Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

Proper time management has proven to help entrepreneurs become more productive.

It helps to plan out your days, weeks, months, and even years. It is a crucial component to goal setting and accomplishing your work and growing your business. There are some business owners who can succeed without time management techniques, but that doesn’t happen too often.

It’s always best to have a plan in place to monitor your progress and continue to grow your business.

Here are 5 time management tips for entrepreneurs:

1. Be Proactive

When you take on tasks, make sure you are proactive in getting your work completed. Project all the components you will need and the people you will need to contact. Try to incorporate these outside influences into your time management plans.

2. Be Realistic

Too many entrepreneurs list everything they would like to get done without consideration to how much will get done. This can cause stress when continuing in this manner. Be realistic about what you list as your tasks. One sure way to determine if you are trying to accomplish too much is to evaluate how much is left unfinished each work day on your task list.

While it’s easy enough to transfer the previously uncompleted tasks onto your current list, psychologically it is better to try to complete everything on your list for the day. This may mean taking some items off your task list. This can be a challenge if your manager requires you to get those tasks completed. You need to negotiate with your manager to either delegate extra tasks or get permission to put some items off.

3. Time Management Can Help When Understaffed

Most small business owners are trying to grow their business on a limited budget.  This can leave your existing staff (or you) with a shortfall in help to get the work done. This can require you to do more work than you can handle. Coming up with a plan and setting goals will help you manage this shortfall in time and resources. When you plan out your tasks, you can better see what needs to get done, even if it is more work than you feel you have time for.

4. Goals Can Help Obtain Resources

If you set realistic goals for yourself, it may be easier for you to get more resources to help you complete your work. This can include hiring resources. Many entrepreneurs use a VA to fill in gaps as they don’t hire on a full-time employee. They also can be let go at any point when they are not needed or aren’t working out.

5. Stay Focused

Sometimes entrepreneurs can get off track from their goals. If you stay focused on what is important, wandering will happen less often. It’s much easier to stay focused when you have a plan in place. In addition to the time management tips for entrepreneurs I’ve mentioned try these actionable tips:

ACTIONABLE STEPS

1. Evaluate your goals for the next six months. From those goals, create a weekly planner. At the beginning of each week, create tasks lists for each of the days in that week. Include any dependencies as part of your plan, i.e., other people or companies you may need to contact, etc.

2. Set aside time in the morning and time in the afternoon to handle emails. Most people handle their emails as soon as they receive them. A better method is to set aside some time, once in the morning and once in the afternoon to handle your emails.

Let people who contact you often, know that this is how you are going to handle your emails going forward. When you schedule time for your emails, you free up your time to get work done on other, more important tasks.

Be strict about following this schedule. If someone needs you to handle something important, they can call you on the phone.

3. On a monthly basis, evaluate your weekly and daily plans (Item #1) to see how well they match the longer-term goals you set up for yourself.

Being an entrepreneur doesn’t have to mean you are alway overwhelmed with an endless to do list. With these time management tips for entrepreneurs you can take control of your time and feel in control of your business. And that is why being an entrepreneur is awesome – YOU make the rules and do it your way.

Here’s to creating the business + life you LOVE!