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Significant Development Goals

By Choncé Maddox | Business Tips | No Comments

Set goals. With the start of the new year comes the bold attempt to “manage time better,” “be more productive,” and “focus on what matters.”

If you are a “project creep” person, you miss deadlines, and an ever-growing to-do list is all too frequent both in your life and business. These two areas must be put on your significant professional development goals. Large-scale polls consistently show time management abilities among the most wanted workforce talents and among the most difficult to find.

What goals could manage your time better?

There is no shortage of advice – books, blogs, hacks, and applications — all designed to improve time management.
The most irritating fact for anyone wanting to better their time management is that these techniques are unlikely to help.
Simply said, these tools and apps assume a person’s underlying talents, but time management skills come first.

Do you think buying a decent set of knives, high-end kitchen equipment, and fresh food will automatically turn you into a five-star chef? No way. Similarly, utilizing a scheduling tool without time management skills is unlikely to provide favorable results. However, developing a new skill or skill set keeps you on the cutting edge.

Fortunately, a lot of studies have been done on time management abilities. Timing management is the practice of adjusting one’s time to changing external conditions. Time management effectiveness requires three specific skills:

First, recognize that time is a finite resource.

Organize your objectives, plans, timetables, and projects to maximize your time.

Adaptation: adapting to interruptions or shifting priorities while doing tasks.

Arranging is perhaps the most recognizable ability, given that most applications and hacks deal with planning and scheduling. However, awareness and adaptive abilities are not as widely recognized.
This presents essential development questions:
Are they equal?
Are some harder to master than others?
What about rarity?

Time Management Tests

To find out, I looked at over 1200 people’s findings from a 30-minute micro-simulation meant to measure time management abilities. Participants were assigned the role of a freelance designer and had to handle work and relationships with customers and colleagues using email, instant messaging, and cloud storage.
They had to cope with scheduling problems, prioritize customer requests, and manage their time.

Some solid evidence emerged for goals

First, all three abilities were equally crucial for time management.
So strengthening one’s scheduling and planning abilities overlooks two-thirds of the skills required to manage time properly.
That’s why it’s so discouraging to try new technology and then feel like we’ve never improved as time managers.

Second, respondents had the most trouble with awareness and adaptation abilities, with scores 24 percent lower than arranging skills.
This study implies that awareness and adaptability are uncommon talents that require direct assistance to achieve.
Also, awareness skills influence how effectively participants avoid procrastination, and adaptability skills influence how well they prioritize activities.

Third, the results contradicted prevalent beliefs about the benefits or drawbacks of multitasking.
A post-simulation poll examined how people felt about multitasking.

Their inclinations for multitasking (what academics call “polychronicity”) had nothing to do with time management abilities.
People’s time management skills have little to do with their multitasking preferences.
So the emphasis on multitasking that many time management experts place on it is unlikely to deliver genuine results.

Fourth, the research shows that people misjudge their time management skills.
For example, just 1% of people’s self-ratings matched their objective skill scores.
Also, self-ratings only accounted for only 2% of real-time management ability differences.
In prior research, people lack proper self-awareness of their competencies, which impedes transformation and leadership growth.

Time Management Skills Development

So how can people improve their time management skills?
To begin, decide where to focus. The only way to honestly answer this question is to examine your present skill levels.
You may fuel your development efforts in three ways.

Improve your self-awareness of time management. This can be achieved by objective evaluations like microsimulations, peer or supervisor feedback, or by defining a baseline of behaviors against which progress can be measured.

Perception matters more than thinking. Understanding one’s time management preferences or personality traits, such as multitasking or being proactive, can help identify areas where reform efforts may fail.
Skills, not personality, are the most flexible personal traits and deliver the best return on investment.

Identify and prioritize your skill gaps

The goal is to prevent self-improvement that is “inch deep but a mile wide” when efforts are scattered out over too many requirements. Prioritize your skill development, starting with the most urgent skill requirement and working your way up.

There are several proven methods for improving time management. Here are a few. Remember that techniques establish underlying abilities that will ultimately enhance time management.
Using these strategies isn’t the purpose.

Increasing awareness. Effectiveness is doing things well, whereas efficiency is doing things quickly. Both are vital. Efficiency is counterproductive.

Find your performance peak. Divide your day into three to four-time slots and rate them from most to least productive throughout a week (most productive is peak performance).

Treat time like cash. Make a time budget for a typical week. Then, sort time into fixed (must do) and discretionary (want to do).

Timing-up for the goal

Not how much time you have left, but how long you spend on things with defined deadlines.

Evaluate your time management skills. After concluding a job, compare your expectations to the actual time it took. This process is good development of skills.

Consider “future time.” Consider how your current actions will affect future activities (e.g., how will today’s project tasks affect next week’s tasks?).

“Sunk cost fallacy.” When you believe you’re spending too much time on anything, take a step back and assess its value (e.g., who will be affected if it’s done or not).

Learning to organize

The learning curves and time requirements for unfamiliar but critical jobs might be severe. Developing arrangement skills means taking control of your life and then organizing your job around it.

Prioritize tasks and duties

It’s not enough to just mention your assignments and meetings.

7 Tips to Attract Success as an Entrepreneur

By Deanna Ritchie | Knowledge Base | No Comments

Have you heard the old quip about overnight success taking ten or more years? Anyone who’s started a business knows it’s true. Think Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Though they’ve reached tremendous recognition now for their business acumen, they were once everyday guys. No paparazzi were following them — and they certainly weren’t carrying tickets to space. Nevertheless, they persevered and ended up at the top of the corporate food pyramid.

As an entrepreneur, you might feel like a decade’s a long time to finally get some respect from your peers. Plus, by the time you’re ten years older, you may not be any closer to success than you were. That’s a fair assessment and fear. However, the years will pass whether you take some risks or not. So you might as well reach for your dreams.

In the process, though, you don’t want to leave your likelihood of hitting the jackpot to chance. Instead, you’ll want to put yourself in a position to attract success like a magnet. How? Incorporate these strategies into your work and personal life.

