This is part two of my earlier post 7 Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs, if you haven’t read that one, now would be a good time to read it.
In addition to those 7 tips, here are 7 more time management tips for entrepreneurs to better manage your time as a busy entrepreneur.
1. Monitor where your time is spent
For a couple of days, try to monitor how much time you spend exactly on everything you do. If you are talking on the phone, reading emails, on Facebook or meeting with clients. After a while, you will see patterns emerging. You might realize that you are spending most of your time on a number of activities. This will allow you to identify time wasters, which we will talk about in the next point.
2. Reduce time wasters
After you monitor where you spend your time, you will be able to identify activities that take a big portion of your day but do not contribute to your productivity, these are called time wasters. The first step in eliminating time wasters is to identify them, there are common ones, but each person is slightly different to the other.
If you notice that you collectively spend hours on Facebook checking what your friends are up to, make a personal rule to only allow yourself specific times to do that activity. Maybe a couple of minutes AFTER you finish a big task. I’m not saying that Facebook is a time waster, if you use it wisely, it can be a very productive tool for your business, but if you just use it to go from profile to another and see what everyone is up to, it’s very easy to lose track of precious time that you simply don’t have.
3. Stop being a perfectionist
For those perfectionists out there, you know yourself. It’s very easy to lose track of time trying to perfect something, maybe a proposal or a document or anything else. The fact is, no matter how much time you spend on it, it will never be perfect, every time you take a second look, you will find things to change or improve. Focus on getting things done, not on getting things perfect. Ask yourself this question, what is the purpose of this task? If the outcome satisfies the purpose, then move on to the next task.
For example, if you are writing a proposal, does the proposal mention the important elements of the project? Like the value of your solution, what will be done, when it will be done, and how much it will cost to do things? If yes, this is probably all the client needs from you. You don’t need to spend hours making the document look perfect or writing an essay to impress the client. I know it’s hard at first, I’m a perfectionist myself, losing that habit is a work in progress.
4. Stay focused on what’s important
With any task or activity that you do, ask yourself this question: Does this contribute to my business? Does it help me achieve my goals? If the answer is yes, it is something worth doing. If the answer is no, then you probably shouldn’t do it. Let’s say you are a designer reading a blog on the latest design trends, it is something that will improve your skills and make you better at what you do, but if you sell financial products to bankers, then reading a blog on the latest design trends is probably not going to contribute to your success.
5. Use templates
If you have repetitive tasks that you do often, then it’s probably a good idea to create templates to use as a base rather than recreating the whole document every time. This works well with proposals, emails, invoices, sales letters and any other document you use often. If it is a process that takes several steps, then creating a systemized approach will help you reduce the time taken to complete the process.
6. Delegate
As an entrepreneur or a small business owner, it is hard not to control every little thing in your business, but at some point, you will have to learn to delegate and trust other people to do things for you. You can delegate certain activities to other people who can accomplish that task while you create more time for yourself to focus on more important matters in your business.
7. Get some rest
What you can achieve during a day depends highly on your physical and mental energy. You can’t perform well if you’re tired and exhausted. Make sure you get enough sleep and rest so your body and mind is at their peak performance.
Hope you enjoyed these time management tips! If you have any tips or comments you would like to share, feel free to comment below. If you like the article, don’t forget to share it with you friends.
