Network marketing time management tips is one of the most popular topics that people want me to speak on.
Time management in network marketing is extremely important otherwise you'll never have the time to work the income producing activities and achieve network marketing success.
But time management is actually a myth because you can't manage time
If you want to be productive, you can't manage time but you can manage
1 ) Your Attitude Towards Time
2 ) What Gets Your Attention
3 ) Your Activities
4 ) Your Responsibilities
5 ) Your Energy
Here are Network Marketing Time Management tips to increase your productivity so that you get more done in less time.
Outline: MLM Time Management Tips
1 ) 90% of Network Marketing Time Management is Attitude!
The reality is you have the time to work the income producing activities and in your business everyday.
You're just letting other things have more importance.
For example,
I know you're busy but if some kidnappers took away your beloved children for a month if you don't send out 10 network marketing follow ups today, you'll magically find the time (and also overcome your fear of rejection) immediately and do it!
or…
If you had to pay a $1,000 penalty everyday you don't post on social media to grow your business, you'll magically find a way to do it.
If the penalty is great enough, you'll organize your day and do what you need to do.
There would be no excuses!
Of course no one will do those things to you and that's why you find yourself doing other things instead of what you should be doing.
Once you understand this, you'll realize that everything is an excuse and a question about your priorities.
2) Treat Time Like Money
Most network marketers treat time the wrong way because we are brought up in an “Employee Environment.”
Everyone knows the saying “Time is Money” but hardly anyone really treats time like money.
Would anyone throw away a random $10 bill out the window for strangers to pick up?
Would you do something crazy like that?
Most likely not!
But people unfortunately throw away their time like it is worthless!
The key to having “more time” is to analyze the small details of how you are spending each second and every minute.
So just like you wouldn't randomly give away $10 here and there…
Start focusing on how your time is spent.
Do you randomly throw away a minute to look at an unimportant email that pops in?
Do you randomly throw away another 3 minutes to check the latest status updates on Facebook even though you just did that 15 minutes ago?
Start treating time and your actions, like money.
The next time you do ANYTHING, think about the time you are “Throwing” away.
3) How Much Money Are You Actually Throwing Away?
If you want to be good at network marketing time management then you'll have to first know the consequences and true cost of your actions.
For example,
You wasted 30 minutes arguing with a negative prospect instead of reaching out to new people.
How much did that 30 minutes cost you?
How to Determine The Value of Each Minute of Your Time
This is how you determine how much your time is worth.
Just like a lawyer and plumbers have an hourly rate, you have an hourly rate as well.
1 ) Determine How Much You Want to Make a Year in Network Marketing
Come up with an amount.
For example, you want to make $120,000 a year.
2 ) Determine Your Hourly Rate and Per Minute Rate
Say you are part time in network marketing and work 10 hours a week and want to make $120,000 a year (that would mean $10,000 a month)
And each month you'd work 40 hours (4 x 10 hours a week)
If you divide $10,000 (monthly income you want) by 40 hours (time you worked)
your hourly rate would be $250 an hour or $4.20 a minute!
That would be what you're worth if you spend 10 hours a week working on the income producing activities.
If you have less than 10 hours a week on your business, then your time is actually worth even more!
Find Out True Time Cost Of Your Actions
So going back to the 15 minutes you wasted arguing with that negative prospect
15 minutes of your time cost you $63! ( $4.20 x 15 minutes)
$63 is a really nice lunch for 2 people!!!
Would you give away $63 to argue with a negative prospect?!
Another example would be spending an hour watching TV.
That wasn't free.
That hour of TV cost you $250!!!
Would you spend $250 to watch that show?!
Once you do this exercise you'll understand the true value of your time and how successful leaders think.
4) Analyze the Details and How You're Spending Your Time
If you want to improve your finances, the first thing they tell you to do is to go to your bank statements and track your spending.
This time management hack operates the same way and you track every minute that you're spending.
The key to having “more time” is to analyze the small details of how you are spending each second and every minute.
So just like you wouldn’t randomly give away $1 here and there,
I want you to start focusing on how your time is spent.
Let's go back to where we just determined your hourly rate was $250 an hour or $4.20 a minute
Do you randomly throw away a minute to look at an unimportant email that pops in?
Oops. That just cost you $4.20!
Do you randomly throw away another 3 minutes to check the latest status updates on Facebook even though you just did that 15 minutes ago?
Darn. That just cost you $12.60!
I want you to start REALLY TREATING Time like Money.
The next time you do ANYTHING, think about the time you are “Throwing” away.
This time management network marketing tip is really effective because it is soooooo shocking!
Action Step: Track Every Activity For 7 Days
For 1 week, go and track every hour that you spend in your life.
A great app I have been using everyday for the last 10 years has been the Eternity Time tracking app.
Once you see how you're actually spending your time, we can then go to the next time management tip in network marketing.
