Time-Management Tips for small business owners who are stretched, stressed and always late
There’s no need to wait until new years eve to start some new habits especially in learning and starting time management tips for small business owners. If its causing you a pain now – sort it now
Remember – “The only thing you cant create as a business owner is time.” We all get exactly 24 hours every day and its up to you to use it more effectively than your competition. This short article should actually be titled “Life Management”
As a Kiwi or Aussie small business owner your schedule is most probably anything but simple.
Now is the time to meticulously manage you time. (life)
Time Management – Live and Die by the Calendar
Your business may be a full time occupation or a part time gig. Whichever way you decide to execute your business your life is about to get incredibly busy as you develop the programme of action. If you’re not already in the habit of using a calendar now is the time to start.
Most people these days have some sort of electronic device or devices to calendar their activity however the secret here is not so much what particular calendaring tool to use but to set up a calendaring and scheduling system and religiously stick to it.
Whichever way you decide to do this just make sure your device (or system) is always readily available. For example google calendar can be accessed when you’re out and about with your phone or your tablet.
So is your paper based Dairy!
Why so much emphasis on a calendar for time management?
These day we have busy minds with tons of things competing for your attention. A system of calendarising will remove the frustration of missed opportunities and appointments
Your calendar system should include the ability to;
Schedule appointments made on the spot
Remind yourself about appointments or what is happening on specific days and time
Organise your calendar forecasting*
*Calendar forecasting & Small Business Time Management
A monthly activity where by you forward plant the upcoming month for non-appointment activity like marketing and calls to fundraisers. Scheduling these in at the beginning of every month or on a recurring basis can be a liberating feeling as you are putting time aside to grow your cause for activity that sits outside appointments or meetings.
In the business world this is a form of working “on your business” rather than in it. Your Monthly forecasting activity should also include a monthly review of the preceding month. Did you keep all appointments, follow ups? Is there any activity or more importantly communications that you’ve missed or neglected to carry out?
Now that you have decided on a calendar system or scheduling system its time to tweak up on your time management skills. Time Management is an industry in itself and I feel it’s slightly misrepresented. It should be called “Life Management” skills!
A crash course on Life Management skills (Time Management)
What am I doing today?
Start your day 10 minutes earlier and take the time to create a daily plan before you get into the swing of things.
If you cannot bear the thought of doing it in the morning (like me!) do it the day before at the end of your work day.
The plan gives you a good “helicopter view” and a snapshot of what you are going to do during the day.
The benefit to taking action on this is that there are no surprises during the day and you get to finalize minute detail to make sure your day runs smoothly. Your daily objective is to stick to the plan as best as possible.
Tell them about the time limit!
When meeting with others let them know before starting that you have a time limit. Let them know that you need to finish this task by 10 o’clock as you have an activity immediately following.
If you get any push back on this suggest you spend one minute with a simple agenda with the main outcome of the meeting.
Doing this sets the expectation from others that your time is very valuable and prevents your work from dragging on and eating into time reserved for other activities.
Include the “Buffer”
Be aware of tasks that have deadlines.
When calendaring make sure “drop dead deadlines” are communicated and in place. Use a buffer in your scheduling to make sure that if all turns to custard that you have a little extra time built in and you won’t affect other activity.
NO, NO and NO
Learn how to use this word when timetables get a bit stretched. Alternatively learn to delegate (Is your operations manual process in place?)
Clock in | clock out
Have a clock or the time readily available. Ideally an old fashioned time piece on the wall. Use you clock so you don’t get carried away with activity.
Alternatively use your PC or smartphone alarm function to remind you 15 minutes in advance of important commitments
Focus
Are you multi-tasking so much that you’re just not getting anything done? Focus on doing one task properly at a time. Focus on completing it within a timeframe. Turn of all email or other distractions that divert your attention away from the task at hand.
Focus stands for Follow One Course Until Successful. Remember this and you will lift your productivity by 100% as you ignore all distractions and your mind is totally focused on the job at hand
Not the “M ”word again! (measure)
Here is a simple task that you can use. Measure and track your time spent on your tasks and activity. Use your smartphone countdown timer or grab an app on your phone or PC.
You key in the amount of time you want it to track (eg 45 minutes) and it’ll count down in the background. When the time is up, the timer will beep. This is a great way to be aware of your time spent. Also note on your calendar the actual time you spent doing what during the day. When you do a calendar review every month can you identify any time savings or better use of your time
Now it’s perfect
Are you a perfectionist? If so there’s a really good chance that you are spending 80% of your time in the last 20% of the task to get completed.
I’m not advocating that you become sloppy in you output but consider that there may be someone else to put the final touch to your work. For example you write a five hundred word blog post in 30 minutes.
You spend three hours editing, rewriting, proof reading. It may be worth getting a someone else to carry out the proof reading and therefore freeing up your time to do other important stuff.
This is learning to Prioritize. Since you can’t do everything, learn to prioritize the important and delegate the rest
Delegate
Wow we’ve mentioned the delegate word a number of times!
Delegating is simply getting others to do stuff you are not strong or time efficient at. Luckily you’ve read the first principle on leveraging and you have systemized these tasks so that you can easily delegate without too much hassle.
Cluster
Batch similar tasks together. In your project your day may include a variety of activity from marketing, writing, attending to volunteers and attending fundraising meetings.
If you need to head out to meetings schedule as many “out of office” meetings to immediately precede and following your meeting.
If you are writing then schedule other similar activity such as updating blogs, social media or any activity that requires a computer.
Discipline
When the time allocated for the task is finished… move on to your next task.
This discipline will encourage you to be more productive and fit tasks in to allocated time. If you can master this you are ahead of 95% of the pack who fit time into tasks allocated.
To Summarize
The main message here is to live (not die) by the calendar.
You can simply leverage your time by being organized or at least having an idea of what you are doing on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.