1. Gain mastery of your mind.

Author and serial entrepreneur Mark Lachance talks about the idea of luck being a powerful force that you can harness in The Lucky Formula. Indeed, luck is a terrific asset to have if you’re bent on being successful. But as Lachance explains, it doesn’t happen until you master both your internal and external conditions. I especially want to focus on the former.

Too many founders allow other people to get into their heads. Those people could be well-meaning naysayers, like a spouse. Or they could be envious or spiteful, such as an angry ex-coworker. When you let other people control your thoughts and feelings, you have less ability to make clear, pragmatic choices.

Lachance writes that people who allow themselves to be influenced by others rarely experience luck — or success. How, though, do you stop giving other people rent-free space in your brain? It takes effort to start thinking for yourself. First, you have to know your goals and gather all the information you can about subjects you learn. Next, you need to stay flexible on most topics with a willingness to be firm on others. Finally, you have to practice the art again and again. Over time, you’ll find that you’re able to tap into your intelligence more easily and confidently.

2. Hire talented professionals and let them do their thing.

Just about all of us have been under the thumb of a boss who couldn’t delegate. As a TLNT piece reveals, nearly 60% of workers admit that they’d had the type of manager who just couldn’t let go. So even though you might claim you’d never micromanage, you might be surprised at how fast you can change your mind.

For instance, at the first sign of danger to your business, you might want to jump in and take over. After all, you assume that your people — even the high performers you respect and admire — couldn’t have the same passion as you. That’s where you’re wrong. If you empower and trust the people you’ve put on the payroll, you have a better chance of weathering ups and downs.

Is it tough to sit back and watch when you feel like you should be doing something? You can bet on it. However, your business will succeed if you act like a mentor instead of an ogre. If you’re not sure how to make a move to a coaching mentality, Gallup has some ideas. These include giving ongoing feedback, explaining why something should be done, and handing over ownership of projects. In time, your employees and peers will appreciate that you have faith in them, and many will exceed your expectations.

3. Take care of your physical and mental health.

Burnout is a real problem, especially among business leaders and owners. A Wall Street Journal piece written in early 2021 suggests around one-third of workers may suffer or have suffered from the condition. You can’t afford to let yourself get to the point of experiencing so much stress that you burn out completely in your position.

Remember, though, that burnout isn’t just having a few stressful days or even weeks. It’s a consistent, nagging state that presents itself differently in different people. Some become incredibly depressed. Others just “check out.” Plenty will struggle to check off even the most mundane items on their daily to-do lists.

To be sure, you’re going to be a busy person as a founder. That doesn’t give you carte blanche to destroy your health, however. Additionally, when your team sees you never take a day off, they get anxious: Should they do likewise? Are you modeling behaviors you expect them to follow? This can lead to serious communications disconnects within your organization.

Consequently, your best bet is to work hard but do good for your health. The main staples for good health that you must not skip are eating right, sleeping right, and exercising. Go on family vacations. You’ll be more refreshed and ready when you return to the grind.

4. Look for the silver lining.

Failures happen. Some are small. Some are big. Some are earth-shattering. After they occur, you can’t change the past. Nevertheless, you can learn from it. You can also use it as a teachable moment to help your team members see how to make different choices in the future.

Don’t worry: You don’t have to wear rose-colored glasses or do your best Pollyanna impersonation. It’s reasonable to be brought down by mistakes. You can show your disappointment and anger. The trick is not to dwell on it.

When bad things come your way, deal with them and then have a retrospective. Take a tip from agile project management principles that encourage constant review of everything. And never assume that what seems like a failure today couldn’t lead to an “Aha!” tomorrow. Most successful business people can talk about long lines of failures from their past. Their ability to move beyond backslides helped them reach their goals and find success.

5. Establish a strong, well-defined work culture.

When you build a business from your vision, you get a rare opportunity to build the culture you want. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs just assume that culture will build itself. It will — but it probably won’t be the nirvana that you envisioned when you opened your doors.

Right now, employers everywhere are having trouble finding and keeping superstars. A strong, attractive workplace culture will help you court and acquire top candidates. But, of course, what the culture looks like is up to you and maybe your executive team members. Yet you should know that recent studies show nearly half of all professionals want to work at a place where they can be themselves.

Are you worried that your culture is already heading into toxic territory? You can pull out of a nosedive fast. Start by gathering feedback from your current team members. Find out how they feel about their workplace environment. Then, use their responses to make improvements. Success is almost impossible if your workers don’t want to come to the office or log onto their computers. On the other hand, if your culture is irresistible, your employees will rave online, to customers, and to their friends.

6. Do right by your customers.

The customer doesn’t always have to be right for you to “do right” by the customer. Without customers, you couldn’t stay in business. Therefore, treat your buyers like gold. Anticipate their needs. Smooth out your clunky sales processes. Create loyalty programs that are something special.

Need some inspiration to rev up your customer-centricity? A couple of years ago, Forbes pulled together a piece on 100 companies that get customer service right every time. The list reads like a who’s who of successful brands: Warby Parker. Best Buy. Hilton. In each case, the company has invested tons of time and effort into wowing buyers through and through.

Be honest with yourself: Are your customer interactions as impressive as they could be? Do your team members have the authority to make decisions (within financial and operational parameters) to serve customers? Making any improvements will get your organization far. Who knows? The next time a 100-list is completed, your business could be on it.

7. Keep upskilling.

You founded a company because you were an expert in something. Bicycle making. Digital marketing. Veterinary medicine. Though you should keep driving hard to become an expert in your industry, you can’t be afraid to branch out. Branching out will keep you agile. It may also reveal ways you can evolve your company in exciting ways.

Imagine someone who started a business in 2000 and refused to learn anything about social media or online advertising. That person wouldn’t be running a successful company. Try, then, to stay on top of the newest aspects of the business. Although you don’t have to become super-knowledgeable about everything, you should have a working understanding of emerging technologies, competitors’ news, and possibilities.

Of course, you shouldn’t keep upskilling and reskilling to yourself. Instead, make learning a team sport by offering training to your team. Employees appreciate it when they get paid to develop their skill sets and build out their resumes. With the experience they gain, they can bring concepts to the table and fuel your brand’s momentum.

