According to the 2021 Small Business Trends survey, time management is in the top five challenges facing small business owners today. This issue is even greater for solo entrepreneurs. You may have spent hours searching for time management strategies yourself only to find them unhelpful. The problem may be that you’re not implementing the right strategies.
So today, we are sharing three highly effective time management strategies that WILL help free up much-needed time so you can focus on the urgent and important tasks in your business, like marketing.
You and Time
[Theresa] Time is a funny thing. Of course, you want more of it. More than likely, you’ve wanted to manage it, stop it, speed it up or slow it down. There’s certainly never enough of it! And it flies when you’re having fun.
No matter how you try to manipulate time though, you still have the same 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week.
[Meghan] Unfortunately, you’re not going to get more time — at least not in the sense of adding a 25th hour to the day. What you CAN do is pay attention to the places where you waste it.
Because we can say with 100% confidence that YOU ARE wasting time every day on things that don’t matter to the success of your business, like marketing tasks that you should dump.
[Theresa] I absolutely agree. The better you are at leveraging your time the more of it you’ll have.
There are several things you can do to manage your time better. The Internet is filled with time management strategies you can try. You’ll find email hacks, calendar hacks, and app-specific hacks you can adopt. These hacks can help you save small amounts of time here and there. While the time you save may seem insignificant, it all adds up. That means you could save hours in the long run.
The better you are at leveraging your time the more of it you’ll have.
[Meghan] However, maybe you need more than small adjustments right now. Perhaps you need to free up significant blocks of time.
So, today we’re sharing three time management strategies that will help you recoup much-needed hours in your day.
But, before we jump into those, let’s talk about what time management IS and what it ISN’T.
What is Time Management
[Theresa] Let’s start there. Time management is NOT getting more work done in less time. In other words, it’s not cramming as many tasks as you can into the smallest amount of time you have.
Time management is NOT multitasking. Multitasking is a total myth and the antithesis to good time management. What I’m saying is that you’ll waste more time than you’ll save by multitasking.
[Meghan] Time management is defined as the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity.
That’s a mouthful! I think the key phrase there is “conscious control of time spent.” It seems like time passes faster than you realize.
But the real question is: are you paying attention? In other words, are you aware of what tasks you’re doing and how long they take you to complete?
[Theresa] It comes down to this. You run your day or your day runs you. Unfortunately, for many, it’s the latter.
When you go through your day with no plan or without controlling the things you can control, it’s no surprise that a lack of time becomes an issue.
Think of time as a bucket of water. Each of these is a hole:
- Unnecessary work (ineffective marketing tactics or tasks that don’t have any identifiable purpose)
- Not prioritizing your work (putting administrative tasks over income-generating tasks)
- Other people’s priorities (interrupting your own flow to deal with someone else’s issues)
- Lack of systems (not creating efficiencies for repeatable tasks or taking advantage of automation)
- Not paying attention (not knowing what you’re doing and why it matters or letting time escape due to distractions)
What you’ve got is one leaky bucket. If you don’t plug those holes, water will continually pour out of it until there’s no more water.
That’s exactly like time. When you don’t identify where you waste it, time will continue to pour out of your day never to be recovered. That leaves you feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and unproductive.
Time Management Strategies
[Meghan] There are many ways to protect your time so that you remain in control as best you can. But instead of sharing 30 of the best time management hacks, we are going to dive into three impactful strategies that have the most time-saving potential.
1) Track and Classify Your Daily Activities
[Theresa] The first of our time management strategies is to track and classify your daily activities! This strategy has the potential to help you reclaim hours of your time! And who doesn’t want that?
But before you can save time, you first have to know how you’re actually spending it. Yet, statistics show that only 17% of people ever track their time. That blows my mind.
Tracking will help you figure out what you’re spending your time doing. That’s the good, the bad, and the unnecessary. Writing down everything you do and how long you spend doing it will be eye-opening for sure.
However, the time-saving opportunity comes in the classification part of this strategy. Specifically, sorting each of your tasks into one of four categories — Dump, Defer, Delegate, and Do.
[Meghan] We already shared how to track and classify tasks in our episode on how to prioritize your marketing tasks. The process is also perfect for tracking everyday work other than marketing tasks.
So, if you’ve ever ended your workday with this phrase, “Wow, I was busy today, but I have no idea what I did” then it’s time to track.
