Why Kitchen and Bathroom Retailers Should Work Smarter Not Harder

This is much-needed news, as research has found that continually overworking can be counter-productive. A leading psychologist at the University of Surrey specialising in health and stress, Professor Mark Cropley, believes our failure to get the work/life balance right is having potentially devastating consequences.

“Inadequate psychological recovery, or poor disengagement from work, is associated with a range of health problems including cardiovascular disease, fatigue, negative mood and sleep disturbance,” he explains, referring to a study that found men who were unable to mentally relax after work had a threefold increase risk of heart disease. The Japanese even have a name for it: karōshi, or “death from overwork”.

But how do we go about achieving the right balance?

After all, those who run their own business aren’t in the best position to reduce their hours. According to a recent survey by Bizdaq, the UK’s leading business for sale marketplace, business owners work an average of 50.5 hours a week, which is significantly more than the UK average of 37.

Do you know how much time you spend on your daily tasks? Keeping a diary for a short period of time is a good way of finding out. It may sound too simple, but you might be surprised how much, or little, time you spend doing certain things. The amount of time spent on tasks might well change over the course of time, so it’s worth revisiting every year. Only when you’re aware can you look at making tweaks and improvements to your daily schedule.

For any kitchen and bathroom retailer, delegating more responsibility to others can go a long way to enable you to contribute more value. Paperwork and admin tend to take up much of our day—can this work be shared out? Knowing what needs to be done and how long you’ve got for each task gives you more focus. And it’s likely that the more focused you are, the more productive you’ll be. For this to work it’s vital everyone within the team is fully aware of what is expected of them, and that they buy into what they’re doing and why it’s important for the business.

Another question we need to ask ourselves is: Are we spending our time doing what we want to do or what we need to do? For kitchen and bathroom retailers, the most important thing will be selling great kitchens. So when it comes to working smarter completing designs as efficiently as possible is a must, and that’s where 2020 Cloud comes in. If you aren’t familiar with 2020 Cloud, it is the new and innovative way to access catalogue content in your favourite design application, whether it be 2020 Design or 2020 Fusion. Gone are the days of manually installing catalogues. Just start up your application and get immediate access to hundreds of items directly from your application’s interface. All of the items are guaranteed to be up-to-date and are certified to work with your software. You can also quickly and easily find out about new catalogues that are available via the News tab, so you can stay on top of the latest offerings.

We also need to ask: How do I satisfy my customers? Sometimes, doing so seems to require working smarter, harder and longer. And sometimes that is something we are all required to do—the operative word here being sometimes. The main thing is that you enjoy work and know that you’re doing a good job and making progress, without ever feeling overwhelmed by your workload.

But if you are struggling with some aspect of your work or want to learn a more efficient way to do something there is usually help available. Here at 2020, we run a series of informative webinars for kitchen and bathroom designers to learn tips and tricks from 2020 solution experts & industry leaders. So if you want to brush up your skills, or learn how to do something completely new, then check them out and you could learn ways to save precious time.

Seemingly small changes can reduce the amount of time you spend at work. If better time management enables you to get 10% more work done each day, that can make a big difference to your business—it also means you’ll be able to lead a more balanced life.

Have you found a way to work smarter not harder? If so we’d love to know what it is. Join us in the 2020 Community and share your thoughts.

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