Balancing career & family

Rough Notes, Jan 1999 by Boone, Elisabeth

Ambitious and focused, Love knows that efficient time management is the key to both business success and personal satisfaction. In setting up his schedule, he allocates his time to the activities he knows are most productive. "Each month, I try to average:

four networking events

six to eight new business/prospect appointments

meetings with certain larger clients (with others I meet quarterly) two meetings or fewer with insurance company representatives

four to six lunches with clients or prospects and referral sources (in the summer this may be a golf outing)."

Not surprisingly, the word "downtime" has no place in Love's vocabulary. "I do heavy reading on insurance technical issues and in technology industry trade journals," he says. "I eat lunch at my desk and read, and I also read at home, and work on my laptop after the kids have gone to bed." And when he's in the car, he doesn't just drive. "I use my car phone to conduct business so I don't waste time en route to and from appointments." Love also is judicious in his use of the World Wide Web. "I use the Internet for research and education and e-mail links to staff and clients. I've never played a game on my computer, and I don't visit Web sites that aren't useful for business," he declares.

Other time-management aids Love uses are a Daytimer, a Lotus Notes calendar, and e-mail. "I ask others in the office to set appointments for me in the calendar, and I check it several times a day," he explains. "I print the calendar out several times a month and bring it home to Jamie with highlights on any evening events or out-of-town trips. She gives me notes on family events to schedule in my calendar. I write everything in my Daytimer, and I carry it with me everywhere."

Deliberate and meticulous, Love makes full use of his agency's support staff to perform tasks that wouldn't make the best use of his time. "I review clients' portfolios periodically and e-mail thoughts, questions, and instructions to our service and support staff as needed," he says. "Before I do anything, I ask myself, `Is this something a support person can do for me?' I think it's important to be willing to do any task, large or small, but a producer is most valuable to his or her agency when selling, not doing data entry." Love believes strongly in establishing clear lines of communication to help himself and others achieve their business goals. "I communicate to clients, CSAs, support staff, insurer representatives-anyone I work with-what I'm trying to accomplish and how I plan to do it," he says.

Making every minute count

Equally as important as allocating adequate time to important tasks, Love believes, is being able to identify and avoid activities that don't produce results. He keeps an eagle eye out for the common time-wasters many people engage in without even thinking about them. "I use e-mail and voice mail as much as possible. I find it helps me avoid extraneous conversations. I'm good at presentations, so I want to be 'selling' as frequently as possible," he says. "I also try to avoid: