Many entrepreneurs operate all alone. They they're the web designer, accountant, manager, financial planner, and more. They may also be husbands and wives and moms and dads trying to keep everyone happy and addressed. A planned time management does not exist. They try to be everyone and everywhere. While you may be able to keep this up for a while very often you reach a point where it seems you are working 24/7 and still feel like nothing gets accomplished. That is the time to stop, take a breath and try a different way to tackle the daily routine.
Once you realized that you can't possibly do everything you deem necessary ask yourself "how can I best use my energy and time today?" Take the time to make three sorted lists of all things you planned to do and check what a) absolutely needs to be done in order to not risk your business, b) and what you need to do to reach your long term goal and c) what is not absolutely necessary or only done to make you feel good accomplishing it. Do all things in list a) and at least half of list b) and one or two things of list c). Only when you are done with these you can tackle finishing the rest of tasks.
Another method would be creating one prioritized list for the week with all planned tasks on it. Start with working on the first five then reconsider the remaining ones. Something that may have come up you can add now and complete the next five items, and so forth. Checking off items is very satisfying, but checking off important items is a blast. It will give you the motivation to working on finishing all tasks through the week.
By splitting up larger task into smaller more digestible junks you can also create some momentum for your day. Avoid writing 'complete budget' as one item. Rather split it up in manageable portions by assigning each budget heading a subtask. Don't answer all mail but answer the first fifth of letters, then the second and so forth. With this method you make sure you always have the feeling you accomplished something while you are into completing the main task. Whereas 100% of the time working on the main task you probably feel like you did nothing at all.
Make it a priority to care about your physical and mental health. Arguments with neglected spouses can be the nail to the coffin of your motivation. Eating nothing to safe time will just wear you down much quicker. So make it an item within your time management to eat lunch at best with friends or family or add some workout as high priority for next Wednesday. You will see a refreshed mind and body are needed to make sure you can keep going.
Setting boundaries is very important to make sure you don't burn out. One boundary can be a maximum number of hours you work per day or the number of hours you work without a break. Meaning that just when you reached these maximum numbers of hours you stop working no matter whether are done or not. When you are honest with yourself you know that at a certain degree of exhaustion or sleep deprivation you can as well stop working because it doesn't change your output significantly. That is actually one of the best habits in terms of time management of successful entrepreneurs. They know when it is enough.
Knowing your own strengths and knowing when you need help are keys to success. Things you can't do well take you much longer than it would take someone who is an expert in it. There are also some tasks that don't even need a highly qualified person to do them, like small repair jobs or cleaning. These can often be done relatively cheap by someone else. In any case it can be absolutely worth having someone take some of the weight off your shoulder, because the greatest asset to your business is you and you need to treat it well.
Once you realized that you can't possibly do everything you deem necessary ask yourself "how can I best use my energy and time today?" Take the time to make three sorted lists of all things you planned to do and check what a) absolutely needs to be done in order to not risk your business, b) and what you need to do to reach your long term goal and c) what is not absolutely necessary or only done to make you feel good accomplishing it. Do all things in list a) and at least half of list b) and one or two things of list c). Only when you are done with these you can tackle finishing the rest of tasks.
Another method would be creating one prioritized list for the week with all planned tasks on it. Start with working on the first five then reconsider the remaining ones. Something that may have come up you can add now and complete the next five items, and so forth. Checking off items is very satisfying, but checking off important items is a blast. It will give you the motivation to working on finishing all tasks through the week.
By splitting up larger task into smaller more digestible junks you can also create some momentum for your day. Avoid writing 'complete budget' as one item. Rather split it up in manageable portions by assigning each budget heading a subtask. Don't answer all mail but answer the first fifth of letters, then the second and so forth. With this method you make sure you always have the feeling you accomplished something while you are into completing the main task. Whereas 100% of the time working on the main task you probably feel like you did nothing at all.
Make it a priority to care about your physical and mental health. Arguments with neglected spouses can be the nail to the coffin of your motivation. Eating nothing to safe time will just wear you down much quicker. So make it an item within your time management to eat lunch at best with friends or family or add some workout as high priority for next Wednesday. You will see a refreshed mind and body are needed to make sure you can keep going.
Setting boundaries is very important to make sure you don't burn out. One boundary can be a maximum number of hours you work per day or the number of hours you work without a break. Meaning that just when you reached these maximum numbers of hours you stop working no matter whether are done or not. When you are honest with yourself you know that at a certain degree of exhaustion or sleep deprivation you can as well stop working because it doesn't change your output significantly. That is actually one of the best habits in terms of time management of successful entrepreneurs. They know when it is enough.
Knowing your own strengths and knowing when you need help are keys to success. Things you can't do well take you much longer than it would take someone who is an expert in it. There are also some tasks that don't even need a highly qualified person to do them, like small repair jobs or cleaning. These can often be done relatively cheap by someone else. In any case it can be absolutely worth having someone take some of the weight off your shoulder, because the greatest asset to your business is you and you need to treat it well.
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Want to find out more about time management, then visit Alex McRight's site on how to work efficiently work efficiently for your needs.
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