Success isn’t something that can only happen to everyone else. It’s within your reach. You just have to stretch a bit to grab it and bring it to you and your company.

How to Encourage Appointment Scheduling in the Winter When No One Wants to Get Out

By Gunjan Saini | Scheduling | No Comments

Seasonal depression is nothing to scoff at. The freezing temperatures and lack of sunlight are enough to make anyone want to curl up at home in front of the fireplace. Unfortunately, this might mean that you’re filling fewer time slots in the wintertime as customers opt to stay indoors and schedule their appointments in the spring.

Encouraging appointment scheduling in the winter won’t be easy, but it’s a challenge worth facing head-on. Not only is getting your customers out of the house good for their mental and physical health, but it’s also good for your business. Here are some ideas to help you fill up your schedule even when the snow is falling:

Offer Incentives for Scheduling Appointments

People might not want to leave the comfort of their home for regular old appointments. Unless they absolutely have to, many customers are content with postponing them until temperatures start to rise again. To offset their desire to hibernate rather than book your services, you need to extend an offer that customers simply can’t refuse.

Incentives add an extra layer to appointments, making them more favorable even when weather conditions aren’t. For example, a customer might not normally book a winter appointment but be drawn toward your business by seasonal discounts and amped-up loyalty rewards.

Create Ambiance

The waiting room is an underrated aspect of appointment-based businesses. Even if you have the most streamlined booking system on planet Earth, every single one of your customers is going to spend some time in the lobby before or after an appointment. If you create an ambiance that’s comfortable and inviting, more customers will be willing to brave the cold and trek to your office.

How do you make your waiting room awesome? Look at aspects of your lobby that might go overlooked in normal circumstances. Warm lighting as opposed to blinding fluorescents can create a more inviting environment.

The music you play can also be quite influential. Replacing boring elevator music with modern, upbeat tunes or classic soul will make for a more pleasant waiting room experience. Even just keeping the common areas warm and cozy can bring out your chilly customers.

The exterior of your business shouldn’t be overlooked either. Clear sidewalks and parking lots will be a lot more welcoming to customers than icy pavement and snowy curbs.

Offer Online Check-In for Appointments

If customers have an option to wait in their warm cars until their appointment, they might feel more inclined to venture out for it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be taking care of your waiting room. Rather, offering online check-in will provide another option for customers to consider. More options for customers means the business will have a better sales funnel.

Checking in online can easily be enabled through a mobile app or online software. All a customer needs to do is confirm that they have arrived at the office on time. A phone call, email, or text message will let the customer know when their appointment is about to start so they can quickly run from their car to the building, staying as warm as possible from start to finish.

Stretch Out Your Schedule

One reason why customers are hesitant to book appointments in the winter is because of perilous road conditions. Driving in the snow and ice is not a fun experience no matter how accustomed to it they are. This means drivers have to travel extra slowly, which might put them at risk of missing their appointment.

You can eliminate this fear by stretching out your schedule. Add some extra buffer time in between appointments just in case someone is running late due to poor weather conditions. You can also add more availability for walk-in customers if business is slow enough to accommodate them. This will give customers more flexibility and peace of mind.

Reach Out

If you’re using online scheduling software, you should easily be able to see when a customer made their last booking. Using this information, you can contact your regular visitors whom you haven’t seen in some time. Sometimes just reaching out to a customer is enough to bring them back for a winter appointment.

When getting in touch with customers, try to make your messages as personal as possible. Phone calls are easy to make personable but are more time-consuming. If you use some sort of messaging system, just be sure to draft up a message that doesn’t sound copy-and-pasted to your entire email list. When customers can tell that you sincerely care about them and want to serve them, you’ll have more success with winter appointment-setting.

Winter only takes up a short portion of the year, but it can feel like an eternity sometimes. Taking measures to fill up your appointment slots and stay busy will pass the time much more quickly and help your business start the next calendar year off on the right foot.

Goal Setting Not Working? Try These 8 Alternatives

By John Rampton | Knowledge Base | No Comments

Somewhere in between holiday festivities and wrapping up all of your year-end obligations, you might also be setting your goals for next year. While there’s nothing wrong with that, most of us fail to reach these goals. An astounding 92 percent of people who set New Year’s resolutions never follow through, according to researchers at the University of Scranton.

Why do we keep setting ourselves up for failure? That answer varies from person to person. However, some of the most common culprits include;

Making goals too vague.
Setting unattainable goals.
Listing only your long-term goals.
Writing your goals as negative statements.
You get discouraged when messing up.
Your environment doesn’t support your goals.
You downplay or don’t celebrate your wins.
There’s no system to hold you accountable.

Furthermore, goals hardly translate to daily actions, and some of us don’t track our progress.

Whatever the reason, if you’ve found that goal setting isn’t getting it done, you might want to explore the following eight alternatives going forward.

1. Ask yourself, “Did I do my best?”

“Do your best. If it sounds like advice from a kindergarten teacher, well, I get it,” writes freelance writer and Fast Company contributor Daniel Dowling. “Vague goals produce vague results, right?”

However, Dowling found that one undefined goal can prove a punch in the gut reality check when included with a system of daily goals. What’s more, it can lead to tangible results.

The reason why this can work? Firstly, many of us have difficulty determining how much time to dedicate to our goals. When setting goals, we don’t know where to draw the line between ambition and delusion. In turn, this results in us not getting the desired outcome.

When Dowling asked himself, “Did I do my best?” he was confronted with just how much effort he had actually given that day. If he “frittered away most of the day,” he would analyze why and make changes so that he wouldn’t repeat the same mistake again.

“Without asking myself if I’d done my best each day, I’d either have wallowed in self-reproach or failed to reflect on my performance at all. Instead, I’d turned self-criticism into a self-improvement habit,” he wrote.

2. Establish anti-goals.

Is your calendar packed with pointless meetings? Are you burned out from working long hours? Have you questioned your relationships?

If you’ve ever had these types of questions, you can turn things around by setting anti-goals.

While this might seem counterintuitive, “anti-Goals create a balance by showing us a tangible set of values or actions that we don’t want to be,” clarifies Ken Wu.

