Entrepreneurs often quit working forty hours per week for someone else to work eighty for themselves. Not only do entrepreneurs work longer, but they also tend to work faster and multi-task. But they still don’t spend as much time on their favorite parts of their business or get the downtime they hoped for. How can an entrepreneur better manage time? Here are ten steps.
1. Evaluate How You Spend Your Time
Write down or locate your to-do list. I’ll wait. Write down everything else you’ll do or have done today that isn’t on that list. I’ll wait.
Be honest with yourself. Add doom scrolling or streaming your favorite show. Don’t forget to write down essentials like exercise and cooking dinner. I won’t say what you can or can’t do, but let’s create awareness of how you spend your time. Next, see how your list aligns with what you want to do.
2. Know What you Want and Why
You started your business for a reason. What is that reason? Has it changed? Your motivation may or may not be about doing the thing your business does. Did you quit your day job so you would have more time with your family? Did you start your company because you’re passionate about helping the underprivileged? What is the real reason behind your entrepreneurial pursuit?
Have you gotten so sidetracked that you’re not doing the thing you wanted to do? Take a moment to reflect. Some people like to look at their vision and mission statement. Others like to visualize it. Still, others brainstorm on a giant dry-erase board. Whatever your why is, please take a moment to clarify it.
List how you’d like to spend your time. Many entrepreneurs find it helpful to outline their ideal week. What aspects of business do you truly enjoy? Would you rather work on your business or in it? What do you really want and why? Please write it down.
3. Keep Your Dream in Front of You
What do you think about when you stare out the window? Can you summarize your dream? Is there an image or a catchy slogan that represents your idea? It could be a picture of someone your business has helped, the loved one you quit your day job to spend more time with, or the boat you’re saving up for. Put your daydream, long-term goal, or motivation somewhere you’ll see it. This could be the bathroom mirror, the bottom of your computer monitor, or your vehicle’s visor. Whatever it is, keep it visually and figuratively in front of you.
4. Prioritize
Now go back to that list of things to do. What’s important? Yes, taking your son to the dentist and walking the dog is important. But what isn’t? You decide. Write NI for Not Important next to anything on your list that isn’t. What’s on your list that you’re not passionate about? Write NP next to those. What’s on your list that you’re not good at? Write NG next to them.
5. Write a Not-To-Do List
Permit yourself to eliminate some tasks from your list. Your time is finite. You can’t change how much time you have in a day or a week. Consider who and what matters the most and cut some of the NIs, NPs, and NGs. I don’t sew or iron clothes. I don’t use Snapchat. I don’t cook on Mondays or Thursdays. Those all got the ax for being NI, NP, or NG.
6. Plan
You’ve already started eliminating nonessentials. Next, schedule the most important things on your list. Put them on your calendar or make a daily top three, and don’t allow yourself to do anything else until you’ve eaten those three frogs.
What about the rest of the stuff? The stuff you didn’t cross off but isn’t important. For me, that’s things like social media and learning languages. I call those my BBs or backburners. I’ll get to them, but I don’t do them until I finish my three frogs and everything else on my calendar for the day. I’ll also allow myself some back burner time when waiting in line or my meeting is running late.
7. Delegate
Delegating is hard for entrepreneurs. We tend to be controlling and perfectionistic. But remember that you weren’t born knowing how to do that task, and you can train someone else to do it.
There must be something you can take off your plate. What’s on your list that has an NP but is still essential? Are you not passionate about accounting tasks? Outsource them. Don’t want to make appointment reminder phone calls? Outsource it!
8. Automate
Whether the tasks are still on your list or you’ve delegated them to your brand-new virtual assistant, there are probably things you can further automate. Can you automate some of these tasks with technology? Can you create templates for the most common emails you send? Can you use email filters to put messages in the correct folders? Can you document repeated tasks so you can delegate them?
9. Be Flexible
Things will not go to plan. It is great and noble to create your dream weekly schedule, block off times for the important stuff, cut the fluff, delegate, automate, and say no to what you don’t want to do. But at the end of the day, you’re the boss. You still have to be flexible with your time to fix broken things, finish things others left behind, and maybe even unplug the toilet.
Don’t be so rigid with your schedule that you can’t go with the flow. If it won’t matter in five years, don’t worry about it for more than five minutes. And if a task on your list only takes five minutes, you might as well do it now. If someone asks for a five-minute favor, maybe you should say yes. Just buy out this time from your backburner items, and the essentials will still get covered.
10. Focus on the Good
There are lots of things you love about what you do. Plenty of people would love to be you. Focus on the good, and everything will feel more manageable. Remember why you started, and be grateful for all the good things you have and get to do.
