10 Time Management Tips for Insanely Busy Startup Owners and Entrepreneurs
Time is limited! Time is finite! Time is Money!
We all have 24 hours a day, and we cannot have more for ourselves. Be it for our work or for doing some fun activities with our family and friends; we just cannot stretch a day more than 24 hours.
So, the idea is to thoughtfully distribute your time among all the activities and make it simple yet more productive. You don’t have to cramp up too many activities in one single day; rather, you need to simplify your work based on your energy level. In fact, your energy level will decide your productivity. Therefore, you need to streamline your work based on that. Only this way you can accomplish a lot of work without running out of time and burning too much energy.
Being an entrepreneur is indeed not an easy job. Every day we need to take care of hundreds of things on our own. Amidst all this, how can you spare some time for yourself or efficiently manage it to become more productive and eventually more successful?
This is what this blog post is all about.
Here, I will share ten time management tips for entrepreneurs, which can help you become more prolific. Besides, these will also spare some time from your busy schedule to pursue something you truly love.
So, let’s get started.
Use the Ivy Lee Method
The Ivy Lee method was originated by a productivity consultant named Ivy Lee. Back in 1918, he helped Mr. Charles M. Schwab, the then president of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, to become insanely more productive.
Believe it or not, the method seems too simple to follow, but there is a scientific act behind it, making it so effective.
How does it work?
Firstly, just before you finish your day’s work, wrap up and go to your home, give yourself five minutes. Take a piece of paper and write down the six things you wish to do the next day.
Make sure to arrange them according to their level of priority.
The next day, when you come to the office, start with the first task on the list and don’t jump on to the next one until you are done with the first one.
Now, your goal is to complete the tasks in the list by the end of the day and write a new list of six things to do the next day.
I know; it sounds so simple that it hardly seems effective to manage your time. However, trust me on this and follow this method for a while; you will see the difference yourself.
Delegate or Outsource Task
Just because you are an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you need to do all the work by yourself. Instead, to effectively use your time, you should always delegate the tasks to others who can impeccably complete them for you on time.
There is no point in trying to manage everything on your own. Rather by segregating the tasks, you will be able to focus on the ones that really need your attention.
You may think that this might incur more risk as the person may fail to perform the task properly.
However, you can avoid this possibility quite easily, simply by maintaining a few steps.
- Firstly, you need to assign the job as per the designation. You cannot just delegate the job to anyone or everyone. Outsourcing also requires you to judge the competency of the professional.
- You need to give a clear set of instructions to the professional to whom you are delegating the work. This will make it easier for that person to perform the task, and you will face zero hassle.
- You should also define the success quotient for the job. Simply state what you expect from the job, and it will help the professional carry out it more efficiently. Clarity of communication is essential is here.
Set a Time Limit for Everything
We often run out of time because we fail to put a time-bound for the tasks we undertake. For entrepreneurs, it becomes exceedingly difficult since they constantly get bombarded with various sudden activities that might not get included in their daily worksheets.
However, you will have no option but to cater to all that. This will often eat up your precious time that you kept for doing some other much more important things.
So how do you get rid of it?
Well, it’s simple, actually.
You simply have to put a time limit to all the scheduled activities and maintain that strictly. Like, make a list for yourself. Plus, keep an additional time frame to handle the unscheduled jobs that come along out of the blue.
It’s indeed up to you, but you can decide not to attend more than three unscheduled calls or reply to more than five emails every day. Even if you are on a call, make sure you don’t take more than five to ten minutes per call or ten to fifteen minutes per email.
This will make the entire time management process much more streamlined and easy for you.
On the contrary, if you fail to follow this routine strictly, you will not have any time to do the things that are more important for the day.
Use Gadgets to Make the Job Easier
Nowadays, there are various ways to make your job simpler.
As I said earlier, the idea is not to cramp up too many activities into one tight time frame, then work hard every day and fail miserably. Instead, you need to organize your work and smartly deal with it.
In this regard, technology can help you a lot.
You should use tools and gadgets that can help you manage your time better and get the job done quickly.
Nobody does anything manually these days. Why would you spend more time when you can get all that done in relatively less time with the help of technology?
Nowadays, we have applications for almost everything. You can pay your bills in a jiffy, and your payment will be absolutely secure. Even you have apps that can take care of your scheduled meetings and even remind you about them.
You can safely bid farewell to those paper calendars as you have smart digital calendars that can take care of all your important dates and even send you notifications about when to send emails to your clients.
You even have smartphone apps and online tools that will help you save time more effectively; use them to benefit your entrepreneurial life.
Foresee the Probable Interruptions
This may sound a bit weird to practice and follow. But trust me; this can really help you a lot.
It may not be as easy as it sounds, but you will surely benefit a lot from this once you get the hang of it.
This will make you much more prepared for the future. You will be ready to tackle situations that might come all of a sudden without blowing a whistle.
Sometimes, the call could come from your personal life; sometimes, it can be caused by one of your team members or clients. Whatever may be the case, you will have to handle the situation that might eat away some of your precious time.