Originally introduced as a concept called ‘premeditatio malorum,’ which Seneca, Foucault, and Socrates used, “anti-goals give us a benchmark of failure to avoid and allow us to anticipate ourselves at our worst,” he adds. This enables us to develop our first steps of personal growth, and we remain true to ourselves as we develop.

When starting out, Wu focused on the following areas;

Values. Do you want to reject any standards or behaviors?
Habit. Which actions are you consciously trying to avoid?
Physical. What possible health issues do you want to minimize?
Emotional. Which mental states do you wish to avoid?
Relationships. Do you want to avoid certain relationships? What is your ideal way to interact with others?

To harness the power of anti-goals, however, Wu advises that they shouldn’t consume you. He also says that they shouldn’t make you complacent or remain stagnant. Instead, they must evolve and drive you forward.

3. Set themes.

Although there is a place and time for goals daily, goals often lead to anxiety, regret, and depression rather than fulfillment, pride, and contentment, claims Niklas Göke. This is because we exert pressure on ourselves until we reach our goals. In addition, when we finally do accomplish them, they disappear without a trace.

Moreover, we think that happiness is experienced after this burst of relief. In turn, this inspires us to set a new, bigger goal. However, it remains beyond our reach. In short, it’s a vicious cycle.

Harvard researcher Tal Ben-Shahar calls this “the arrival fallacy” — the illusion that “reaching some future destination will bring lasting happiness.” To combat this, author and entrepreneur James Altucher lives by themes instead of goals that encourage meaning over pleasure.

Göke says that a theme could be a single verb, a noun, or an adjective. “Commit,” “growth,” and “healthy” are all valid themes, he adds. As are “invest,” “help,” “kindness,” and “gratitude.”

“Themes are immune to anxiety about tomorrow,” states Göke. So your regrets about yesterday don’t matter to them either. “All that matters is what you do today, who you are in this second, and how you choose to live right now.”

4. Focus on systems.

According to James Clear, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, asserts that there are several problems with goals, including;

Both winners and losers have the same goals.
Attaining a goal is a momentary change.
Goals can restrict your happiness.
Goals are often at odds with a long-term process.

Because of this — look at, Clear champions systems over goals. These are simply daily processes and habits. For example, exercising for 30-minutes before work or learning a new skill for 10-minutes after lunch. Even though you didn’t set a specific outcome, like losing 50 pounds or becoming fluent in Spanish, systems are flexible and help you make progress.

This is well described by Clear using a rowboat metaphor. Consider goals as the rudder and systems as the paddles: “Goals determine your direction. Systems determine your progress.”

5. Burn or burn.

Okay. This might seem a little radical and potentially dangerous. However, it might be worth trying if you struggle to complete those necessary but dreadful tasks needed to reach a goal. And, here’s how it works, according to Nir Eyal in an Observer post.

Pick your routine. For instance, going to the gym.
Book your time. Block out time in your schedule for the routine. Routines can’t be performed if you don’t reserve the time to arrange an appointment or meeting.
Find a crisp $100 bill — or any denomination that you wouldn’t want to lose.
Find a lighter.
Buy a wall calendar and place it somewhere you’ll see daily.
Place the lighter near the wall calendar and tape the $100 bill to today’s date.

There are now two options available to you. On any given day, when it’s time to perform your routine, you have the option to choose either option A and perform the routine, in my case to feel the “burn” in the gym, or option B and literally burn money, explains Eyal. The money can’t be given to someone or spent on anything; it must be set ablaze.

Not only is it dangerous to actually light the bill, but it’s also illegal. However, science has found that just the thought of watching your hard-earned money aflame can motivate you to complete the tasks that you don’t want to.

6. Adopt a mantra.

The process of achieving a goal often involves changing your habits as well. Of course, this is always easier said than done. After all, when some of us experience setbacks, we tend to get so disappointed that we simply quit.

Perhaps you should adopt a “mantra” instead of a resolution if this describes you. As a result of being overextended, entrepreneur Reshma Chamberlin tried this approach by incorporating a yearly “anchor.”

For Chamberlin, as she told Fast Company’s Jenna Abdou, “It’s not a single objective, like go to the gym every day. Instead, your mantra is a conscious choice to take control of your life.” For example, her 2017 mantra was, “Ask, and you shall receive.” Through this motto, she was felt more empowered to pursue new experiences.

When setting mantas, though, Chamberlin suggests that they are positive and deliberate. And, the mantra is too unrealistic or making you unhappy; try a different one.

7. Make a PACT.

“Instead of SMART goals, which don’t encourage ambitious, long-term endeavors, I prefer to make a PACT with myself,” notes Anne-Laure Le Cunff over at Ness Labs. “While a SMART goal focuses on the outcome, the PACT approach focuses on the output.”

In short, rather than pursuing a well-defined goal, it’s about continuous growth. In this regard, it can be a valuable alternative to SMART goals.

But, what exactly does PACT stand for?

Purposeful. An appropriate goal should be relevant to your long-term purpose in life, not just to your immediate needs. It’s much easier to get and stay motivated when your goals are aligned with your passions and priorities.
Actionable. You should have a goal that is both actionable and controllable. Focusing on immediate outputs rather than overplanning for distant outcomes in the future is the key to shifting your mindset.
Continuous. Choice paralysis prevents so many people from achieving their goals, explains Le Cunff. This happens when you have so many options that you spend more time researching than actually doing things to further your goal. One benefit of continuous goals is that they’re flexible and repeatable. That means focusing on continuous improvement is more important than a pre-determined endpoint.
Trackable. Not measurable, Anne-Laure Le Cunff adds. Often, statistics are overrated and don’t apply to a wide variety of goals. As with the GitHub tracker, Le Cunff likes the “yes” or “no” approach to goal tracking as it makes tracking progress a breeze.

8. Don’t set goals at all.

According to Leo Babauta, the author behind Zen Habits, sometimes the best goal is no goal at all.

