In the modern day era one of the most common struggles of the modern man is time management. There is a wide range of apps, online and paper planners, everything designed to make you save time. But when used, you realize that they don’t work. When planning your day using these tools, you’ll realize that their time was poorly managed.
There is a difference between clock time and your time. Clock time is objective, 1 hour consists of 60 minutes everywhere! But your time is relative. You create it! And it is a well-known fact that you can control everything you create. You are the master of your own time. And because of that, you are the one who puts roadblocks that stop you from accomplishing your goals. So enough with “I don’t have enough time!” or “Now is not the right time!”.
Here are 10 easy tips to help you manage your time better:
1. Start the day by taking 30 minutes to plan it! Don’t start your work until you have everything planned out and scheduled accordingly. By doing that you will see an increase in your daily productivity.
2. While scheduling your day, anticipate interruptions! Being an entrepreneur means that you will have to deal with situations in which you will be distracted and pulled away from the tasks you’re doing.
3. Let people know when you have work to do! Let everybody know that you have a deadline to uphold on an important project or that you just want to finish your work. Use an email, a simple announcement, or just a “Do not disturb” sign for that.
4. Take short breaks before and after every activity! A 5-minute break before a call to plan your strategy will prepare you for unexpected situations, and a 5-minute break after a call will help you improve on your plan. In case of failure, you will start to ask yourself what went wrong and what you should change in your strategy to make yourself better. That will take some time, but it will definitely translate into a higher performance rate.
5. Be unreachable. Do not answer your phone or email immediately. Schedule a time for phone calls, conferences, and for answering mail.
6. Plan to spend 50% of your time engaged in activities that you know for sure will provide you with great result.
7. Record your activities for a week. Schedule every activity, every meeting, every conversation you have during one week. Then you will be able to compare the time you’ve allocated for each activity. In this way you will be able to ensure a better time management.
8. While scheduling, give up on to-do lists and start using appointment books. Appointment books will help you create time blocks (when the activity starts, and when it ends), which will make prioritizing your activities easier.
9. No Social Media allowed! Eliminate every Social Media channel that isn’t beneficial for your business.
10. Remember that you can’t do everything! At the end of the day, what matters most is the quality of your work, and not the quantity. And if you are lucky, a small activity can sometimes become an important revenue stream.