This is why you need to keep white spaces in between your everyday schedule and your week-schedule, in case something urgent comes up. Being an entrepreneur, it’s not that easy to manage your family life in between your work. But these little gaps will somewhat help you cope up with your personal and professional commitments.
Be Strict with Your Schedule
An entrepreneur needs to grow constantly. You cannot just get caught up in your days’ work and do nothing else.
This is why you need to be meticulously strict with your schedule. Use the time you save to learn new skills, train yourself in other things like digital marketing, prepare for startup idea pitching competitions, and even meet with other like-minded professionals to attain networking benefits.
You need to make it a habit to try not to take other works that do not concern you directly in your busy work hours. Instead, you should go and finish your to-do list and then move on doing other productive things like;
- Studying the market and learn about the newest trends.
- Catching up with other entrepreneurs and professionals and talk about what they are doing lately and the tools they have been using.
- You can also sign up for a course, continue learning new things about the industry, and develop relevant skills at the same time.
- You should also keep some time to make a to-do list for the next day or even the whole week.
Set Small Goals per Week
This is a must-do practice for all the entrepreneurs out there. You cannot achieve success unless you know what your goal is! Hence, you need to set small targets for yourself every week.
Besides, going for a weekly target can be really helpful since smaller targets are easier to achieve. Plus, they can immediately boost your confidence and productivity.
You should spend at least 30 minutes on your weekend planning the upcoming week’s work. This will help you follow the worksheet and even reach the target you have set for yourself by the end of the week.
Once the week is over, you need to review your performance and evaluate how much you have achieved in the week.
Planning and organizing are everything. You have to jot down the entire week’s job beforehand during your free time on the weekend and work on that throughout the week.
The targets you set for yourself will motivate you to push forward and work smartly.
Don’t Get Yourself Distracted
Distraction while working is perhaps the biggest time-killer, which I am sure every entrepreneur has experienced time and again. This is why you need to be super focused and avoid indulging in things that might eat your time away.
Every individual is unique; hence, their focus and concentration level is different as well. So, you need to figure out what are the things that distract you the most.
Social media, dating apps, games are some of the things that usually eat up a lot of your precious time. Even scrolling through e-commerce websites can kill time like it’s flying away. YouTube is indeed a powerful medium for businesses. However, sometimes it can also waste a lot of your time if you roam around it without any purpose. Therefore, you need to keep yourself away from all these during your work.
This is the only way you can put a hundred percent focus on the goals and targets you have set for yourself and your business.
You can indulge in all that you love after the office hour; this is the discipline and commitment that should be there in you.
Never Improvise the Set-Schedule
A set time schedule can be a bit difficult to follow at times, but once you get the hang of this, you will not feel any problem following it. But you should never try to improvise your schedule all of a sudden by being impatient.
Always remember that following a set schedule itself is a challenging task to achieve. By improvising it, you will only make it worse for you. Just stick to the plan you have decided for yourself and follow it diligently.
Trying to do multi-tasking is another bad idea that often many entrepreneurs end up doing. Make sure never to follow that. It will only result in eating away your time and making the whole routine helter-skelter.
Just eliminate the things that might disrupt your focus and be disciplined enough to follow the time schedule. Once you get the swing of things, you will surely be able to reach your targets and keep some time for yourself as well.
Try the Pomodoro Technique
In the late ‘80s, Mr. Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro technique. He named this time management technique after a tomato-shaped kitchen timer. “Pomodoro” is the Italian word for tomato.
The technique helps entrepreneurs like you to improve their concentration level and become more productive.
Pomodoro is fairly a simple technique, and anyone can follow it effortlessly.
All you need to do is set up a timer of 25 minutes on the clock and concentrate on a particular task before the alarm goes off. Then you will have to take a break of 5 minutes and then again devote 25 more minutes for another task.
This way, you can improve your focus, learn how to organize your time, and also complete a task in relatively less time.
Along with all these, you should also get some quality time to sleep as well. This is very important since, without proper rest, your brain will not function in its full capacity. Without a sound mind, how can you finish more work or follow the schedule?
So, keep some time to rest and take a power nap if necessary and start fresh again!
Before Wrapping Up
Time management is an essential skill on which everything else you do in your entrepreneurial life depends..
So, there you go, our ten time management tips for busy entrepreneurs out there to effectively manage their time yet become the most productive they can be.
Try not to make yourself too busy with things that don’t concern you always. You should undertake the tasks that truly demand your attention and delegate the rest to others. This way, you can more efficiently handle the important things that need to be run by experts like you.
Always remember that a true entrepreneur needs to grow constantly. You cannot just get caught in business affairs and leave the learning behind.
Balancing your work and time is the key here. When you can manage your time better, you will give more time to networking with other entrepreneurs and professionals who can add great value to your business. Staying connected with others and not getting drowned in work is what effective time management allows entrepreneurs to do.
So, what are your secret time management formulae? As a busy entrepreneur, how do you manage your daily schedule? Do you use any of the time management methods mentioned above?
If yes, please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Your experience and suggestions as an entrepreneur will help all our readers and thousands of budding entrepreneurs out there.