“Today, I live mostly without goals. Now and then, I start coming up with a goal, but I’m letting them go,” he writes. “Living without goals hasn’t ever been an actual goal of mine … it’s just something I’m learning that I enjoy more, that is incredibly freeing, that works with the lifestyle of following my passion that I’ve developed.”

That may sound liberating in theory, but how does this actually work?

He explains that there’s no goal for the year, the month, the week, or the day. You don’t obsess over tracking or actionable steps. There’s even no need for a to-do list, though jotting down reminders is fine.

“What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos?” he asks. Of course not. You just do.

“You find something you’re passionate about, and do it, Leo states. “Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion.”

As a result, Leo says that he can accomplish more than if he had goals since he’s always doing something that excites him. But, that’s ultimately not the point. Instead, he emphasizes, “all that matters is that I’m doing what I love, always.”

How to Combat the Slow Season With Appointment Software

By Jon Bradshaw | Appointment | No Comments

The winter months are often the slowest for many businesses. Whether it’s because of treacherous driving conditions or the desire to bundle up at home for the season, customers are in short supply for many appointment-based businesses during this time of year.

Instead of counting the days until summer, change your mindset and try to combat the temporary slow season. Not only will this help you keep revenue up during the slower months of the year, but you’ll also make valuable improvements that will come in handy when the busy season returns.

Keep Your Software Updated

Now is the perfect time to make sure that your software is up-to-date. Your online appointment software is a big part of your business process. Therefore, it deserves some love and attention during the slow season. Improvements that you make now will definitely come in handy once the busy season rolls around.

You should be using responsive, user-friendly, and fully functional programs. Use any downtime you have to conduct UX testing. Identify any snags customers may encounter while using your software so they can be remediated before becoming pressing concerns.

See What’s Trending

What is the latest trend capturing your consumers’ attention? Successfully riding the coattails of certain trends can carry your business forward, even during a slow period. Your business can insert itself into the spotlight where customers are currently focusing their attention.

Particularly effective trends to keep your eye on will be tech-related. By staying on top of the latest tech news and trends, you can ensure that your software is keeping stride with other industry leaders.

Pay attention to other appointment-based trends as they arise. For example, curbside check-ins picked up steam during the peak of the COVID-19. It was a way for businesses to continue seeing customers while enabling better social distancing. If you’re aware of this trend, you can implement it so customers seeking appointments won’t pass you up for competitors.

Check In With Customers

With online appointment software at your fingertips, you can see just how much time has passed in between customer appointments. You can use this knowledge to touch base with your regular customers and convince them to book an office visit during this slow patch.

You might have received such a message from a business that you visited once or twice. Something along the lines of “We’ve missed you, here’s a special offer” is a common strategy employed by businesses to spur appointment bookings when business has slowed.

If you choose to reach out to customers and reel a few back in, do your best to personalize the messages you send. A message that clearly looks copied and pasted will not hold the same weight as a personalized message showing that you value the customer as an individual.

Request Appointment Feedback

Feedback can give you great insight into how your customers think and act. After compiling enough customer responses, you can make data-driven decisions that will improve their experience and your overall business model.

After appointments, send an online survey to your customers. This can easily be done with an automated email containing a thank-you message and a survey link. Your survey should remain short yet effective, containing simple questions pertaining to things like the check-in process, wait times, and appointment satisfaction.

If you’re having a difficult time getting customers to complete an optional survey, add a little incentive. For example, customers who bring proof of completion can qualify for a 10% discount on their next appointment. This will get you more survey responses to work with, improve your business, increase appointment bookings, and pay dividends for months or years to come.

Plan for Future Appointments

If you’re unable to pick up the pace right now, start making plans to accelerate in the future. You won’t see the benefits immediately. However, building a strong foundation for upcoming appointments will place your business in an ideal spot for high profits and optimal productivity.

You should certainly be trying to book appointments for future dates, even if they don’t fall within the window of your slow season. This will give you appointment dates to look forward to, a light at the end of the tunnel if you will. These future customers could also motivate you to add other activities to your schedule, such as deep cleaning and organizing your business in preparation for the return of the busy season.

Your online appointment software will also come in handy when scheduling other things such as social media posts. Using downtime to create and schedule content will get your marketing resources lined up and ready to launch so you don’t have to stress about it when your appointment schedule is booked up again.

Don’t let the slow season slow you down. Use appointment software to keep trekking forward and prepare for business to pick up again. With this tool, you’ll hardly lose your momentum.

Work Less Because It’s Done and Play More in 2022

By Hunter Meine | Knowledge Base | No Comments

You may have seen folks around you who get everything done and then some. How do they get so much done so fast?

Time management is the answer.

Time management is the art of organizing and allocating minutes, getting things done. This maximizes productivity and achieves goals. Time management improves job performance and life satisfaction while reducing stress. High achievers don’t just happen. Rather, they’ve honed the talents required to achieve more in less time.

Productivity is a skill.

It’s an acquired talent that everyone must learn. However, it is feasible (and simple) to learn time management. There are several tools, strategies, and approaches available to assist you. We’ve rounded together our finest 32 day-saving ideas.

Planning Your Time to be Done Faster

Planned calendar management will help you build solid habits, get things done and increase your chances of success.

1. Conduct a time audit.

First things first: figure out where you spend your time. Often, what you believe is taking up your time isn’t. Humans are lousy at estimating task duration. Let’s say you need to send a 300-word email. Think: “Emailing is easy. It should just take 5 minutes.” Proofreading, checking language choice, and identifying email addresses are all duties that might add to the task’s duration. Your 5-minute email may take you 20 minutes, 500% longer than expected with such changes.

Assume you have the same issue with numerous tasks. A balanced workload will inevitably turn into a hectic to-do list during the day. You need to know what you can do and what is genuinely eating up your minutes. That’s why a time audit is useful. The most straightforward approach to undertake a time audit is using calendar tracking software. Many firms provide free software, but Toggl Track is the easiest, with applications for all devices.

Track your activities for a week to get an accurate time utilization picture. Then, examine the reports at the end of the week and analyze the time you spend on various chores. With this data, you can quickly improve. For example, you may waste time in useless meetings or busywork.

Now you can see how you spend your time and prepare accordingly.

