We all have Dementors™ in our lives. These are the people or tasks that seem to have an amazing ability to suck the life blood out of us.
When it comes to running your business you will have specific Dementors™ that suck up a chunk of time and energy that you don’t have and wipe out your productivity.
Who are yours?
I have 2 main ones. What about you? How many do you have?
I’m going to be very open with you and share exactly what my Dementors™ are and how I banish them on a regular basis.
Ok, so here are mine…
Me!!!!
Or to be more precise, it’s usually when I’m tired but have stuff I need to get done.
When I’m tired I seem to struggle to stay on task and time seems to be sucked away while I’m almost in a trance! Does that happen to you?
Generally I work very efficiently so I don’t beat myself up if I have the odd time when I struggle to get my head in the game, but sometimes my Dementors™ sweep in and suck time away.
It’s almost like they suck out my ability to concentrate. Does that happen to you?
The anti-Dementor™ approach
If I can sense my Dementors™ are hovering I write down a list of short tasks I need to do over the next hour or so, and then the time at which I’m going to do them.
Sometimes I’ll even set the tasks up in my phone so I get a reminder to complete the task and move on to the next one.
I find doing this puts a magic focussing spell around me that repels my Dementors™.
Managing my teams
I successfully use networking as a way to continually grow my business. I am a member of a national networking organisation, 4Networking.biz, and to fully leverage this as a marketing channel I look after a region of the country for them, as this gives me a bigger profile.
This means I oversee the running of numerous networking groups run by a large number of team members. As you can imagine this takes up some time on a daily basis.
The challenge
I find it very easy to spend hours working on growing these networking groups.
In many ways this is very similar to the time drains with managing suppliers and staff.
As soon as I start doing any work on the teams I can sense my Dementors™ circling.
They seem to descend and make time move twice as fast, so when I surface for air I realise I have spent way too long on it.
The spell
My Dementors™ seem to back off once I cast a time management spell that involves me making a clear decision on how long I’m going to work on the teams before I start. The spell stays active until the alarm on my phone goes off signifying the time period, and the spell, are about to end.
Client Dementors™
I’m blessed that I don’t have any clients as Dementors™ but there’s a very good chance you do.
Do you have a particular client Dementor™ you dread talking to as you know they’ll just go on and on?
The special Dementor™ Spell
If you do then you can cast a special Dementor™ spell to handle that situation. This spell requires some practice as it involves a few key elements…
- Spell termination: You need to have a good reason to bring the call to an end. My favourite is to make the call 10 minutes before the hour, so for example at 9:50, and make it clear at the outset that you have a meeting at 10 that you have to be on time for.
- Spell keywords: You need to lace your conversation with some keywords that show you only have a set amount of time for the conversation.
- Spell duration: You need to be very focused on the length of time you have for the conversation.
So what, or who, are your Dementors™? How are you going to stop them from sucking your time away? It’s easier than you think!
I work with business owners just like you and Dementors™ are just one of the things I help them with. If this blog resonated with you then check out my Red Bull for Your Business Productivity workshop.