Time Management and Productivity Boosting Tips for Recycled Plastic Trading

Using your time efficiently is crucially important in the business world – no matter what other strengths and competitive advantages your business might have (or lack), we all have the same number of hours in the day. The better job we can do of maximizing our time, the more likely we will be to achieve maximum success. Think of all the days where you wish you had more time in the day. Think of all of the things that you need to get done in the morning. Sometimes you even feel overwhelmed and it seems as if you will never get everything accomplished.

At BlackBridge Investments we have developed a unique approach to time management that everyone at the company uses to manage our workdays: we break our time into four blocks. We schedule our day into two segments that we call: “A-Time” and “B-Time.”

During A-Time we are on the phones calling up clients, working in order from the most important and time sensitive tasks of the day to lower priority matters. The first A-Time Block segment lasts from 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. This is the time where most people on the East Coast are likely to be responsive to phone calls.

During B-Time we organize our tasks, emails, and add freight rates to our internal system. These tasks are done from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., which gives you enough time to eat lunch. The main thought behind scheduling B-Time for this timeframe is that everyone is eating lunch at this time on the East Coast, so people tend to be less likely to pick up the phone at this time of day.

The second block of A-Time spans from 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. You guessed it – this is the time of day when we PICK UP THAT PHONE! Again, we use this time block to call the most important and time-sensitive tasks first and then we gravitate towards cold calls to generate new business. This is also the time block where the West Coast wakes up, so now you can focus on all of your West Coast deals and relationships.

(Also at 3:30 p.m. we have a little “music break” where we play a song in the office to boost morale and give everyone a little boost of energy.)

Finally, it’s B-Time again which means the day is wrapping up. This final block spans from 5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. This doesn’t mean you stop working, but I like to put some music on and get organized: set up my tasks for the next day, input the rest of my freight rates, and answer more emails. This prepares you to jump into the next day and close those deals you have been wanting to complete.  

In conclusion, managing your time effectively can help increase productivity, lower stress levels, increase organization, and make you more appealing to work with. Of course, every day isn’t perfect and you might need to answer some urgent e-mails in A-Time. But, it is a good structure that helps our company to impose some order on the workday while boosting productivity. I hope that whoever is taking the time to read this will actually implement this into their day or at least give it a try.

What formal process, systems or structure do you use to organize your workday? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!