So here’s the next piece of advice.

Tip #2: Set realistic goals and prioritize and be done.

Time management won’t assist you if you have too much to do. After doing a time audit, you’ll know if you need to manage your time better or if you have too much on your plate.

For attainable goals, skip to suggestion 3.

If you feel overwhelmed, create an Eisenhower matrix or use the 4 Ds of time management: Do, Defer, Delegate, and Delete. Your duties are divided into four categories into both methods:

Do: Important and urgent tasks.

Defer: Important yet non-urgent tasks.

Delegate: Urgent but unimportant tasks.

Delete: Non-urgent or non-critical tasks.

These methods will help you decide what jobs to prioritize, schedule, delegate, or remove. They should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.

Tip #3: Make a daily management strategy.

You can do this in the morning or at the end of the day. Creating a daily to-do list is one of those time slots. Keep your to-do list simple. The sight of half-completed lists is discouraging.

Even in personal productivity, it’s preferable to under-promise and over-deliver. Write your list as though you’ve already finished it. Submit Report to Project Manager instead of “Submit Report to Project Manager.”

This tiny method will give you an extra push of desire to finish your duties.

Tip #4: Sunday planning management

A strategy will help you focus on your critical goals during the workweek. It also enables you to move from weekend mode to “work mode” on Monday morning. First, spend a few minutes on Sunday planning your entire week. Then, break down weekly goals into daily chores to increase achievement.

You’ll be able to see your daily tasks at a glance. Schedule low-priority work for Fridays and other low-energy days. The week’s energy and creative levels change. Finish creative projects on Tuesday and Wednesday. Plan meetings for Thursday, when your team’s energy drops. Plan and network on Fridays and Mondays.

Personal productivity has hundreds of variations. Because everyone works differently, experimenting with these time management techniques will help you find the ideal strategy for you.

Tip #5: Finish your most critical and time-consuming activities first thing.

The first few hours of work are usually the most fruitful. This is because you can focus better while your brain isn’t completely awake.

They have less energy for daydreaming and other duties. So, preferably, do your most intellectually demanding responsibilities first thing in the morning.

7 Things to Have in Your Waiting Room This Winter

By Jason Barnes | Appointment, Business Tips | No Comments

No one enjoys waiting. But the reality is, everyone has to wait from time to time. Even if an individual made an appointment and arrived on time, they’ll probably end up spending a few minutes in the waiting room filling out paperwork or waiting to be seen. This can be frustrating and might even cause anxiety.

While integrating some type of appointment software to reduce their wait times and streamline productivity is important, it shouldn’t be your only priority. Making the waiting room as comfortable as possible is a great way to make customers and clients feel at ease. In this article, we share what appointment-based businesses can provide to improve their waiting rooms and the customer experience:

1. Clean Waiting Room

Now more than ever, people want to feel safe while out in public. This is especially true when patients visit a healthcare or service provider. If your waiting room looks dirty, it’s going to deter patients and customers. On the other hand, if the waiting room is clean, people will probably feel less anxious. Make sure you’re regularly cleaning your waiting room throughout the day.

You should also have cleaning products and PPE in place like hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves. Due to COVID-19, masks are mandated in many localities. It’s a good idea to have them available for patients or customers in case they forget.

Your waiting room shouldn’t be the only area you keep spic and span. Make sure your entire office is clean and sanitized, from the interior offices to the bathrooms. If you own a salon, encourage stylists to keep their areas tidy and free of excess tools and equipment. Do you run an oil-change service center? Keeping the garage bays organized will make a good impression on guests.

2. Entertainment While Waiting

While people don’t go to doctor’s offices or service businesses to watch movies or play games, having entertainment options available can improve their experience. With that said, you don’t want to go overboard or over budget. You also want to make sure the entertainment is calming and not distracting. A few options include:

Soft music/nature sounds
TV turned to an arts and craft channel
Magazines and self-help books

3. Comfortable Furniture

Have you ever visited an office, only to spend what seemed like an hour sitting in a hard, plastic chair? After being uncomfortable for so long, you probably weren’t in a good mood for your appointment.

Comfortable seating can significantly improve the waiting experience. That doesn’t mean you need to spend a great deal of money on your seating, but keep patients and guests in mind. After all, some people might suffer from back pain or another condition that could be made worse with uncomfortable seating. Look for furnishings with soft but supportive cushions and fabrics that are easy to keep clean.

4. Personal Amenities

Waiting room amenities are a great way to improve the patient or customer experience. Think about it. When you go to a hotel, the first thing you probably look for are amenities like access to a gym, fancy shampoo and lotion, a fluffy robe, etc. While you wouldn’t be miserable without these things, they definitely add a nice touch.

Consider bringing personal amenities to your waiting room like snacks, coffee or tea, hand lotion, wrapped candy, etc. Many appointment-based businesses also provide small items like pens or sticky notes with their logo for customers to take home.

5. Wi-Fi

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine categorized Wi-Fi in hospitals and waiting rooms as a “developmental” standard. And while Wi-Fi in waiting rooms might not be mandatory, it’s something you should consider adding if you haven’t already.

If you decide to offer patients or customers Wi-Fi, opt for a public network (for security reasons) as opposed to giving people access to what your office uses. Display the Wi-Fi name and password somewhere they can be easily seen by guests, like by the sign-in sheet at the front desk.

Having access to the internet ensures visitors are able to go about their day as normal, even while waiting for an appointment. They can email their colleagues, work on cloud-based documents, scroll social media, and text with family or friends.

6. Food and Water

You might be hesitant to offer refreshments in the waiting room. And while there’s always the possibility something will spill, providing food and water can be helpful. This is especially true for healthcare provider waiting rooms, where patients may have to spend hours in the office between procedures or tests.

Keep in mind, we’re not suggesting you cater food every day. Instead, you could have a coffee station, a vending machine with snacks, or a refrigerator filled with water.

7. Real-Time Mobile Alerts

There are plenty of ways you can enhance the waiting room experience. But maybe one of the best ways is to integrate more technology.

