How to Manage Your Time

on August 1, 2022

Time management for entrepreneurs is a dream for many since 24 hours is insufficient. They are continuously juggling multiple balls, including duties to family, friends, business, and, at times, their primary occupations. To be honest, keeping up with all of the responsibilities is difficult.

Some folks seem to have it easier than others. They meet their deadlines on time and manage their personal lives in the same twenty-four hours you believe is insufficient. We studied various entrepreneurs that thrive in time management and distilled eight time management techniques.

8 Top Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

Make scheduling a habit

Schedules are clear strategies that help us manage our time. Scheduling is as easy as making a list of things you want to complete and allocating time to each. Then you divide them into ‘must-does,’ ‘have to dos,’ and ‘want to dos.’

Making a timetable does more than just inform you what you already know; it is a method of mentally preparing yourself for work. When you write down all of the thoughts and duties that are racing through your brain, you free up some mental space. It reduces your anxiety about the duties and encourages you to get started.

Busy at work

Start your day early

“Wake up an hour earlier to live an hour longer,” someone once remarked. An early start to your day allows you to work more efficiently, particularly if your peak performance period is throughout the day. You may do key morning rituals such as eating breakfast and setting a schedule that you typically ignore due to a lack of time.

There is one condition, however: if you want to get up early, you must also sleep early. If you worked all night, you should definitely sleep in since your peak performance time is at night. If you don’t want to do that, take naps throughout the day to compensate for the lack of sleep.

Leverage Parkinson’s law

According to Parkinson’s law, work is elastic and will expand to fit the time-space we have made for it. For instance, if you concentrate for two hours, you may organize your inventory. However, you allow yourself two weeks to do it; thus, it takes two weeks. Deadlines are important, and you may utilize them to your advantage.

Because you are your own employer, you most likely set all of your deadlines. Reduce your deadlines by a couple of hours or by half. You will discover that you will complete your task inside that time frame or close to it.

Forget multitasking, delegate or outsource

People have come to assume that the greatest entrepreneurs multitask over time. That’s how they do so much in so little time. Multitasking implies split attention, which is a formula for error. We have better methods to accomplish more than one thing at the same time, which we term delegation and outsourcing.

You give tasks to a subordinate when you delegate. Outsourcing is the process of delegating work to someone who is not an employee of your company. Delegation is free, but it needs more work from you than outsourcing. In both circumstances, your schedule is freed up, allowing you to concentrate on other work. At the end of the day, you would have accomplished much more than you would have without the assistance.

Avoid procrastination

You don’t have enough time; procrastination deceives you by telling you that you do. Stay away from that liar. The more jobs you put off, the more tasks you’ll have to deal with as they accumulate. As a consequence, you’ll have a lot to work on and only a limited amount of time to complete it. Because the project was completed in a hurry, the result might be a poor yield.

Procrastination may lead to missed chances and missed deadlines. It also causes you unneeded tension since you have to catch up on work quickly. Procrastination is a powerful habit that may need the assistance of friends or specialists to break.

Get rid of time wasters

Time wasters are diversions; they keep you occupied while you accomplish nothing constructive. They may believe you are doing something valuable at times, but the outcomes speak for themselves. Scrolling through piles of emails during productive time is a waste of time. Untimed and unscheduled breaks from work that result in you spending three hours on Instagram are also undesirable. Negative or daydreaming thoughts are also time wasters.

Distractions promote procrastination; avoid them. Remove the distractor that is stealing your attention if you are having difficulty focusing on the work at hand. If it’s your phone or computer, install an app that restricts access to certain applications and websites. You may even put them off or put them aside while deep working.

Say ‘No’ more often

You already have a lot on your plate as an entrepreneur. Avoid taking on additional duties that will put a strain on your capacity to complete your task. Of course, your company isn’t the only thing that counts, so you’ll have to sort through additional chores, demands, and offers. Find the ones that are unavoidable and add them to your calendar while declining the ones that aren’t.

Saying no when something does not fit into your schedule, objectives, or current scenario keeps you on track. It is incorrect to say yes to every assignment that is assigned to you because you do not want to upset others at the price of your health and sanity.

Take breaks

Managing your time entails managing your energies as well. Time passes quickly, and making the most of it requires both mental and physical energy. The Pomodoro method is a well-known time management approach. It encourages taking frequent rests between work sessions.

Taking breaks on a regular basis might help you recharge your batteries. It is also advantageous to the brain to take a quick walk or stretch during your break. It enables it to think faster, enabling you to finish your assignment(s) on time.