When I think of good “time managers,” I don’t think of design showroom managers.

Many of the managers I’ve met at design center showrooms, in fact, make poor use of their time. They work hard, but they don’t work smart.

That’s why they’re more “busy” than they are profitable.

Which is why I thought of showroom managers when I read a book recently titled “Getting Things Done”

• The Master of Disguise release

by David Allen.

Allen suggests you put all tasks into one of three categories:

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs full

1/ Do It Strays buy : take action yourself if the task can be done in 2:00 or less

2/ Delegate it: assign a task requiring more than 2:00  to someone else, if they can do it better.

3/ Defer it: this applies to a task for which you’re the right person, but which will take more than 2:00 of your time.

Speaking of showroom managers — and time — they’d be better off focusing more on current rather than prospective clients.

I’ve cited these numbers before: the long term value of each client is more than 100 times the value of a single transaction. And it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.

When showroom managers think of time, they should think of “Now.”

And they should remember that yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promisory note, but today is a blank check.

How to master your time and maximize your profits is the theme of our new audio program, Work Less,  Earn More .