the time is right

As my lovely wife Lorna is very fond of reminding me, any task will take as long as the time available to do it.

If you have an album to assemble and the clients are coming in later this evening, you can be sure it will be finished quicker than if you know they are still enjoying a leisurely cruise round the Caribbean.

So how can you improve your time management? The good news is that it is a habit that simply requires careful and constant evaluation. Most photographers don’t think in terms of a per hour charge for the work that they do for their clients over and above the actual time that they spend with them.

An all too common error being made in photography studios is the hours spent retouching & designing digital layouts. Assign yourself an hourly rate, take a typical wedding album or portrait session, add the number of hours on the computer and then ask yourself are you still making a profit on that job? Many of you work long into the night perfecting each image which while commendable does not benefit the business in the long run and certainly affects the balance you need to survive in today’s world.

Lorna has a cautionary tale from her days working in the fast paced world of computer games software. A deadline was fast approaching for completion of a PlayStation game. The project manager got approval from management to pay overtime and meals allowance so that the team could fit in the extra hours needed to complete the task. Ten working days later he was found scratching his head wondering why he wasn’t moving forward more quickly. He took a back seat and watched that morning as his team arrived. They were tired, having finished at 11pm the previous evening. They took time setting up as they knew they had another long day ahead. He watched as they lost more time fixing up errors that had arisen due to their tiredness. As evening approached, they stopped and took a second meal break preparing for the long hours ahead.

The next day he sent them all home at 5pm and told them to get a good night’s rest and come back ready for a quick shift the next day. Guess what, shorter working days resulted in more productive work! This was due to the fact that they applied themselves more effectively working a 7 hour day, and more importantly, they had the energy to do a better job.

next steps . . .
Look at each of the tasks you have to do on a daily basis and assign a duration to each. For one week, produce a diary of your workload and see if you are working effectively. Leave work at a designated time for each day. If you are working evenings then make an allowance in the morning. Trust me, it works!