Time Flies – It’s up to You to be the Navigator
By Amanda Galley, 12/29/2019
As marketers and especially media buyers, we have an intimate relationship with time. Our entire world revolves around time; we literally buy and sell time. Our success depends on our ability to capture time at the right price, on the right medium, at the right hour, and geographic location to reach our target audience. Not to mention we must determine the amount of time it will take to produce engagement with, action for, or awareness of our message. The best media buyers have the unique talent for…or is it affliction with…time management.
It’s the end of the year and we’re all reflecting and preparing to crush it in 2020. Below are a few thought starters about time as your popping the champers and finishing the last of the holiday cookies.
1. You control the timeline. This is a superpower that you must use for good: to create successful campaigns for your clients, give your team enough time to do outstanding work, and to keep yourself in productive mode and not panic mode. Controlling the timeline means that you understand the 360-degree view of what you must accomplish and the amount of time you have to accomplish the project. Start by thinking of your campaigns globally vs. the individual tasks associated with each project. You can mill down to the tasks once you have established a direction for your team and yourself.
2. Lead by example. Manage your own time effectively to illustrate productivity and efficiency to your team. Control and balance your schedule so that you have time and space to complete tasks and projects on your own terms. This gives you confidence which echoes out to your team and creates a culture where productivity and innovation can happen without constant chaos and drama.
3. Stay in the driver’s seat. Make time to look at the calendar and develop your plans. Using the information, you have now will not only help you create project timelines that run smoothly, it will ensure you’re prepared to deal with unexpected projects.
4. Build a team that you trust. Inevitably you’ll be overwhelmed with too much to do and no time to do it. Surround yourself with a team that’s empowered to make decisions and take on responsibilities. And trust their judgement. This isn’t simple and takes time to develop. The first step is to maintain consistent and clear expectations along with processes which are followed from the top down.
Time is perishable. That’s true no matter whether you are in the office or at home. The fact is that we all get the same 24 hours in our day. It’s up to you how you choose to spend those hours. That sounds intimidating when you put it into perspective of your whole world. Break it down, figure out what matters to you and what you want to accomplish. That’s the hard part, the hours in the day are already set. It’s up to you to make it happen.
Many thanks to Robert Orben for the fantastic headline.