Chances are some of these power hour tasks may not even be on your to do list.  Sometimes it takes some brainstorming and being away from working “in” your business to develop the innovative ideas your need to move your business forward.

To make Power Hour the most effective, schedule it on your calendar on at least a weekly basis (a few times a week would be better).  The entire hour should be uninterrupted and free of phone calls, email, and current clients.

Power Hour should NOT include:

• Doing billable work for current clients.  This will bring in income, but it will not move your business forward like higher-payback ideas.
• Checking email.
• Answering unscheduled phone calls.
• Putting out fires.
• Routine marketing work, such as going to a networking meeting or creating a web site.
• Administrative work or work that falls into your overhead bucket.
• Supervising employees.

We all keep very busy in our businesses, and if we don’t take the time to occasionally stop and take stock, we often become distracted working on things that are urgent but not important.

The things you do in a Power Hour should be a little bit (if not a lot) scary to you.  In fact, that’s why we put them off.  But they’re the exact things that will allow our business to really take off when we make the time and face our trepidations.

Some of the things you can consider that would go into a Power Hour:

• Identifying power partners that you can make major deals with to bring in substantial contracts or clients.
• Developing new revenue stream ideas.
• Developing human performance skills such as speaking, writing, or negotiating.
• Working with a coach or doing homework a coach gives you.
• Doing a survey to see how you can look for new ideas for new service lines to serve your customers better.
• Going after leveraged reputation-building opportunities, such as speaking to 1,000 ideal prospects or appearing in the news media.

What can you do that is going to bring in a significant amount of business across a multiple number of clients?  If you think of some things, make a note right now.

Power Hour also brings perspective.  It allows you to slow down and examine all of the tasks on your list to see what may not make sense to do.  As your Power Hour ideas take root and produce revenue, you may very well be able to delete some items on your to-do list that are less profitable.  That will free you up so that you’re working less and making more.  In effect, you’ve just given yourself a raise by implementing Power Hour.

Try Power Hour for a month and see what happens in your business.  If you’re already doing some form of Power Hour, formalize it, expand it, and leverage it so that you’re benefiting even more.

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Is there truly a way to find an extra hour each day?  Yes, there is, and here are five tips you can put in place to reduce the feeling of overwhelm, free up time, and feel more in control of your business.

1.    Get stuff done off prime time. 

Most people drive to work between 7 and 9 and come home between 4 and 6.  Save yourself 15-30 minutes per day or more by coming in before or after the rush.

Apply this same idea to your weekly errands or times when you need to stand in line.  Go to a restaurant a little early (or late) to avoid the busiest times.   Go to the grocery store during the week instead of on Saturday.

Doing this for 10-12 errands per week will save an hour a week or more.  Combine that with the time you’ll save in rush hour, and you could save as much as three hours a week using this idea.  Even if you can apply this idea to only one or two days a week, you’ll still be ahead of the game.

2.    Delegate clerical or personal tasks.

Make a list of all the tasks you are doing that a minimum wage earner could do, and hire a college student for a few hours a week.  You’ll benefit from systematizing the tasks you delegate – they will get done more efficiently – and you will have freed up a few hours a week once your worker is trained.

3.    Practice Power Hour.

Carve out one hour a day to complete the most profitable task for your business.  This might be making sales calls, meeting with a power partner, or designing a new service or product to offer clients.  It’s best if it’s the first hour in your day.  In any case, the time should be sacred, with no checking email, no answering the phone, and no texting.

Your business will really accelerate when you make Power Hour a regular practice.

4.    Check email and social media less often.

Turn off automatic send and receive in your Outlook or email application.  Instead, close (yes, close!) your email application for most of the day.  Check it only at 8am, noon, and 4pm. When you can break the addictive cycle, you will have fewer interruptions, be able to focus, and do higher quality work.

Likewise, if you need to spend time on social media, set a timer before you start.  When the bell rings, that’s it! Get back to work.

5.    Nail your time wasters. 

The only real way to determine where your primary time drains are is to track your time, minute by minute for a couple of days.  When you review the log, you’ll be able to see what’s going on and what you can do to prevent time from slipping through your fingers.

When you can use your time wisely, you’ll not only get more done, you’ll get the things done that matter to you.

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Bookkeepers generally charge by the hour so the additional time it takes them to sort and categorize your paperwork will end up costing you more than if you’d spent a little time organizing your paperwork.

Also when a bookkeeper only looks at your paperwork once a year it can be difficult to answer questions about specific expenses when so much time has passed by.  This may mean missing out on an important business expense because you can’t give an adequate explanation for it.

Not only that, but most businesses typically must submit remittances to the government either monthly or quarterly.  If your information is kept in a box, this makes getting reports in on time that much more difficult.

Furthermore, business owners who use shoebox bookkeeping have no idea how they’re doing financially throughout the fiscal year.  They can’t tell if they’re spending too much or bringing in enough revenue to make a profit.  They tend to judge their finances by the balance in their bank account, which doesn’t take into account monies owed by them or to them.

So if you are a small business owner who is using a shoebox bookkeeping system, you really need to consider whether this is saving you money or whether it’s time to find yourself a freelance bookkeeper.