For instance, you could have a digital board in the waiting room that shows the order of when people will be seen. This way, if there are four people in the waiting room, each person can clearly see their position without having to ask the receptionist.

Another option is to use real-time mobile alerts that tell patients when they’ll be seen. This is similar to the digital board, but it’ll be automatically sent to the patient’s phone. Some online appointment software offers this feature, so you don’t have to do it manually. This also allows people to wait outside or in their cars.

Providing excellent care should be the No. 1 priority for appointment-based businesses and service providers. That said, they should also consider the patient or customer experience. After all, if a patient or client doesn’t feel comfortable, they might not return for their next appointment. The tips above can help improve the waiting room experience so guests feel cared for and welcomed, no matter what kind of business they visit.

Time is All We Have

By Abby Miller | Time Management | No Comments

When we say time is all we have, we’re not just talking about showing up to work on time every day all year long. Punctuality really means getting to work ahead of time.

Punctuality, or being on time, is essential for workplace efficiency (and especially job interviews), but it might be even more critical for your personal branding.

“You can set your clock by him (or her)” is a phrase not heard much anymore. But it is still one of the most valuable compliments an employee can be paid. With modern technology like smartphones and GPS, it ought to be a no-brainer to make it to scheduled appointments on time. Yet so often, managers complain of workers who are still an ‘a day late and a dollar short.’

With this in mind, here are five compelling reasons why timeliness is a vital soft skill to strive towards.

Punctuality equals time equals efficiency.

Few things scream “disorganized,” like being late all of the time.
While being chaotic in social settings may appear eccentric and odd, it is terrible news in the business.

Employers want to know that their employees are productive, and wasting time looking for files, tracking down client notes, or looking for a missing invoice costs the organization money.
Being organized makes it much simpler to accomplish projects, arrive at meetings, and fulfill client needs every time.

You’re on time: so you’re a trustworthy coworker and employee.

When it comes to job advancement, your personal reputation is valuable.
When your coworkers think you’re on time, they’re more inclined to include you in new and exciting tasks.

After all, no one wants to entrust a crucial project to someone who is prone to miss deadlines.

You improve the image of your organization.

It’s a safe assumption that your boss values timeliness.
Customers quickly lose faith in organizations that do not regularly deliver on time in today’s competitive industry.

Whatever position you play in the supply chain, sticking to a schedule helps maintain your company’s excellent image, which is a benefit for its success – and your involvement in it.

Punctuality demonstrates professionalism and detail-oriented thinking.

Let’s face it: storming into a meeting room five minutes late with papers flying and a sweaty brow isn’t a good image.
Furthermore, you are denying yourself the opportunity to test out beneficial techniques.

Whether it’s a client meeting, a team debrief, or a staff training session, being on time allows you to double-check that you have everything you need (iPad, pencils, agenda, etc.) and go over your notes.
It’s also an opportunity to figure out the optimum sitting location for you – one that allows you to maintain eye contact with the primary speaker while also maximizing your personal visibility so you can make a meaningful contribution.

It’s difficult to be seen as a serious contributor when you’re locked in the back of a conference room, bobbing and weaving amongst coworkers simply to see what’s going on because you arrived late.

Being on time implies you’ll have all of the knowledge you need to finish a project.
Even being a few minutes late to a meeting might result in you missing out on essential data that provide the groundwork for the remainder of the conversation.

You hold your coworkers in high regard.

Few things are more aggravating than having your own fine work sabotaged by a colleague’s tardiness.

With good reason, teamwork is a fundamental driver of modern organizations. Being on time is the fuel that runs the machine. Moreover, workplaces are interconnected; when everyone completes duties on schedule, workflows smoothly across the company.

A snag in one location, on the other hand, slows down the entire line, causing everyone else to suffer.
Setting a deadline for yourself to complete your part of the process on time indicates your respect for your coworkers’ ability to fulfill their own deadlines.

Simple strategies to incorporate timeliness into your personal brand

There are several solutions available to help you reach your aim of timeliness.
A simple written diary note or an alert on your smartphone or computer may serve as a handy reminder of scheduled appointments, phone calls, and deadlines.

Use a time management tool like Remember the Milk or Time Doctor to keep track of your tasks.
Also, avoid attempting to outwit the clock.
Learn exactly how long a task, a meeting, or a phone conversation will take — and manage your time better.
Setting unreasonable, strict deadlines will almost always result in you falling behind.

Allow for unforeseen disruptions by allowing some wiggle room.
It might assist you in maintaining your timeliness without being concerned about falling behind schedule.

Image Credit: Black Ice; Pexels; Thank you!

Time is All We Have was originally published on Calendar by Abby Miller.

5 Ideas for Staying Busy During the Slow Season

By Max Palmer | Time Management | No Comments

For many businesses, the winter months tend to slow down considerably. Unfortunately, a slower season is a reality for those businesses who depend on seasonal tourism in the summer months — or reduced activity due to colder weather, among other things. During this time, the challenge for business owners is finding ways to keep themselves and their employees busy until things pick up again.

If your business has started to slow down and you want to keep productivity high, there’s no need to fret. This list will help get your gears turning as you fill your Calendar with meaningful activities that will boost your business even during a slow season:

1. Start a Deep Clean

Sometimes your business is just too busy to put together a proper spring cleaning. With that being said, now is the perfect time to start a deep clean while you have the time. A clean business space leaves a good impression on customers and creates a better workspace for all employees.

Start by making a list of all the deep cleaning needs to be done. Year-round you’re staying on top of basic cleanings like taking out the trash and vacuuming, but now that there are fewer customers to take care of, it’s time to put in a little extra elbow grease. Carpet cleaning, painting, and digging through old files to see what can be shredded are all examples of deep cleaning activities you can add to your to-do list.

Once you have a list of tasks, use your Calendar to schedule appropriate times to tackle your list. For example, you can schedule times for cleaning between meetings and appointments, or designate the closing hours of each shift for some deep cleaning.

2. Dive Into Your Data

All year you’ve been gathering data. If you haven’t, you’re really missing out on the benefits of data and should start doing so immediately. Assuming you have some data to work with, now is as good a time as any to do some thorough analysis to see how it can improve your business during the upcoming year.

