An American adviser said he has managed to cut his working year down to just four months, partly by banning all emails from colleagues.
Matthew Jarvis thinks other financial advisers can cut down their time spent in the office considerably by changing the way they work.
Speaking to a room of advisers at a CISI conference earlier this week, Jarvis said instead of internal emails he uses an open online calendar so people can see when he is busy and schedules six meetings a day four days a week when he has to meet with his clients.
Jarvis said: “I don’t allow any internal emails at all, I just delete it, instead we have a weekly meeting.
“The average worker is spending three hours a day on emails.
“We have a running list where we put ideas and questions and any potential solutions. That way when we come into the meeting I am really focused.”
However, Jarvis admitted it is difficult to retrain a team to work this way and said sacrifices were necessary.
Jarvis also said he does not answer unscheduled calls from his clients so he does not get distracted from the task he is working on.
When a client calls the office, he said, they are told he does not take calls but can schedule a call with him another day which he said gives him time to prepare to speak to them.
He added: “When a client calls the office whatever you were working on already gets interrupted. What happens nine times out of 10 is it is something your team can handle.
“The second thing is you are not ready to take that call. In either case, I have done my client a disservice and it has affected my productivity.”
Jarvis was speaking at an event titled ‘Playing office’ and ‘head trash’ knows no borders, at the CISI Financial Planning Conference in Surrey on Tuesday (October 3).
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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