2) Prioritize Your Tasks
[Theresa] The second of our time management strategies is to prioritize your tasks based on your deadlines and goals.
You might be thinking, “of course, I already know that.” OK. But then why aren’t you doing it? There are two problems here.
First, too often, your day begins with someone else’s priority. For example, you check your email and see something from a colleague or client and you take immediate action on it, even if it isn’t an emergency.
Unfortunately, this starts you off in reaction mode where you remain all day long. That is to say, you spend your day dealing with things that are not urgent or important to your business. They certainly aren’t your priorities, nor do they help you achieve your goals.
An entire day spent dealing with someone else’s priorities is a massive waste of your time.
[Meghan] Second, you’re not prioritizing your work at all.
Instead, you do what’s easy or what you enjoy doing just to cross tasks off the to-do list. This makes you feel like you’re making progress, but you really aren’t.
You’re really doing busywork, which just eats up valuable time. Insignificant tasks are often time wasters.
To maximize your time, prioritize your work based on the goals you want to accomplish and the deadlines that are coming up.
For example, say you have an upcoming deadline for a blog post. Plan your research, outlining, writing, and editing into your schedule in advance. Then, focus your time and attention on those activities over things that won’t help you achieve that goal.
[Theresa] Putting other people’s priorities above your own and not prioritizing your own work not only wastes valuable hours in your day but also delays your own achievement. That is an entirely different level of time-wasting.
[Meghan] That is to say, setting proper priorities saves you time and helps you achieve your goals faster.
3) Limit Distractions Where You Can
[Theresa] The last of our time management strategies is to limit distractions where you can.
While this seems like a no-brainer, it’s also something you’re not doing. No judgment from us! We get it. Fighting distractions can feel like an uphill battle sometimes.
There are so many things pulling at you. Add in being unaware of how you’re actually spending your time with poor prioritization, and the threat of distractions winning out increases.
Limiting distractions is an important time management strategy because less distraction equals more time!
[Meghan] We’ve mentioned this statistic in several episodes already, but I’m going to remind you again. Research shows that the average person spends 2.1 hours every day in distraction!
Multiply that by five working days and you’ve got almost 11 hours — wasted. That’s more than a full workday. It’s no wonder you think you don’t have enough time!
[Theresa] Right? Look, we understand that it’s impossible to keep every distraction at bay. But you can manage your distractions to a fairly substantial degree.
Here are a few ideas:
- Be mindful of your cell phone. They are huge distractors. (One of my networking colleagues calls them “income reducers.”) Put it in airplane mode, turn it off or put it in another room when you need to focus. I promise you’ll live.
- Turn off notifications. You jump at everything that rings, dings, chimes, and buzzes. The constant distraction pulls you away from what matters and eats away at your ability to focus.
- Only open websites, programs, and documents needed for the task at hand. This will reduce the risk of getting pulled away into something that’s not important.
- Keep all necessary materials nearby. These might be physical documents or tools needed for a task. Or things you need to be comfortable like a glass of water, a sweater, or a snack.
- Clearly communicate your needs. Whether you work in or out of your home, communicate with the people around you. No one can read your mind. Letting people know when you can’t be disturbed reduces interruptions.
[Meghan] One thing that works for me is to block time on my calendar and schedule breaks for my distractions. Theresa has suggested this before, and I find it works. If my brain knows that in 25 minutes I can check my phone, then it will let me focus for those 25 minutes!
Start Small to Win Big
[Theresa] Oh yes, both the Pomodoro Technique and planning little rewards throughout the day can help minimize distractions – or at least better manage them!
I believe that there IS time for the things you want to and need to do in your business — if you manage your time wisely.
There are oodles of time-saving hacks and tips you can implement that will help you reclaim some of your time. That information is a quick Google search away.
However, we chose to share with you the three time management strategies that will help you free up the most amount of time in the shortest amount of time. In other words, these strategies will give you more bang for your buck.
[Meghan] With that said, we want to remind you to start small. Don’t try implementing all of these strategies all at once. Choose one to start with, implement it, and reap the rewards.
You’d be surprised at how better time management improves the frequency of those messy moments in your business!
[Theresa] We’d love to know what time management strategies you find the most helpful. Tell us in the comments.
If you ever have a question about an episode or want to suggest a topic, please contact us.
AND…click the FOLLOW US button below to get notified when a new episode and blog post launches.