Take a look at all of your data from the past year. This will include sales data, customer data, as well as marketing numbers, and statistics. Can you spot any trend lines that might be of importance? Then, you can use data patterns to try and repeat your success in the coming year.

For example, data gathered from your website might show you that most of your site traffic occurs after five P.M. You can use this information to alter your marketing strategy so that your ads are pushed harder in the afternoon than in the morning. If the data holds true, this should lead to an even more significant increase in traffic and sales growth.

3. Experiment With Something New

If your busiest time of year is the summer, as is familiar with many industries, there isn’t much time to experiment with new things. All of your time and attention is focused on taking care of all the customers lining out your door or flooding your website. However, during a slow season, there’s more wiggle room for trial and error and taking a careful approach to a new experiment.

Let’s say you’ve been wanting to try using video as a marketing tool. There simply isn’t the time to plan out and produce videos for your business during the busy season. This is the perfect time to try out video production now that you’re able. You can even stock up on content to release over the course of the year. Having videos to post during the summer could pay off handsomely for your business.

An off-season or slow season is also a great time to do some product development, try new marketing platforms, or experiment with a new vendor. If things don’t go your way, you have time before the busy season starts to get realigned.

4. Focus on Training

You can fill your employees’ extra downtime with some quality training. Training is never a mistake and will up your business game by better equipping them for when business picks up again and help them feel more capable for any challenge they will face. In many cases, employees won’t pursue this training independently, so take advantage of this time to give them a lift.

Every industry could do with some customer service training. Look up some courses online or look into adding a seminar into your Calendar with a certified instructor. Of course, industry-specific training will always be a good idea, so look into options that fit your organization as well.

Other general training like marketing, writing, and public speaking will also be beneficial. This training will also prepare your employees to take more significant roles within your company or elsewhere. Finally, employees that leave for greener pastures are sure to leave a good word behind in gratitude for your assistance.

5. Run a Promotion

If you really want your off-season productivity to bring in revenue, try and run a special promotion. The holiday season is chock-full of opportunities for promos, such as Black Friday deals, Christmas events, and even a New Year’s special. A great deal can bring in extra customers in an otherwise slow-paced season.

Get creative with the promotions you run. Since business is slow, you can put a little extra effort into the promotions you put together. Just make sure your team is prepared for things to pick up the pace all of a sudden once a promotion is launched.

Just because you’re in a slow season doesn’t mean it has to be a slog. Filling up your Calendar with these activities will ensure you’re staying just as productive as you always do, even if it’s a different way than usual.

5 Things to Consider When Setting Up Self-Service Scheduling for Your Business

By Jon Bradshaw | Scheduling | No Comments

So you’re wanting to add more self-service options for your customers. This is a great idea for a number of reasons. It lightens the workload of your employees and provides your customers with additional flexibility. Appointment-based businesses will benefit from self-service solutions just as much as those in any other industry.

Before you hand the reins over to your customers and allow them to run wild, though, there are a few things you need to consider. Keep these five things in mind when setting up self-service scheduling for your appointment-based business:

1. Business Capacity

How many staff members are available to assist customers on a day-to-day basis? This will help you determine how many appointment slots to include when setting online scheduling options. If you allow people to book an endless amount of appointments, the influx of customers can overwhelm your staff.

Start by listing some important details about your appointment process. What are your hours of operation? How long does the average appointment last? How many appointments can you take at a single time according to your staff list? Do you need to include buffer time in between appointments?

That’s a lot of questions to ask, and there are more you can include, but each one is important when setting up self-service scheduling for your business. Your answers will determine how many appointment slots you make available and what sort of cancellation policy you want to put into place.

2. Cybersecurity

How secure is your network? If you can’t answer with absolute certainty that your security is up to par, then improving it is your first order of business. It won’t matter how many bells and whistles you add to your online appointment experience; customers will steer clear of your business if your data security is full of holes.

There are a number of steps you can take to build up your cybersecurity. Don’t be afraid to overdo it a little if it ensures your customer data remains secure. Install antivirus software, firewall protection, and data encryption to your system. Stay on top of data security practices such as recognizing phishing schemes and screening any third-party companies you might work with.

3. Payment Methods

The purpose of self-service scheduling is to provide additional flexibility to your customers. It allows them to book, change, or cancel appointments at any time of day or night. But don’t limit your system’s flexibility to just time management. While that’s a great perk on its own, you can use your online appointment software to expand your payment options as well.

Customers love convenience and flexibility on payments, and including additional payment methods can bring more people to your online appointment platform. Simply adding PayPal compatibility alongside debit and credit card payments will expand customer options. You can also look at integrating mobile payment apps or even find ways to let customers spend cryptocurrency at your place of business.

4. Customer Support

Once your self-service scheduling is all set up and ready to go, it might take some getting used to. Some customers will get the hang of the new system immediately, while others might need a little guidance their first time around. Smart business owners will prepare their customer support reps to help answer any and all questions regarding online appointment setting.

Make sure to train and equip your employees with everything they need to assist customers getting used to the new self-service system. With the necessary resources, they’ll be able to help every customer get their bearings.

The beauty of self-service appointment setting is that customers can use it outside of business hours. For those times when a customer service agent isn’t available to answer questions, a chatbot can fill in. Adding one of these digital helpers to your website can guide customers through the appointment process and answer frequently asked questions no matter what time it is.

5. Data Collection

We’ve already touched on how important it is to protect customer data. However, it’s also important to recognize the value of the data you do access and how its use can upgrade your business.

Because self-service scheduling is done entirely online, your business’s data-tracking potential is about to hit new all-time highs. The data your appointment software gathers can give you new insights into your customers so you can serve them better.

For example, before using online appointment software, you might not have had a clear picture of your main customer demographics. With the creation of customer profiles, you can get exact numbers on demographic characteristics like gender and age among your customer base. This will help you develop new services and tailor marketing campaigns to the people who will respond most positively.

Adding self-service scheduling will totally transform your business for the better. You’ll be able to help more customers, increase revenue, and create a more efficient workflow all by making this one influential change to your system.