What small business owners should know about time management

Most small business owners start by thinking they need to get really busy and find a ton of customers but they end up taking way too long to do just a few tasks, getting super stressed out and quitting after a year or two. This is where time management comes into play.

The importance of mastering time allows you to stay relaxed and get a lot done. Or more importantly doing what you need to get done in a certain amount of time.  It begins to feel natural, just Imagine if you could control your time and finances so perfectly that you achieved work life balance and energy to enjoy life. It may seem far fetched but with a good time management plan some software and the ability to delegate tasks you may find yourself with more time and more energy to enjoy life as you see fit.

Here are a six professional time management tips

Prioritize. When faced with never ending tasks, make a list and prioritize. It’s business, always do what makes money. If the orders are flying in put less of a priority on certain things that don’t need to happen right away. The way to think about this is to break it down into years months weeks and days. For example, if you are making your products but the phone keeps ringing don’t answer the phone every time it rings. Hire someone to answer it for you, or if you can’t, check your messages at lunch and call people back. This type of thinking and planning will save you loads of time.

Make time. Set a schedule for your business and stick to it. This means cutting out all other things not related to business and preferably the things that make money. As a small business you need to stay focused on the process you use to make money, that means you need to be doing that process only. Go on a strict media diet, don’t make personal calls or anything that will eat up the day before your tasks are completed. One of the best ways to make time is to delegate tasks. Which is faster having one person move all the boxes or three people. Sometimes, a task is faster or it can be slower with two people they can lose focus and start chit chatting. The idea is to work and make money not just work harder and faster. This will cost you the most time. People need to rejuvenate through relaxation and eating and enjoying life. If we push ourselves too hard, we lose our health and then we can’t work. This is the ultimate loss of time. 

Go hi-tech. We now have multiple choices for software that tracks the time. The software keeps track of time that it takes to bill customers, clock in and clock out without punch cards. Time management software can also be incorporated to be used with project management software.

Bullet journals

A bullet journal is a notebook that helps you stay organized. The system organizes scheduling, reminders, to-do lists, brainstorming, and other organizational tasks into a single notebook. It helps build good habits. They help work seem more manageable by giving you a visual of the workload at hand.   

The Pomodoro technique

This technique maximizes brainpower. It’s simple yet quite effective. Set a timer for 25 minutes. This is the time that you will be productive. After 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break. This allows the mind to relax and when you return to work you will be able to hold your concentration for longer. I did this in university after consulting with a psychologist and my grades went up a whopping 20%.  I studied half the time as normal. Before that I would try to read for one hour and probably could not concentrate after 25 minutes, therefore wasting 35 minutes.

Pareto analyses

The 80/20 principle that 80% of your businesses value comes from 20% of the work you do. Try to separate the activities that have the most impact on your business. These may change over time but the activities that impact business success should be your priority. Most business owners spend more time doing day to day tasks rather than long term strategy and planning. In other words, leave the daily tasks for your employees and focus on the tasks to help your business succeed.