Time is Your Most Valuable Asset (2024)

There’s a reason why most successful people agree that time is their most valuable asset: Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. Unlike money, you can’t earn more time.

Here are five ways how I try to get time back during my workday:

1. Create a Daily Plan. Do it in the morning or even better, the night before. When I plan out my day it gives me a good idea of how my day will go, and what I need to get accomplished. I am less likely to get caught off guard or get distracted wasting time on less important tasks. It is rewarding to delete items from my daily plan. There are several free “task” apps that make it easy to create your own daily plan.
2. Focus. Do you feel like you are multitasking so much that you’re just not getting anything done? If so, focus on just one key task at one time. If you have a lot of tasks on your plate, determine your priorities and allocate enough time for each task. That way you can work on what’s urgent first and have enough time to complete the rest of your tasks. Close off all the applications you aren’t using. Close tabs in your browser that are taking away your attention. Focus solely on what you’re doing. You’ll become more efficient this way.
3. Track Your Time Spent. When you start to track your time, you’re more aware of how you spend it. See what tasks are taking the majority of your workday. Clockify is a great tool to help you track your time. Look for innovative new technology that can help eliminate any manual processes that are taking the bulk of your time.
4. Cut off When You Need To. I have found that keeping meetings to their scheduled time is essential. Don’t be afraid to notify those in your meeting that there are 10 minutes left in your allotted time so that you can wrap things up. Otherwise, there’s never going to be an end and meetings will just cut into your time for other necessary tasks.
5. Utilize Technology. There are many technology resources to help maximize your time efficiently. You can video conference meetings eliminating travel time. Effective emails can oftentimes replace the need for time-consuming meetings. Shared online drives can ensure that all of your team members have access to the files they need to get their jobs done wherever they are working from. This is only starting to name a few of the recent innovations that have improved my productivity.

In business, we waste our time by doing what we have always done, the way we have always done it. We often get bogged down in manual processes that could be streamlined through innovation and technology. Compliance responsibilities can become overwhelming, frustrating, and stressful because the workload for supervision is continually multiplying.

Today’s regulatory environment is one that supports innovation and encourages financial organizations to rely on technology to effectively execute a compliance program. FINRA’s newly formed Office of Financial Innovation is an example of this.

For over a decade SiteQuest Compliance has been the partner of choice when it comes to internet supervision and website monitoring. Our automated applications on average cut our clients’ workload by 80%, eliminating time-consuming manual processes, automating notifications and reports, and streamlining workflows.

How do you want to get back your time? Contact me today, and I will personally show you how our applications will work for you and your firm.

One of our clients stated: "The Eagle Eye application has been a force multiplier in my firm’s supervisory scheme. This simple tool has transformed my internet surveillance sweep process from a time-consuming, multi-day enterprise where I view the same search results over and over to a simple process that can be completed in a couple of hours."