Advanced Action Step: Track Every Minute of the Day
If you really want to have more time ASAP, then do this time management network marketing exercise:
Just like a money spendthrift who wants to change has to analyze how he/she is spending their money each day…
You MUST start analyzing HOW you are spending EACH minute every day.
Do This Time Management For Network Marketing Exercise Today
– Get a piece of paper and timer
– Set timer for every 15 minutes
– When timer goes off, write down on your sheet of paper how you spent the last 15 minutes.
– At the end of each day, look and analyze how you spent your day
– Use the Eternity Time Log app to make things easier for you
Make sure your timer goes OFF. Do NOT cheat!
It may be stressful in the beginning to have a Timer go off every 15 minutes but that is important.
You MUST realize the time that is thrown away.
Just like how you look bank statements, credit card statements, etc, you MUST look at your Time statement to see how money is spent.
By the way, just like people who don't look at their financial statements are poor with money management, people who don't look at their “Time Statement” are poor with “activity management.”
After you do this time management network marketing exercise a few days, you will find yourself more efficient and more conscious of how you spend every minute.
5) The Most Powerful Word in MLM Time Management
Time management for network marketers is learning to say the word “No”
It's the most important word they have to say because life is about endless distractions.
People will always ask you to do things or to check things out.
What Gets Your Attention Will Get Your Time
What gets your attention will get your time and ultimately your money (because time is money!)
Learn to say “No” as often as you can.
Saying “No” to some things (and even to some people) is not a selfish thing…
If you say “No” to requests, that automatically saves you the stress and time to do another task so it's like 2 time management network marketing tips in 1!
6) Say “No” to Something You're Currently Doing
You already learned to say “No” to new things…
and this next time management tip in network marketing is to say “No” to something you currently doing.
Just like with money…
You'll have more money if you stop spending money on something you regularly buy.
Time management in network marketing works the same way.
After you've tracked your time, decide on what you must stop doing or do less of.
You'll instantly have more time to work the business.
7) You Must Create and Schedule the Time
You're never going to have the time you want to work on your MLM business.
You have to create the time!
As network marketers, we have unlimited ambitions but limited time.
We still only have 24 hours in each day.
We don’t get an extra 25th hour or even an extra minute to do what needs to be done.
You must create and schedule the time!
But how do you get more time?
Here are more time management tips for network marketers
8) Plan Your Daily Activities In Advance
“If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail” (Henry Ford)
so make sure you plan out the income producing activities that you must do each day.
If you don't schedule things out,
the only thing that will get done will be nothing!
Things will always come up so that's why each day and hour must be intentional.
Make sure you use a calendar and plan out your day and prospects
9) Plan Out Your Prospects
Another time management hack in network marketing is to plan out your prospects the night before so you don't waste time trying to figure out who to send the invite to or who to follow up with.
Plan things out the night before and you'll get more done in less time.
As you can tell so far, most of the time management tips for network marketing is about attitude and planning.
10) Work the Business in Small Chunks of Time
The reality is that you'll NEVER “have enough time” for your business because something will always come up.
Things never end.
This time management tip in network marketing is also known as working the business in the “nooks and crannies”
These are the 5 – 10 random moments you have during the day that you can squeeze the income producing activities in.
Examples of these moments are:
– Sending out 3 quick messages while waiting for your kids to get out of school
– Get up an extra 10 minutes to post something on social media
– Schedule your chores around your personal development time so that you can attend trainings in network marketing and do chores at the same time
You actually don't need that much time to work on the income producing activities
You just need 15 minutes
But in order for this MLM time management tip to work, you have to create a routine and schedule it into your calendar or else you'll forget and never develop the habit.
11) Create a Routine
Key to being productive and having good time management in network marketing is to create routines
You'll stay more consistent if you can use a set time each day
Create a routine for time management hacks such as working in small chunks of time.
Do the same activity everyday for that time period and you'll develop good habits.
Routines create Consistency!
12) Work the Toughest Tasks When You Have Good Energy
Energy management is a big part of success to your time management in network marketing.
Understand that we have more courage when we have good energy.
Sending out invites or follow up message may be scary so make sure you do those when you have good energy and not when you're tired.
You can do the lower brain power tasks like checking emails and admin work when you're tired.
Save your good energy to work on the income producing activities.
For example, I have the best energy in early mornings so that's why I do my creative work in mornings and save the email checking for later on in the day when I'm tired.
13) Treat Your Business Like a Job
This time management hack in network marketing is about attitude again.
You have to have urgency with your business.
If you treat it like a hobby or “try to do it”, then you'll never make it.
This was a big game changer for me that helped me become consistent and achieve network marketing success.
The time management hack is…
Treat your business like a job!
Once you have that time scheduled in,
make sure you always show up.
Just like you'd show up for a work meeting, you must show up for your business everyday
If you struggle with this, you can create a simple reward for yourself every day you show up for your business and work the income producing activities.
14) Schedule Everything With an End Time
Time management in network marketing is about getting as much of the income producing activities done in as short time as possible.
