Time Management Tips for Consultants

By Elaine Biech and Halelly Azulay, Creators of the Building Your Successful Consulting Business online course. More infoat yourconsultingbiz.com.

You can’t save or manage time. We all have 24 hours in every day and 525,600 minutes in every year and time marches on no matter what we do. However, you can enjoy the time you have and manage how you use your time more wisely on tasks.

Begin by identifying the imbalance

Without first laying out your life priorities, it can be hard to create the balance you desire. Geoff Bellman suggests that you identify the three things you value most in life. Next scan your checkbook, bank statement, and calendar. Do your choices align to these three things you value the most? Next ask your spouse, colleagues, close family, or friends what they believe you value the most. Did they choose the same three core values as you? What you learn should help you make better choices.

Align your time to your core values

Consider these thoughts for aligning your time allocation to your core values.

Make work more enjoyable. A big advantage of consulting is your ability to use your time how you desire. 

Make your own rules. You started your consulting business (or are considering starting it) so that you could be your own boss. Begin by telling yourself what your working hours will be. Consulting takes creativity and energy, so draining yourself becomes counterproductive. Of course, sometimes you stay up late or work on a weekend simply to meet a deadline, but that doesn’t need to be your standard. Make rules that put your business in perspective. Tell yourself, for example, If it’s not done by 6:00 p.m., it will wait until tomorrow.

Remember to enjoy the “doing.” Don’t hurry through each project just to get to the next one. “If you love what you do, you may be missing some of the fun! Much of the pleasure may be in the doing. This is what Teresa Amabile has called The Progress Principle – the idea that making small, meaningful progress is what leads to satisfaction more than reaching the end destination. Be mindful. Stay in the moment while you’re working. Savor the progress. This may not curb the hours, but it will make them more enjoyable!

Take time off (even during work days). It is very important to take breaks from your business. Go on vacation, even if it’s a week-long “staycation” spent at home. Invigorate your mind, rejuvenate your body, sleep late, relax, and read something that has nothing to do with work.  

Give yourself unexpected rewards. Breaks don’t have to be planned, either. If you finish with a client early, or your plane lands in the middle of the day, go ahead and go for a walk on the beach at 2:00 in the afternoon to enjoy the flexibility that comes with your line of work.

Examine how you spend your time: Tips for consultants

Where can you become more efficient? Don’t mistake busyness for business. Prioritize deliberately, based on what you want out of life. You can’t really save time, but you can shave time. Try these tips.

• Work on fewer large projects rather than many small projects. With numerous projects, you invest a great deal of time moving from one client to another, getting up to speed, flying from one coast to the other, reminding yourself of all the personalities, and remembering names.
• Invest marketing time wisely. Do a fabulous job on every project. That will ensure repeat business and solid recommendations. Qualify every potential client before writing a proposal.
• Prevent scope creep. This occurs when a project slowly grows larger than the original intent. Unless you are paid by the hour (which we don’t recommend), it will erode your profits and consume your time. Prevent scope creep with clear, measurable objectives and specific, timelines and deliverables. Then stick to them.
• Use templates. Create templates for the tasks and activities you do repeatedly such as invoices, proposals, certain emails, or task descriptions.
• Create an end-of-the-year tickler file. You can make your year-end trip to your accountant easier if you store all the relevant information about what occurred during the year that affect your taxes, legal, and personal responsibilities in one file.
• Protect your time by scheduling calls and emails. Don’t deviate from the schedule. Calls can interrupt your concentration. Stay focused by accepting or returning phone calls at a specific time. Follow the same thinking with email.
• Hire an assistant. As soon as you are able, hire an assistant to complete all the time absorbing tasks that do not require your expertise: booking travel, invoicing clients, planning meetings, or scheduling your social media. It can even be a part-time virtual assistant. (There is much to consider here – we’ll address it in a future article.)

New to consulting? Plan your transition

If you are just starting out as a consultant you will need to plan your transition. Focus on all the important areas of your life: social, family, spiritual, business, and education. Identify how the balance might shift initially and determine how you want it to change and how soon. This introspection process helps you put your time investment in perspective during that tough initial push of starting a business. Things get easier over time, because you establish patterns and become more proficient at using your time wisely.

About the Authors

Elaine Biech and Halelly Azulay are successful consultants with a combined 50 years of experience. Both are leaders in the talent development field, volunteers for ATD, and mentors and coaches for new consultants. They are the creators of the online course: Building Your Successful Consulting Business. Elaine, ATD’s 2020 Distinguished Contribution recipient, has published 85 books, including two classics for consultants: The New Business of Consulting and The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide. Halelly produces and hosts The TalentGrow Show podcast where she interviews legends such as Daniel Pink, Beverly Kaye, Jim Kouzes, Dorie Clark, and others.

Learn more from us every Monday – join our list

Every Monday we share the Consultant Connection with our community of current and would-be consultants. Helpful tips, community coffee chats, and free articles and resources, as well as other ways you can learn from us. Join us! https://bit.ly/ConsultantConnectionList

Here’s what world-renowned consultants say about us:

“How can you save yourself from making costly and painful mistakes as you launch your consulting business? Tap into the practical and proven know-how from two of the best resources out there. Elaine and Halelly bring years of hands on experience that will help you prioritize your precious time and resources and give you practical tools you can immediately use. Their knowledge as business owners who have successfully done what you are trying to do as well as written books about it is invaluable. In addition, they are both great learning designers. That means that your learning experience will be effective above and beyond what you would ever expect. Avoid costly start-up mistakes at all costs. Sign on with Elaine and Halelly to ensure your success.” ~ Ann Herrmann-Nehdi, Author, The Whole Brain Business Book, Board Chair and Chief Thought Leader, Herrmann

“Elaine and Halelly speak from experience. Their new course will, without doubt, help you develop a successful training consultant practice. With nearly 80% of consulting businesses failing within the first two years, you need guidance and advice from top experts within the industry. We highly recommend you embrace this program and learn everything you can from these two very successful talent development consultants.” ~ Patti P. Phillips, Ph.D., CEO & Jack J. Phillips, Ph.D., Chairman, ROI Institute, Authors of The Business Case for Learning

© 2020 Building Your Successful Consulting Business. All rights reserved.