How to Manage Your Time- Top Tips That Work for Entrepreneurs
For many entrepreneurs, time management is a fantasy, because 24 hours just isn’t enough. They are constantly juggling so many balls – obligations to their family, friends, business and sometimes their main jobs. Quite frankly, it’s tough to keep up with all the obligations.
However, some people seem to have it easier than others. They hit their deadlines regularly and keep up with their personal life within the same twenty-four hours you think is not enough. We looked at several entrepreneurs who excel at time management and culled 8 tips to be a better time manager.
8 Top Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs
Make scheduling a habit
Time management begins with concrete plans we call schedules. Scheduling is as simple as writing down a list of things you want to do and assigning time to each. Then you go further to organize them into ‘must-dos’, ‘have to dos’ and ‘wish to dos.
Creating a schedule does more than tell you what you already know, it is a way to prepare your mind for work. When you write down the many ideas and tasks swirling around in your head, you free up your mind somewhat. It makes you less anxious about the tasks and prompts you to get started.
Start your day early
Someone once said, “Wake up an hour early to live an hour more”. An early start to your day gives you more working time especially if your peak performance period is during the daytime. You can do important morning rituals like having breakfast, creating a schedule that you usually skip because there’s not enough time.
There’s a caveat though, if you want to wake up early then you need to sleep early as well. If you stayed up all night working, because your peak performance time is at night, you should probably sleep in. If you don’t want to do that, make sure you take naps throughout the day to make up for the lack of sleep.
Leverage Parkinson’s law
Parkinson’s law tells us that work is elastic and will stretch to fill up the time-space we have created for it. For example, if you focus for two hours, you could sort out your inventory. But you give yourself two weeks to do it and so it takes two weeks. Deadlines matter and you can use that to your advantage.
As an entrepreneur, you are your boss so you probably decide all your deadlines. Start cutting your deadlines by a couple of hours or in half. You will notice that you will get your work done within that time or close to the reduced deadline.
Forget multitasking, delegate or outsource
Over the years, people have come to believe that the best entrepreneurs multitask. And that’s how they do so much in so little time. Multitasking means divided attention, and that’s a recipe for mistakes. Well we know better ways to do more than one thing simultaneously, we call them delegation and outsourcing.
When you delegate, you assign duties to a subordinate. Outsourcing is taking the task to a professional who is not your employee. Delegation is free but requires more effort on your part than outsourcing does. In both cases, your schedule gets freed up and you can focus on another task. At the end of the day, you would have achieved a lot more than you would have without the help
Avoid procrastination
You don’t have enough time, procrastination lies to you when it says you have more than enough. Avoid that liar. The more tasks you put off, the more tasks you’ll have to deal with since they keep stacking up. As a result, you’ll have a lot of things to work on and a limited amount of time to do them. Because the job was done in a hurry, the consequence could be a low yield.
Procrastination may cause you to miss out on opportunities and deadlines. It also makes you suffer unnecessary anxiety from having to catch up with work in a hurry. Procrastination is a pretty strong habit, so you might need help from friends or professionals to kick it.
Get rid of time wasters
Time wasters are distractions, they keep you busy doing nothing productive. Sometimes they feel like you are doing something worthwhile but then the results speak for themselves. Scrolling through mounds of emails during productive time is a time-wasting activity. So are untimed and unplanned breaks from work that end with you spending three hours on Instagram. Daydreaming or negative thoughts are also time wasters.
Distractions aid procrastination, be wary of them. If you struggle with keeping your attention on the task at hand, get rid of the distractor stealing your attention. If it’s your phone or computer, get an app that will restrict your access to certain apps and sites. You can even put them off or away while you are deep working.
Say ‘No’ more often
As an entrepreneur, you already have a lot on your plate. Avoid taking on extra obligations that will weigh heavy on your ability to get your work done. Of course, your business is not the only thing that matters and so you must critically sieve through extra tasks, requests and offers. Find the inevitable ones and add them to your schedule and turn down the ones that are not essential.
Saying no when something doesn’t fit into your schedule, goals or present situation allows you to stay on track with your goals. It is wrong to say yes to every task that comes your way because you don’t want to offend people at the expense of your health and sanity.
Take breaks
Managing your time is also managing your energy. Time goes by fast and you need both mental and physical energy to make the most of it. The Pomodoro technique is a popular time management practice. It emphasizes regular breaks in between work periods.
Taking a break periodically helps to rejuvenate your energy. Taking a short walk or stretching during your break is also beneficial to the brain. It allows it to think more quickly, allowing you to complete your assignment(s) on time.
Conclusion
If you want to manage your time better, don’t wait until later to start putting these tips into practice. There is no better time than now to begin.