaim, “Let’s get started,” as we prepared to leave for the day.

After returning more phone calls and emails, they would break for cocktails at about 6. The televisions would go on in the background, blaring with whatever sporting event was on. They continued working, often past 10 p.m., and expected us to stay in case they needed anything.

Although the partners were putting in the time, they were losing productive hours every day. If you work on your own with no employees, not having time management skills hurts just you. Adding employees to the mix can hurt your profitability.

When I first started my firm, I was doing the same thing, and my husband commented that my employees looked like soldiers marching in circles and asked when I would give them some direction.

I think back on that as a tough time, marked by long hours, disappointing revenue and crushing payroll costs.

Why bad habits persist

Even though my example is a typical brick-and-mortar office, and workplaces for many look very different now, the same lack of time management persists today.

Although there is more flexibility, more tools and more ways to stay connected than those partners ever imagined, the habits that made that office so unproductive still exist.

Research shows that many workers now have what is called a triple-peak day, with bursts of activity midmorning, early afternoon and late in the evening. That last peak is not extra work to be more profitable: It is what happens when the day gets away from you.

Resetting the workday

So let me ask you one question: What is the first thing you do when you start your workday?

Your answer will tell you a great deal about how much of your day is intentional and how much is just a reaction to what is happening.

It is human nature to want to connect with others and jump right in with phone calls and emails.

Yet most time management experts will tell you not to check your messages first because it sets the tone for a reactive day. Instead, identify the three things you truly want to accomplish that day and decide to complete those tasks. Three is enough.

Knowing your three priorities changes how you connect with your team at the start of the day.

There is no reason to call a meeting to establish direction if everyone already knows what he/she is working on. A quick visit to each desk, or a brief message if your team is remote, works better. It does not take much, and it gives you something invaluable.

You will know what is happening in your business, catch problems before they become crises and see who needs help and who is already running. This is a proactive start, not a reactive one. Then you can move on to your three things.

Time management experts also recommend carving out specific time for your own work, including what is called deep work, collaborative projects and outside commitments, and blocking it off.

Your best working hours should overlap with your team’s.

Save the gym, the long lunches and the outside appointments for the morning, before things get moving or later in the afternoon. Work when your staff is working, even for just a couple of hours, and watch your productivity soar.

If your team works different hours or across time zones, planning becomes even more important, not less.

My own business today looks nothing like that office in West Los Angeles.

Although I have two physical offices, all of my staffers, except my personal assistant, are local professionals who work remotely and have varying hours. I know their routines, and I try to make myself available for a quick call, to respond to a message or to look at something they have sent over.

It takes very little time and keeps my business running the way I want it to. By the way, because I can offer flexible hours and remote work, I can afford higher-quality staffers.

One thing I found amazing is that once you establish a rhythm, people adapt to it. If your team members know that questions get addressed at 10:30 a.m., they won’t get stuck.

If clients know you return calls just before noon and again around 3, they stop expecting an immediate response. Interruptions decrease. You have more control over your day than you might think, whether you are in the office or working from home.

If you need help building a better schedule, several good apps do exactly that, and some now use AI to help plan your day around your priorities. Reclaim.ai and Motion are two worth exploring.

Now, circling back to your three things, take a few minutes at the end of your day to review how you did.

Send your team members home to their families and resist the urge to fire off a list of to-dos as they log off. Unless your team works across time zones and genuinely picks those up overnight, it is just a modern version of keeping everyone late.

Time is more than money. Manage it well and it will improve your business, your relationships, and how you feel at the end of the day. Every new day is a fresh start. You can always reset your day.

Michelle C. Herting is a CPA, accredited in business valuations, and an accredited estate planner specializing in succession planning and estate, gift and trust taxation.