It is important to have good time management skills, especially for entrepreneurs. All of us have the same 24 hours in a single day. However, some people can accomplish more than others. It seems that the key is to control your time rather than let it control you.
The difference is time management.
What is time management?
The technique of time management allows you to use your time more efficiently. Organize your personal and professional tasks according to their urgency and importance. Prioritize the urgent and most important activities first, and then move on to those that are less urgent but still important. Prioritizing your work allows you to focus your energy and time where it matters most.
Below is a table that shows the Eisenhower Matrix. This time management technique is popular for evaluating and prioritizing work. Each quadrant contains examples of different types of tasks and how to prioritize them.
Are you good at time management?
To be a good manager, you need to plan ahead and make informed decisions. Staying focused on your priorities and not getting distracted by other things is also important.
Ask yourself the following questions to find out if you are good at managing your time:
- Do I know the best way to prioritize my tasks according to importance and urgency?
- How much time do I spend on my different tasks?
- Can I do my work at home?
After evaluating your current skills, create a plan for improvement. You can improve your time management skills. It is not easy, but you will get better. Successful entrepreneurs use a variety of time management skills in order to increase productivity and effectiveness, both personally and professionally.
Time management examples
- Planning
- Checklists and to-do lists
- Prioritizing
- Evaluating urgent tasks
- Goal setting
- Auditing and improving workflows
- Filtering notifications
- Consider your deadlines.
- Delegation
- Record keeping
- Staff scheduling
- Documentation and project management
- Set short and long-term goals.
- Stress management
- Using data
- Automation
- Consolidate your technology.
Time management pitfalls
When you are trying to manage your schedule, it's easy to lose track. Avoid these time management mistakes to improve your skills.
- Pitfall #1: Do not make a list of tasks. You can't prioritize your work if you don't have a list of things to do.
- Pitfall 2: Multitasking Contrary to popular opinion, multitasking is actually less productive than focusing solely on one task before moving onto the next. Our brains can't handle two high-level tasks at once. Some studies have shown that multitasking may lower your IQ because of your split attention. It could even damage your brain. (Yikes.)
- Pitfall #3: Failing to estimate the time required for a particular task. Will it take you an hour to write the report or three days? You can't manage your time effectively or set priorities if you don't have an idea of how long it will take to complete a particular task.
How to get more done in less time
We've found that good time management can directly affect your bottom line. To help you be more productive, we've put together some guidelines that motivate successful people.
Start your day early.
You'll see that successful people are the first to get up, so they can make the most of their day.
Flexible, a business finance company, surveyed some of the most influential people in today's world about their morning routines. This is what they found.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at five in the morning.
- Vogue Editor Anna Wintour gets up at 5:45 a.m. to play tennis before heading into the office.
- Oprah gets up at 6 a.m. to meditate, then runs on the treadmill. She then heads to her studio.
Another helpful theme is that exercise is an important part of the lives of successful people.
Plan your day according to your priorities and goals.
With a daily work plan, people can determine their schedule and make progress towards their goals. Some large, ongoing tasks, like creating a marketing strategy for your company, fall under the second quadrant of the Eisenhower Matrix. The task is important, but it should be tackled in small chunks rather than all at once.
This time management tip is used by successful business people who recognize that every day there are urgent and important issues. They know how to balance both and leave the menial tasks until later.
Rob Rawson is the CEO of TimeManagement.com. He works on his most important tasks first thing in the morning before being distracted by emails and other trivial duties. It is easier to achieve goals if you break them down into smaller chunks.
Career coaches recommend splitting your day into "focus" and "buffer days". The first is for things that are more important, like employee management and business development. Buffer days are reserved for more mundane tasks like accounting and paperwork.
Concentrate on one thing at a time.
Multitasking is often thought to be the best way to use time. It turns out that multitasking can waste time. Earl Miller, a neuroscientist, says we can't usually focus on two things at once.
He says that people can't multitask very well. Those who claim to be able to do so are deluding themselves.
True efficiency is completing one task at a given time before moving on to the next.
Learn to delegate.
You can wear many hats, but you cannot be everywhere at once. You can only trust your team if you take the time to hire the best employees. You can then delegate some tasks and relinquish control to your employees, rather than trying to do everything yourself.
Work together with tools that save time and help you.
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Use the 80/20 rule.
According to the Pareto Principle, 20 percent of actions lead to 80 percent of the results. The other 80 percent only account for 20 percent of the results. This means that people who are successful know that their top priorities (or top 20%) will drive the most important outcomes. They delegate everything else.
Plan for interruptions and distractions.
You won't have time to deal with unexpected situations if you plan every second of your day. You should leave an hour per day to deal with the unexpected. It's also a good idea for you to set up open office hours or allow time for collaboration with colleagues. You'll almost always fall behind if you schedule yourself too much.
Master the art of short meetings by saying no more frequently.
NewBrand Analytics' CEO, Kristin M. Muhlner, says that saying no to yourself is one way of not overextending yourself, both professionally and personally.
Many companies have a tendency to say yes to too many meeting requests. Successful people know which meetings they must attend and will either decline to attend others or limit their duration.
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