You know the kind of day that I mean, the ones where the hours fly by while you’re answering calls and responding to emails. We sometimes even look back and think ‘what have I done today?’ If you really know what I mean then don’t worry, you’re not alone! A lot of small businesses struggle with time management.
Many entrepreneurs feel that there are never enough hours in the day and this way of thinking, combined with all the work that has to be done, results in creative ideas being put on the back burner. This is detrimental for businesses, as often those ideas that are waiting on the to-do list are the best ways to drive a business forward. So, what do we do if we don’t have the time?
Well, did you know that 80% of the average workday is actually spent on things that have “little or no value?” That means that only 20% is spent on work that is important or crucial to our business!
If you’re as surprised by this statistic as I was, then you’ll agree that it’s not about having more time to work. In fact, it’s not even about the hours that you put in, but rather what you put into those hours.
Take Back Control of Your Day
The reason time management is so hard is that no one can do it for you. The same goes for other things we find difficult, such as losing weight, as there are no quick fixes or tools that make a lasting difference. It’s all about you taking control and sticking to a better routine. After a time it will become easier, until eventually it’s second nature, and before you know it, you’ve become a time management Jedi!
To help you use your time effectively (because we don’t all have the force), here are a couple of time management tips.
Boosting Productivity With A Good Routine
1. Be Organised
“Busy” can often be mistaken for procrastination, so being organised is the key to efficiency and working smarter. Get into the habit of planning each day. What’s the minimum you want to achieve? What are your hardest tasks? Spending some time in the morning to plan your day will help you prioritise your tasks and by setting yourself a minimum realistic target, you are leaving some room for the urgent business that pops up unexpectedly (which it almost always does).
By nature, we have a tendency to leave the hardest or longest tasks until later. The problem with this though is that it often comes to the end of the day and this task gets pushed until tomorrow. These jobs are often ones that are more important to your business, so prioritise accordingly and tackle them first thing. Often, we are more focused and able to take on harder tasks in the morning, so why spend 4 hours on something later that could take you 2 hours now?
2. Change Your Mind-Set
In order to work better, you need to understand yourself and be brutally honest. How much time does it take you to do a particular task? What do you waste most of your time doing? It might be something as simple as checking your emails or social media too often, but until you identify what you’re really spending your time on, you can’t work smarter.
As well as logging your time and tasks, you also have to become more self-aware. Ever spent hours on a simple task that should normally take you one? We all have, which then leads to frustration and a stubbornness that makes you carry on working. This is a really bad habit to get into as these tasks take even longer when they shouldn’t. If you learn to recognise when your emotions are getting the better of you, you will be more able to stop and take a break or move on to something else. When you then come back to this task, you will be more focused and able to complete it quicker.
Planning will help a lot with this but I’ve also found that it has a lot to do with personality. Whether you’re a bit negative, a perfectionist, or the type of person that likes to do everything yourself, our personality traits can sometimes limit us. Learn to be positive and reward yourself when you’ve done any task, no matter how easy or insignificant you might feel it is. If you are struggling with a particular task, ask someone for help or outsource it to an expert. If you delay projects because it’s not amazing, don’t strive for perfection, just get it started!
3. Eliminate Distractions
You know those time-wasters that you’ve identified? Now you need to eliminate them from your day! If it is emails or phone notifications, turn them off. If it is lengthy meetings or phone calls, organisation and planning will help you to cut these down. Most of the time, by you simply taking charge, knowing what tasks you have in the day and what you want to get out of them, your mind is more focused and not prone to distractions.
When you’ve done everything you need to, you’ll soon find that your breaks become that much more enjoyable and rewarding.
4. Make Time for Exercise
I’ve read time and time again that you need to exercise in the morning to have a productive workday. However, as I’m a real person who prefers to sleep right up until it is absolutely necessary to get out of bed, it would be hypocritical for me to recommend this.
In my experience, exercising at the best time of day for you is the most beneficial. Some people wake up energised and work best in the morning while others might need that burst of endorphins from exercise to kick-start their day. Whichever works best for you, just make sure you try and exercise regularly in the week. It’s not that difficult (much easier than moving a spaceship with your mind!) and it really does make a difference to your work and your mindset. Trust me when I say, we will all be making better decisions for it!
5. Outsource and Delegate the Time-Consuming Tasks
Again, this might be another mindset that you have to overcome. If you often spend a lot of time trying to learn how to do something or doing time-consuming tasks such as social media marketing, now is the time to stop. Why waste hours doing something that someone else can do in 20 minutes?
From now on when you approach tasks, try to be thoughtful. Ask yourself how important this task is to your business, and if it is important, how can you do it more efficiently? If you can’t do it quicker, pay someone who can. By outsourcing and delegating time-consuming jobs, such as blog writing, marketing, book-keeping or administrative tasks, you will have more time to get back to your passion and do what you do best.
Many business people struggle with time-management and, without realising, their business suffers. Managing your time isn’t about squeezing as many tasks into the day as possible or even about working harder, it is about simplifying your work, doing more valuable tasks faster and relieving stress. If you have great ideas that are slipping further down the priority list, outsource time-consuming jobs and with your new free time, put them into action! If you are working smarter, soon your business will thank you for it.
When you put these essential tips into practice, you will have graduated from young apprentice to Jedi master! Now is your time to use the force and reap the rewards!
What I Do for Small Businesses
If you need help with blog writing, social media and keeping in contact with your clients via email marketing, feel free to contact me for advice or further information. Let me give you time to do what you do best.
Becky Rogers
