“Working hard, or hardly working?” It’s a cringe-inducing question for sure, but no businessperson should dismiss the logic behind it. As many entrepreneurs — perhaps even you — know first-hand, it’s easy to work hard but accomplish little in areas crucial to the growth of their companies. The phenomenon becomes even more pronounced during recession and other revenue-challenging times, in which shrinking markets or new competition can turn rational business owners into reactionary micro-managers.

The first step to achieving results commensurate to — if not greater than — your effort is to examine whether your hard work and tireless hours can be better spent. But if you’re like most business owners, you’ve probably never considered your personal efficiency as a factor influencing the success of your business.

“I have yet to meet an SME owner who doesn’t have a time-management problem,” says Steve Mitten, a Vancouver-based executive coach. “The problem is that the best use of a CEO’s time changes and moves from a place in the company’s early development where they’re a producer, then they become a manager, and then they have to become a leader. If the senior individual is not strategizing when they hit that final stage, they’re running a reactive business and they’re really vulnerable.”

Not sure if it’s time to redirect your managerial energies into more productive areas of the business? Then it’s time to conduct a personal efficiency audit to highlight your time-management shortcomings or successes.

This audit needn’t be costly or time-consuming — remember, it’s greater efficiency you seek, not a tiresome assessment that will be forgotten about in a matter of weeks. Use these strategies to assess how you’re currently running your business, how you could be spending your time more effectively, and how to change your habits to drive growth and profitability.

Measure yourself: A personal efficiency audit can be as simple as keeping a diary of your daily business activities for one to two weeks, says Mark Ellwood, president of Pace Productivity, a Toronto-based time-management consultancy. “You’ll likely find that your time is probably not going to business-building or revenue-generating activities,” Ellwood explains. “It’s more likely to be on things like administration, operations and internal work.” Understanding how your time is being spent, Ellwood says, is the first step in breaking old habits and establishing new, productive ones.

Analyze and acknowledge the problem: Once you understand how you’re spending your time, it’s crucial to acknowledge any time-management shortcomings and highlight areas where those precious hours can be more valuably applied. Analyze data such as sales figures, staff turnover and customer satisfaction rates to see which areas of the business need more attention. “If your staff is stable and performing well, you might spend more time with your customers,” explains Geoff Crinean, the president of Halifax-based Business Insight Coaching and Consulting. “If a key member of staff has just left, then your time needs to be spent ensuring continuity of service levels or the production of whatever good you sell, which means you’ll need to spend time working in the business.” The main obstacle stopping most CEOs from becoming more efficient, according to Crinean, is habitual pattern — doing the same things for so long that it becomes extremely difficult to change. “I have my clients recognize their habitual pattern, decide what they’d like to do differently so their results will be different, and then I have them develop a plan for what they’re going to do differently and I keep them to that plan,” he explains.

Enforce a change in habit: Mitten says cornerstone of this plan can be as simple as taking 15 minutes at the start of every day to assign priority to your tasks, and another 15 at the end to review what was accomplished and determine why any goals were unmet. Saving some time to assess the day’s work will help you keep a running tab on your progress and eventually change your habits.

However, changing the way you work is a long-term project. An important step in making that happen, says Ellwood, is to learn to delegate duties to staff or outsource them to other firms to free your time to focus on high-priority activities. “You shouldn’t have someone making $100 per hour doing work that could be done by someone making $20 per hour,” he explains. Accounting, tech support, HR and general administration are all examples of areas where tasks that can be outsourced to another company or handled by internal staff. No matter how you change those habits, keep the approach simple — complex structures or complicated technologies that guarantee greater productivity are not the answer, says Ellwood.

Seek feedback: “The biggest adaptive changes,” says executive coach Mitten, “are facilitated through relationships, whether through a colleague, a spouse, an executive coach or an advisory board.” With the latter, he recommends working with your industry association or colleagues to build an advisory board comprised of a diverse group of peers — preferably those who have navigated their own businesses through various stages — to help stay focused on achieving your efficiency goals. There is, however, one important caveat: your support network has to offer blunt, realistic feedback. “You need people supporting you who are going to keep you on course, keep you aware of what’s working and what’s not, and provide a regular reality check,” stresses Mitten.

NEXT WEEK: Organize a team-building outing.