5 Ways to Become More Efficient With Your Time as a Business Owner
Running a successful business can definitely take a lot of time and energy! I started my first business 6 years ago while I was teaching high school level math full-time and I had to learn how to balance both of those as well as my personal life. This was definitely a huge struggle for me! I have to admit, that I stayed up into the wee hours many nights doing research and creating my business. But I knew that I needed to make this a priority if I wanted my business to grow and so that I could leave my teaching career.
Each entrepreneur’s journey is so very different. Like my story, some people build their business while holding a full-time job. Others have families with children to care for, sick relatives, and other commitments. No matter what the story is, I promise you it is completely possible to build a successful business! Managing your time is one of the biggest pieces to the puzzle.
I’m going to share with you below, 5 ways to become more efficient with your time as a business owner and hopefully you can start implementing some of these right away!
1. Focus on one thing at a time
When you have a huge list of things to do, that can easily become overwhelming. I get it! A common myth among entrepreneurs is to develop this hustle mentality and multi-task in order to fit everything in. That honestly is not the solution. Instead, try focusing on one thing at a time. When you multi-task, you’re ultimately not putting in 100% effort into what you should be focusing on. Pick one task to focus on at a time and try setting a timer. If you don’t give yourself strict deadlines, then you’ll end up taking way longer to complete tasks than you should. For example, if you want to plan and write out your content for the week, try blocking out around 1.5 hours and make sure you finish it all within that time span. If you don’t do this, then you can easily take 3 hours or more to devote to planning and creating your content.
2. Plan out your day in advance
Some entrepreneurs are able to plan out their entire week in advance but if you’re like me, and your schedule is different every day of the week, then I recommend mapping out your day the night before. This will help you stay organized and on track and definitely reduce the amount of stress and overwhelm that you feel. There are many ways to keep track of what you need to get done such as creating a list, typing it on your computer, or using some type of app or program. I’m old school! I still keep a pen and paper list of what I need to do, and I always update this at night for the following day. Once you have your list of to-dos, figure out which ones are priorities and focus on those first. Ask yourself these two questions:
1. Does this need immediate attention?
2. What do I have to get done right away?
Find a strategy and system that works for you to either map out your entire week or each day.
3. Identify your time wasters
I guarantee that you have time wasters during the day that you might not even be aware of! When my clients are struggling with time management, I often have them track their time for about a week so that we can analyze it and find where exactly those time wasters are, and create a more productive plan. One of the biggest ones is definitely social media. If you’re running an online business, then you are probably posting and engaging online but…are you getting pulled into a rabbit hole of non-stop scrolling and wasting a lot of precious time? Another common one that causes distractions for our business is housework. If you are a work-from-home entrepreneur and even now through COVID, we are forced to stay in our homes and can easily get distracted by filling up the dishwasher, doing the laundry, having conversations with family members, etc. Sound familiar? It’s great to be at home but sometimes we need to set some boundaries for our work in order to be super-efficient with our time. I encourage you to try tracking your time for about 1 week to find your time wasters. If you can start eliminating those, you’ll end up freeing up a ton of time that you didn’t realize was there in the first place!
4. Find out your productivity time
Each one of us has different times of the day in which we are most productive. Some people are early morning risers and some are night owls. For me personally, my mind is the most active in the afternoon and late at night. It’s always been that way – lol! I love that I now get to create my own schedule and that I don’t have to wake up at 5:30am. When are you most productive during the day? Take a serious look at this because if you can identify your most productive working time, then you can make certain shifts in your schedule that will help you save time.
5. Delegate
This is one of my favorites! If you have the ability to delegate tasks in your business, then DO IT. I highly recommend hiring a Virtual Assistant and I have two wonderful assistants that work in both of my businesses. This is honestly one of the best business decisions that I’ve ever made. If you’re a newer entrepreneur, you can still hire a VA for a couple of hours a week to help you with small tasks. As your business grows, then you give your VA more things to do and this is exactly how you scale a business. You can also ask family members or friends to help you in your business if that’s a choice for you. Remember, you’re not going to be able to do everything on your own. Help is a good thing! If you can identify the tasks in your business that you either hate doing or you’re not good at, then you can pass that along to somebody so that you can really focus on working ON your business.
I would love to know – which one of the above resonates most with you?
Come join the party in my Facebook group, Freedom Living Female Entrepreneurs! It’s full of high-achieving women that are building their empires and I do free weekly trainings each week to help you scale your business. I’ll see you there!