A common time management network marketing mistake is spending too much time on one of the income producing activities. (For i.e. taking 45 minutes to come up with a social media post)
You over think and then end up doing just 1 thing and never get a chance to meet new people, invite or send follow ups.
This MLM time management tip is about giving an end time for every task.
Don't work on something forever and the easiest way to do this is to use a timer and once the timer goes off you have to stop and move onto something else.
This makes you more productive and also prevents burn out.
The reason this time management hack works so well is that when you set a timer, it creates urgency and we work much faster when we have deadlines.
We work faster and better when there is urgency.
A prime example is when a last minute deadline comes up…
You manage to get the task done within that time span because your focus and actions were set on that deadline and that deadline only!
Urgency prevents one from taking too much time on a task in order to be “perfect” and a perfectionist.
15) Prevent Interruptions
You can't avoid certain things but this time management network marketing tip is that you can create an environment where you can have the peace and quiet to get your income producing activities done.
You can set up a specific time where you tell people you will not be available unless it is an emergency and this MLM time management tip is extremely important if you have downlines that contact you all the time.
You have to protect your time like the way you protect your wallet!
All you need to do to start this network marketing time management habit is set aside ONE HOUR each day where you will not be interrupted.
Do your best to create a routine and set the same time each day and do this every day.
It can be as simple as waking up 15 minutes earlier each day before the kids get up.
Once you set up the time, use it work on the income producing activities.
After 21 days, you will see dramatic results!
5 Simple MLM Time Management Tips to Avoid Interruptions
1) Do not check email or Facebook messages immediately after they come in and the best way to do this is turn off your notifications and set up a specific time of the day where you check emails.
2) Turn off online instant messaging.
3) Do not pick up the phone. (the phone call is not life nor death and you can call that person back in an hour)
4) Do not immediately answer your text messaging. (just make it simple and turn off your phone)
5) Find a place and quiet place where you won't be disturbed
And yes…
Sometimes you cannot avoid the distractions because you may be waiting for an important customer to call, or if the baby needs help.
Stop what you are doing and tend to that matter.
16) Never Multitask
This last time management hack in network marketing is controversial because many of you are busy parents with kids that interrupt you or you have tons of chores going on at the same time.
There are numerous of studies that talk about the negative effects of multitasking and how it affects brain health
Do your best to create an environment where you will not be distracted and you can focus on the task at hand.
You have to limit the distractions and eliminate multitasking all together.
It may be difficult at first but once you start doing this, you will find yourself much more productive and get things done faster.
You increase productivity and can do more in less time when you focus one thing at a time.
Why Multi Tasking Does NOT WORK
Why focus on one thing at a time?
That’s because our brains cannot just leave the project you are working on and then jump back to it and work at the same speed as you were before you had left.
Your brain will require time to warm up again or most often, when you get back to your project, you will forget the great idea you had.
For example:
If your working on your daily business activities, let's say you're in the middle of writing down and planning social media ideas to post… Can you write for 5 minutes and then go reply to a couple of emails, then watch a video about your company and THEN jump back to finishing writing your social media posts and expect to have the same focus and creativity as you did before?
Of course not!
You will need time to warm up to piano again and the time it takes to warm up is TIME WASTED.
Your Brain Can Not Jump From One Task to Another Effectively
It is the same with everything else.
Your brain cannot jump from one task to another without suffering from decrease in productivity.
If you're a parent, it may feel like multitasking is inevitable!
You're not alone, I have 4 boys myself:)
What I mean is, don't multitask your business activities during the small gaps of time that you do have!
For example…
Some of those key time gaps may be when your kid is asleep, or when the laundry is in the wash, etc.
When you have those precious small chunks of time, make sure you focus on one task at a time.
Don't Multitask Different Parts of the Income Producing Activities
There are 5 different income producing activities such as:
1 ) Posting on social media
2 ) Meeting new people
3 ) Sending out invites
4 ) Sending out Follow ups
5 ) Sending Out Presentations
This time management tip in network marketing is about focus on ONE activity at a time.
For example,
If you have 15 minutes to work while kids are napping, don't switch back and forth between sending out invites and follow ups.
Stick to one task and you'll find yourself more productive and get more done.
17) Protect Your Time Like The Way You Protect Your Wallet
If you've ever thought there is a “secret” that the top leaders do that you're not doing, you're probably right.
It's their time management in network marketing which allows them to FOCUS and not be distracted.
Remember that we still only have 24 hours in a day.
More time won’t magically appear.
You have to be proactive and create that time
and the easiest way is to stop doing something you're currently doing that's not helping you reach your goals.
Protect your time, treat your business like a job and say “No” more often.
If you want a MLM Time Management PDF Cheat Sheet to help you, please reach out to me on social media.
Simon Chan is a business coach, podcaster, speaker and best selling author who helps network marketers recruit and build a team by staying consistent with a Simple Online System. Full bio