Good time management skills
Avoid the mistakes most builders make
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Duayne
When it comes down to it, how I choose to spend my time, is what will make the difference in my life and my relationships, in all those types of things.
Mistake 1: The Blame Game
Amelia
So Duayne, when we think about some common mistakes that builders make, lots of builders that we talk to complain about:
- people not respecting their time
- people not valuing their time
- people taking up their time
- people trying to control their time.
And we see too, that builders don’t necessarily value their time as well. That they’ll be keeping themselves really busy, but not really being productive, and also not getting time for the things that they say are really important to them.
So many builders, so many people, say for example, that one of the most important things of their life are their family and their relationships, and yet they live a life that’s not in alignment. That doesn’t actually show that they’re spending time with their family and their relationships.
Mistake 2: Not Valuing Your Own Time
Amelia
So can you talk through with me, how valuable is your time? And how did you start wrapping your head around this whole concept of actually valuing your time?
Duayne
Time is the most valuable thing to me. It’s my thing now.
It’s not all about turnover, the type of jobs I do, how much money I make. Time is my number one valuable thing. And when it comes down to it, how I choose to spend my time is what will make the difference in my life, in my relationships, in all those types of things.
So probably a turning point for me, I do a lot of audible stuff now. And over the years, I’ve had coaching and mentoring.
We all have the exact same amount of time.
This sounds so weird, and I even find it funny to say, but we all have the same amount of time, same amount of minutes, hours, days, all that type of thing. But it really is, it’s how you choose to spend that time.
Mistake 3: Letting Clients Control Your Time
Duayne
And for me, I wasn’t valuing any of my time. I was letting everyone around me control my time. Tell me when I needed to be at meetings, turning their issues into my issues and just sucking up my time that I should have been having with my family and doing things that I enjoy doing.
And the other big thing that played a big role in this is always letting the client set the time. And so I was meeting clients whenever they wanted. I was at their beck and call. I’d meet them after hours. It’s so crazy, because they would say to me, ‘Oh, look, I work till five, can you meet me after that’? Or ‘can you meet me on a Saturday’ and I wouldn’t even hesitate. I would just think, oh, that’s part of my job. If I want the next job, I need to go and meet them when they can meet me.
And I remember missing kids’ events on Saturday mornings, of a nighttime, missing birthday dinners and all sorts of things, because I was sitting with a client that at the end of the day, I didn’t even get the jobs.
So for me time is my number one valuable thing. I cherish it, and I’m in control of it. If I do something that wastes my time, it’s on me.
Amelia
We talk about time a lot at Live Life Build, and particularly with our members and how they can think about using their time productively. And you know, one of the things that really demonstrates I think that not all time is the same is that whole idea of, think about when you waste two minutes scrolling social media, versus standing under a completely freezing cold shower for two minutes. And how different those two minutes feel based on what you’re actually doing with that activity. And so, there’s that joke that we all have the same 24 hours as Beyonce. At the end of the day, though, it is this thing of we need to understand that our time is fixed. And so what we choose to do with our time really matters if we are going to have the businesses that we want and live the lifestyles that we want.
And that thing of speaking with clients, I know that lots of builders would be really scared to say to clients, I can’t meet you on the weekend, or I can’t meet you of an evening and worry that that means that they’re going to lose that job. What I teach homeowners is, look, they’re a business, you wouldn’t expect to meet your accountant or your lawyer on a Saturday morning. And if this is your project, you need to make your time work as well so that you can work with this building business to make your project happen.
Duayne
It’s one of those things I guess our industry has let happen for so long. A lot of clients do expect it. But you’re exactly right. You can’t go and meet your doctors after hours. If the grocery store shuts at 9pm, you can’t rock up at five past 9 and say hey, let me in, I’ve got to get my groceries.
Solution: Setting Expectations
Duayne
So one of the simplest and easiest things you can do to show more value in your time is, if you set the expectation with the client. Like when a client contacts you or, or emails you about a meeting, you tell them the time that you’ll meet.
And probably the other really big one is setting your business hours. I probably was taking my time for granted a lot, I think in the past, but even something as simple as every communication we have with a client, whether it’s your voicemail on your phone, your tag on your email, all those types of things, have your business hours. And straight away that potential client sees you’re a business. You’ve actually got opening and closing hours.
So it’s definitely come a long way for me, and it’s actually allowed me to do things that I never would have thought possible. In the last four or five years, we’ve had some incredible family holidays. I’ve done some incredible personal stuff like going to Base Camp at Everest, and those types of things. And I would never, ever have done that in the past, because I would have talked about it, I would have booked it in, and then I would’ve let the business take over, I would’ve let people tell me what they needed done. And it wouldn’t happen.
So valuing my time and locking it in and sticking to it. I guess it’s a case of if clients want to work with us, then they have to fit into our schedule, not vice versa. And to be honest, if they’re not the type of client that’s prepared to wait, they’re not the type of client we want to work with.
Solution: Being Productive vs Being Busy
Amelia
I think that when you don’t look at how you can manage your time, you end up wasting it, you end up letting it just fritter away. And when it is, a finite resource in terms of that, that we have that 24 hours every day to work with, you want to make sure that you’re optimising it where you can, and you’re valuing it, and spending it in the right places. And if you don’t look at how you can manage it. How you can set those business hours for your meeting. How you can help clients understand how to work with you inside those boundaries that you place around your business, you can end up just seeing time slip through your fingers, because you’re not managing it well. And before you know it, time has just raced away from you and you’ve not been able to use it productively.
Duayne
I think it’s one of those things. A lot of builders come from a tradie background. And so our days are in our mind. So we turn up to the site at six o’clock, get our tools out, and start work at 6:30. And you have a quick shout out to the team that’s on site and you just smash out a frame, or you do soffits and cladding, and it’s very physical. So you know how much framing you get done in a day or, or whatever it may be – cladding, fit-out, whatever. And when you’re going through that transition from being a tradie, to just rocking up on site, doing whatever needs doing to get the job done, to becoming a builder, where you are having to meet clients, do quoting, do proposals and all those types of things. It is very hard to understand how you can control that.
Solution: Start with One Thing
It’s so worth putting in the time and the effort and we keep saying, just find that one thing and start with it. Start with the schedule. One thing that means a lot to you. A lot of people start with their personnel, whether it’s exercise or gym, or whatever it may be, but it only takes a few weeks for you to understand that, I’m going to gym when I want to go to gym, that the world’s not ending. The job’s are still running. People are still doing what they’re meant to do, and then just keep growing on it.
Amelia
Yeah. And the more you value your own time, the more you’ll teach others to value it as well.
As builders you can see three common mistakes builders make with time management:
- Mistake 1: The Blame Game
- Mistake 2: Not valuing your own time
- Mistake 3: Letting clients control your time
And we have also discussed some simple solutions to help you understand what you can do to prioritise your time, and keep your time management on track.
- Solution: Setting expectations
- Solution: Being productive v being busy
- Solution: Start with one thing
If you got a lot out of this discussion, you may also want to have a look at an earlier Time Management for Builders discussion where we tackle the issue of working long hours, never seeing your family and making life long changes.