Time management for entrepreneurs: 6 really effective tips
Time management is an important skill for any entrepreneur, whether you’re just starting out or already working full-time. It helps you stay organized, prioritize tasks, and avoid burnout.
In this article, I will focus on time management for entrepreneurs.
It’s a subject I’m passionate about and I know it very well because I am an entrepreneur like you are.
In this article, I will share with you some tips from my own experience and from the entrepreneurs I have helped in managing their time.
Discover my tips now!
1 – Set specific goals
If you want to improve your time management skills, start by setting goals. These should be realistic and measurable.
They should also be specific so you know exactly what you need to do to achieve them.
After defining your goals, identify what motivates you to achieve them.
Start with the surface motivations, the first ones you can think of.
But don’t settle for the latter, as they are not the most important ones to help you get through even the most difficult times.
Keep questioning yourself until you find a motivation strong enough to continue to give your best day after day.
What I have learned over the years is that the strongest motivations for entrepreneurs are altruistic and have to do with the desire to contribute in some way to the lives of others.
Personally, whenever I go through moments of demotivation, I think about the people who need me. This can be potential clients, my family, or anyone else I can’t help if I give up. Doing this always helps me to get up and start again.
And you, what is your main motivation for achieving your goals?
2 – Prioritize Tasks
Once you’ve set some goals, it’s time to prioritize tasks. Start with the most important ones first. This will help you stay focused and avoid getting distracted by less important things.
Now that you have identified your primary motivation, you also know the value that guides your behaviors as an entrepreneur.
In order to effectively plan your tasks, you must know and prioritize all of your most important values.
Doing this will ensure that the goals you have planned are consistent with your values. If they are, you will become more fulfilled by achieving them. If not, you will feel unfulfilled even if you achieve them.
Next, identify which of the most important goals you have selected is the easiest to achieve in a reasonable time frame.
Focus the majority of your time, energy, and resources on achieving this goal. Don’t be distracted by other goals or opportunities that come your way.
Plan at least 80% of your activities each day to achieve this priority goal.
Then according to your chronotype, i.e. your genetic predisposition to perform better at specific times of the day, plan these priority tasks in accordance with your chronotype.
But be aware that you will not be able to plan your tasks according to your chronotype. You will be forced from time to time to respond to requests from your environment, to professional emergencies, or to other personal challenges.
When these times come, do the best you can with what you have, and don’t allow stress to take control of your mind.
Try to stay calm and tell yourself that you have time to work through the situation in the current week or the next.
Because of this, you will be able to make the best possible decisions and optimize the time and resources you have at your disposal.
3 – Plan consciously
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try breaking down your big projects into smaller chunks. It’ll make them easier to handle and more manageable.
Using your emotions effectively is essential to maintaining productivity and protecting your well-being.
Don’t fall into the trap of filling your schedule without leaving time for yourself.
Give yourself the time you need to accomplish the goals that are important to you in a timely manner.
You can’t plan your week and your work days without taking into account the specifics of your personal life.
The purpose of this article is to help you plan in a sustainable way so that you can maintain a good life balance.
To achieve this, plan your day by thinking about your personal commitments and also by planning time just for you.
You can’t risk forgetting yourself by thinking only about others. You are as important as the others.
And if contributing positively to the lives of others is as important to you as it is to me, by being nice to yourself, you will be able to do more for others.
4 – Be Flexible
One of the biggest reasons why people struggle with managing their time is that they aren’t flexible enough.
They set rigid deadlines and expect themselves to meet those deadlines without any wiggle room.
This leads to stress and frustration when things don’t go as planned. Instead, try being more open-minded and accepting of changes.
But doing this is just the beginning of becoming more flexible.
My advice is to prepare alternatives to follow if for different reasons you can’t follow your schedule.
You can use implementation intentions, i.e. if-then statements that make it easier to implement a given behavior.
For example, if I can’t take care of the tasks I planned the night before, then I will focus on another task.
You can even prepare two to-do lists, the main one and another one to deal with unexpected events.
The key is to start each day with a clear vision of the first task you want to accomplish and the following ones.
Doing this will improve your productivity at work.
5 – Don’t Procrastinate
If you’ve ever been told “You’ll never make it” by a friend or family member, then you know what I’m talking about. It’s hard not to let these words affect you.
However, there is no reason to worry. There are ways to overcome procrastination and start taking control of your life.
In the end, it is you who decides whether or not to give credit to what others say about you.
Show your naysayers that they are wrong and instead of letting the negativity limit you, use the emotions you feel as fuel to reach your goals faster.
But other people’s opinions aren’t the only thing that can make you procrastinate.
Procrastination can also be linked to negative perfectionism which prevents some people from starting to manage a given task because they do not feel up to it.
The nature of the task can also lead to procrastination. If a person considers an activity to be too tedious or difficult to perform, he or she will be more likely to procrastinate.
An effective way to reduce procrastination is always having planned activities. People who always have something to do can better deal with the negative emotions caused by not completing a task in the planned time. Therefore, they procrastinate less than other individuals.
To go further on the topic of procrastination, I invite you to read my two articles: 10 outstanding tips to stop procrastinating and take action and 11 tips to fight against procrastination at work and at home.
6 – Invest more time in process and skills improvement
Yoo, Corbett & Roels (2016) show that should invest more time in process improvement early on—that is, when the opportunity cost of doing so is relatively low. According to them, entrepreneurs should think in terms of “return on time invested”, to help decide which process improvement activities to prioritize, and when to shift their focus from process improvement to revenue enhancement and harvesting.
Before you can improve your processes, you have to create some. If you don’t have any, I suggest you start by creating one for each of your responsibilities as a business owner.
It’s also important to know what skills you need to focus on to be successful in your business.
Perks & Struwig (2005) identify 13 skills that entrepreneurs need to have:
- self-development skills
- networking skills
- relationship marketing skills
- time management skills
- stress management skills
- presentation skills
- negotiation skills
- general business management skills
- record-keeping skills
- financial management skills
- computer skills
- management skills
- risk management
Kochey (2019) shows the qualities of successful entrepreneurs:
- Leadership quality and interpersonal skills
- Flexibility
- Energetic and passionate
- Creative and innovative
- Be organized & a keen eye
- Believes in realism
- Good time management skills
- Good decision-maker and risk taker
- Communication skills
- Technology skills
I suggest that you rate yourself on each of these skills. Then, for each of these skills, identify an action that will allow you to begin progressing toward a higher score.
Conclusion on time management for entrepreneurs
In this article, I have shared with you 6 effective tips to better manage your time as a business owner.
I will update this article regularly to continue to bring you more relevant tips.
If you are interested in the topic of productivity, I invite you to discover all my articles on productivity.
If you are looking for tools to improve your time management skills, I recommend you read my article on the best time management apps.
If you want to take advantage of the expertise of a time management coach, write to us now using our contact form or call us by phone or on WhatsApp at +33 6 69 46 03 79.
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Read this article in other languages
Français : Gestion du temps pour les entrepreneurs : gérer votre énergie et vos efforts
Italiano: Gestione del tempo per gli imprenditori: 6 consigli davvero efficaci