“Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late”
William Shakespeare
Running a small business can be a juggling act. Entrepreneurs must make important decisions on the company’s future, without neglecting the more banal responsibilities of keeping on top of emails and accounts. Time management is essential to ensure no part of the business is ignored.
Time Management is the creation of tools and processes that allow individuals and organisations to accomplish more in a set time period. While time management is critical to success for all individuals, it is of much more importance to entrepreneurs. This is because entrepreneurs are typically faced with tons of challenges each day and quickly compile massive “To Do” lists.
The first step in time management for entrepreneurs is to identify key uses of their time. For example, how much time are spent answering phone calls, having company meetings, traveling to meetings, doing research, managing your team etc.
Here are some tips you can follow to make your time well spent:
1. Prioritise Tasks On A List
There are so many diverse tasks that need to be completed daily that you are almost guaranteed to let something slip. Make a list and you are sure not to miss anything.
2. Keep a Diary
By carefully planning your week with a diary or calendar will ensure you don’t miss anything important on your list. It can also help avoid wasting precious time and ensure you maintain a healthy work-life balance.
You will find yourself needing to stay on top of things. Filling and sorting stuff periodically and steadily revising and improving your arrangement to fit your changing needs.
Once it becomes a habit, you’ll just keep doing it automatically.
3. Delegate
When you have the right people working with you, you worry less. In order to take some of the pressure off yourself, you must learn how to make the best use of your staff.
Choose the simplest of the time-consuming tasks – those with a clear process, outcome and deadline – that you could assign comfortably to someone else. This will allow you to focus on those tasks which require your personal attention.