Indispensable Time-Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

Are you an entrepreneur who finds that they aren’t getting enough done in a single work day? It’s not unusual to find yourself behind the eight ball when you are trying to accomplish so much in a given day. The key to getting it together is improving your time-management skills. Check out these time management tips; before you know it, your efficiency and productivity will increase immensely.

1. Invest in building quality business systems.

One of the best and most overlooked methods of saving time is to avoid spending your day putting out fires. You can do this by investing the time and money up front to have quality business systems and procedures in place. This upfront investment, in essence, creates the infrastructure on which your business runs. You do this by establishing quality control methodologies, implementing appropriate training programs, investing in good technology, and setting up procedures for accomplishing both mission and non-mission critical tasks.

Unfortunately, far too many entrepreneurs focus on doing these things because there is not an immediate positive impact on the bottom line. Establishing quality business systems also doesn’t have a direct impact on growth — at least, that’s how many startup owners see things. In truth, once the initial investment has been made, the efficiency and streamlining that results can keep costs down and allow your team to focus on sales, growth, and research and development.

2. Know when to delegate and outsource for faster growth.

Many entrepreneurs are more than used to wearing more than one hat. That’s great for when things are just getting started and funds aren’t available to hire staff or bring on consultants and vendors. Unfortunately, jumping into any role when a need arises no longer becomes an efficient use of your time once a certain level of growth has been achieved. This is something that many entrepreneurs never fully grasp. Instead, they see it as a point of pride that they are able to jump in and save the day.

There are some problems with this. First of all, just because you sit at the helm of your ship doesn’t mean that you have the talent and experience needed to get every job done that needs to be done. You’ve hired people, hopefully, because they are better and smarter than you in their area of expertise. Delegate out to them, and then let them do the jobs you have hired them to do. This leaves more time for you to focus on leadership, sales, and planning.

3. Long-term planning is essential to keep your current focus sharp.

Once you do learn how to delegate, you will find yourself free to focus on planning. This is great, but it brings up the next issue when it comes to effective time management: don’t spend too much time focusing on short-term planning. Instead, keep your eyes on the future.

How does this help with time management? When you engage in long-term planning, you force yourself to keep your focus on the activities that need to be done to meet those long-term goals. As a result, you will be less likely to get caught up in busy work or time-wasting activities. Your mind will be too laser focused on working on tasks that will lead up to the long-term goals that you set. Remember that making plans required for scaling your business and making the most of your time will lead to growth.

4. Eliminate the common time-wasting habits.

Constantly checking social media, jumping in and out of your inbox, running to the break room for more coffee or water, “checking up on everyone’s progress,” checking fantasy league stats and scores, etc. are all examples of the common, time-wasting habits that absolutely destroy efficiency. Create personal policies for yourself that eliminate these time-wasting habits so that you can make better use of your time.

Here are a few things to try:

• If a website is too tempting, consider buying an app to block it during working hours
• Check your email three times each day only
• Buy a bigger coffee mug or water bottle
• Give yourself 20 minutes during the work day to spend in the internet rabbit hole
• Use email to check up on staffers or trust them to come to you if your intervention is needed
• Make a list of “Things to do When There is Nothing to do.” Then, when you are bored work on that list

5. Set up airplane days.

No, an airplane day is not a day that is created to celebrate those large miracles of aerospace engineering. An airplane day is simply a day where you switch your phone into airplane mode so that notifications, texts, and phone calls are all blocked. Planning airplane days is a great way to ensure that you have the time to accomplish the kind of pen to paper, heads down tasks that are difficult to tackle when you are dealing with a constant influx of electronic disruptions.

Of course, as the boss, you cannot simply flip your phone into airplane mode. You have to plan for these things. Let your people know in plenty of time that you will be spending a day out of communications range, and be sure that you designate a go-to person in your absence. Then, enjoy a day of catching up on tasks and getting things cleared off of your desk.

6. Prioritize till it hurts.

Almost everybody could benefit from taking a scalpel to their daily to-do list. This is truer for entrepreneurs than anybody else. Don’t just create lists of things to do. Sort that list into priorities and do it ruthlessly. Start off by creating the list of things that must be accomplished today in order to avoid creating fires that will have to be managed and mitigated later on. Those are the highest-priority tasks, and they should get your primary focus. Then, create a list of mission critical tasks. These should be tasks that need to be accomplished that work toward the goals of sales, growth, or development. It is only after these goals are accomplished should you focus on lower priority goals such as administrivia.

7. Schedule downtime too.

An entrepreneur on the brink of burnout is very unlikely to be able to make good use of their time. This is why the final tip on this list is to schedule downtime. Both your mind and body need rest, relaxation, stimulation, and fun to function properly. So, pursue hobbies, take vacations, meditate, and read. Take a lunch break. Know when it’s time to “punch your card” at the end of the day and get some rest.