The Real Learning Experience recommends using the Parkinson’s Law strategy for time management

Do your franchisees get so caught up in trivial tasks that they overlook some of the fundamental activities that are essential for success in your business model? Are you sick of hearing them say ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I’ll do that when I have time’?

Of course, you know that isn’t true. They do have time. In fact, they will never have more time than they do today. What may change is how they choose to allocate their time.

Some people use time as an excuse to avoid the things they don’t want to do – however others, genuinely want to be more productive but struggle with their time management skills.

There is a simple strategy you can ask your franchisees to use that will have a significant impact if they apply it – it is based on Parkinson’s Law: the amount of time you have to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete that task.

Think of it this way: the day you go to work with no meetings or commitments seems like a day when you will finally get to work on that backlog of important and neglected projects. However, very often these days tend to get flooded by incoming calls, emails and interruptions from other people. Somehow, the day gets filled with trivia – activities that keep you busy but that don’t seem to progress you towards the most critical goals and objectives of the organisation

Exactly the same thing happens to the franchisee who goes to work with a clear diary and good intentions. Before they know it, it is 5.00pm and they have been very busy but not necessarily productive.

The key to avoiding this is to block out specific times to work on key activities; this leaves less space for the trivial work to expand in – yet somehow it still seems to get done.

Here is a simple process to apply this strategy:

1. Make sure the franchisee is aware of the key activities that will define success in your business model 
2. Ask them to commit specific times in their diary to those tasks. They should treat these times just as they would appointments with other people – they are commitments and not to be moved except in exceptional circumstances. For example, they may commit every Monday and Wednesday morning to new business development; 2.00pm – 3.00pm every Thursday to completing their weekly report; an hour every Tuesday to doing their business plan; doing one staff performance review every Friday afternoon, etc 
3. One these ‘appointments’ are made, they then need to have the discipline to keep them

Key tasks don’t get done when your franchisees have time – they get done when they decide to allocate time

Simon Thiessen is the CEO and franchisor of The Real Learning Experience , a corporate training franchise company.