Time is among the most valuable limited resources that business owners have. Sometimes, it can feel like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the tasks on the to-do list, and deciding how to manage your time and workload to fit them all in can be one of the more stressful aspects of running a business.
The answer to this conundrum is to use your time as efficiently as possible, allowing you to accomplish more tasks with the limited number of hours available to you. With that in mind, here are some tips and strategies that you can follow to help you maximize your productivity so you can grow your business to its full potential without burning yourself out.
Common time management mistakes to avoid
1. Trying to do everything yourself.
In the early days of a business, the owner often has to take on most or all of the tasks involved with running it themselves. Sometimes this is because there aren’t other employees yet to take on those responsibilities, or the budget to outsource them to freelancers or agencies.
As the business grows, though, doing everything yourself becomes both less feasible and less necessary. If you feel like you never have enough time in your day, step back and review the responsibilities that you typically have on your plate to identify which ones you can delegate or outsource. The best first tasks to outsource are those in areas where you lack knowledge, experience, or interest. In those cases, other members of the team may be able to not just take that off your plate, but often to do it better or faster.
You can make this same kind of assessment if you’re a one-person business. Identify the tasks that take a significant amount of time or effort and aren’t aligned with your strengths or skills. Then, hire someone who can do them for you, whether that means bringing on a virtual assistant to handle administrative tasks or hiring an agency to oversee your marketing.
2. Multitasking.
The idea of multitasking is alluring. After all, what better way to save time than to tackle two tasks at once? In reality, though, it doesn’t work that way. The human brain isn’t actually capable of working on two things at the same time. Instead, it rapidly switches back and forth between them when you try to multitask. As a result, neither one gets your full focus. Not only does this mean you’re more likely to make mistakes, but often you’ll end up spending more total time than you would if you’d focused on a single task at once. Multitasking also results in mental fatigue and makes it more difficult to retain information, which can diminish your performance on other tasks you do throughout the day, too.
The next time you’re tempted to multitask, try a different approach instead. Focus on one task for a designated period of time, giving it your full attention, then switch to something else when that time is up. You’ll likely find you get more done in the same amount of time when you use this approach than when you’re trying to juggle multiple things.
3. Skipping rest and breaks.
When you have a lot on your plate, taking breaks often feels like a luxury you can’t afford. What’s important to remember is that not all time you spend working on a task is equally productive. When your brain is clear and focused, you’ll be less prone to distraction and able to accomplish more with your time. It’s like the old adage says: you want to work smarter, not harder. Taking breaks when you need them lets you use your time more efficiently, so you can get more done and feel less stressed while you’re doing it. An overloaded schedule also doesn’t leave you dedicated thinking time that you can use to strategically plan for your business’ future.
Breaks are necessary on both the small and big picture levels. When you’re having trouble focusing on the task in front of you, step away from it for 5-15 minutes. Stand up and stretch, or take a little stroll out of your office. You’ll often find you’re able to be more productive when you come back to the task after. At the big-picture level, resist the temptation to sacrifice sleep for the sake of finishing a task. Again, a well-rested mind is able to function more effectively. You’ll be a better business leader, and ultimately able to do more with your time, when you have a healthy nighttime routine.
Time management tips for business owners
Now that we’ve gone over some of the common time-wasting mistakes that business owners make, what should you do instead to utilize your time efficiently? Here are three tips for ways that you can get more value out of your limited time.
1. Prioritize tasks according to the 80/20 rule.
Most people have heard of the 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle. The basic idea of it is that 80% of the results are driven by 20% of the effort that’s put in. While it won’t work out to that perfect of a figure every time, the underlying idea is true in most situations. Some of the tasks you do will produce more results than others. You’ll get the most benefit from tackling those high-value tasks first, and many of the low-value tasks can be left for last (or skipped entirely).
The first step to apply this principle is to identify the 20% of your daily efforts that produce the most results. Prioritize these tasks in your schedule. Then, analyze the rest to decide which are actually necessary and which you can eliminate or streamline. The necessary tasks you can slot into the remaining time in your schedule or delegate to others as appropriate.
2. Use time blocking to schedule your tasks.
Time blocking is a relatively straightforward approach to time management, and its simplicity is part of what makes it so effective. In this technique, you break your day into chunks of time, each of which is assigned a single task. This doesn’t need to be limited to work tasks, either. You can also schedule in time for exercise, meal and rest breaks, or other things you need to accomplish during the day.
One of the benefits of time blocking is that it gives you a visual chart of how you spend your time. This can be very useful for assessing how you use your time currently and identifying ways that you can streamline tasks or otherwise improve your time management. This approach also makes you more intentional in your time allocation. You can schedule your most demanding or thought-intensive tasks into the parts of the day that you tend to function at your highest level. Filling in break times or lower-effort activities around these tasks lets you manage your energy and mental capacity along with your time.
3. Take advantage of technology to automate and streamline your work.
One frustrating category of tasks are those that require little effort but are repetitive and time consuming, but also necessary for the business to function and grow. This includes things like entering payroll or other administrative data, balancing your accounts, sorting through emails, following up with sales leads, or creating and scheduling posts for social media.
Delegating these tasks to employees or freelancers is one way to get them off of your plate, but that’s not your only option. You can also use software to take care of these tasks for you, freeing up more time in your day to focus on more valuable, more interesting things.
There are two main areas where most business owners find automation to be the most beneficial: administrative tasks and marketing. There are a wide variety of programs and platforms available to streamline these functions, from time tracking and payroll management programs to social media or email marketing automation tools.
Granted, not all of these programs will be equally useful to every business owner. To decide which programs will bring you the most benefit, start by keeping track of how you’re using your time currently. Identify the tasks that you devote a significant amount of time to doing manually, then search for programs that can either do these things for you or reduce the effort and time involved.
One common objection business owners have to integrating technology is the cost of doing so. Keep in mind, though, that you shouldn’t think of your own time as free. Consider how much an hour of your time is worth, then multiply that by the number of hours you could save by using a program or platform. Very often, the costs for the tool are worth it when you look at things from this angle.
There are also many free ways to use technology to your advantage if you don’t have the budget to invest in software. Even something as simple as saving templates for emails you frequently send can add up to substantial time savings in the long term. The bottom line is that you should consider all the tools available for making the most efficient use of your time.
