By Dania Mahmoud
We can all agree: owning a business is hectic. But when a new task throws itself into the mix of daily routine, small business owners suddenly find themselves overwhelmed with all that must be accomplished in a day.
Luckily, time management habits can help combat your “so much to do, so little time to do it” mindframe. Tax season and other business events should not dictate how you spend your time-- you should. Take control of your schedule; here are five ways to manage your work week wisely.
1. Schedule time for scheduling time.
Setting aside time to plan your day gives you an important sense of productivity. Attempting to plan your whole week in advance can be nerve-wracking, but so is going into your day blind. Instead, take twenty minutes every morning to decide what you’re going to accomplish for the day and how much time each task deserves.
Also be sure to allot some time at night to take a retrospective look at what you’ve accomplished for the day. This gives you a list of completed goals that you can be proud of. You can also use your accomplishment list to increase your productivity. Try estimating how much time it took to complete each task on the list. Do some tasks deserve more time than others? Keep this in mind when planning your goals for the next day.
Write your schedule into your paper planner or on your phone calendar. Now you have a set plan to refer back to throughout the day; use it to keep yourself on track and measure your success.
2. Create SMART goals.
Short tasks might be able to be listed quickly, but when you’re tackling larger goals, make sure they’re SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The SMART model helps you create clear goals that can be measured in progress, are within your resources, and are important to your success. Most importantly, you will set a deadline for your goals so that you have a vision to move towards. Here’s an example of how you might write a SMART goal:
Goal: I want to expand my business’s marketing outreach.
Specific: I will gain one hundred new Facebook followers.
Measurable: I will keep track of how many followers I gain each week.
Attainable: I will reallocate my marketing budget to put more emphasis on Facebook page advertising.
Time-bound: I will gain one hundred followers by the end of the month.
When you make your goals SMART, you spend less time pondering how you’re going to achieve something and more time actually achieving it. To learn more about SMART, check out this pamphlet by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
3. Focus-- don’t jump from task to task.
As an entrepreneur, your mind is probably always going a million miles a minute. It’s hard to stay focused on one task when you’re itching to begin that brilliant idea you just had. Smart phones make focusing even more difficult; the temptation to put your tax papers down and check your Twitter feed is always tantalizing. Your attention is constantly being competed for, and while it may seem like pausing a task to reply to an email or text only takes a short amount of time, the quality of your work can suffer when it is interrupted.
This means you need to make the conscious decision to prioritize your schedule. Choose which tasks deserve the majority of your time, and then spend that time accordingly. Unless there’s an urgent matter at hand, you can schedule a separate time to reply to your contacts.
Turning off your phone or disabling your laptop’s wi-fi before getting down to business is always an option. Cutting off the source of your divided attention is the best way to ensure that you’re using time as efficiently as possible.
4. There’s an app for that.
Maybe you read that last paragraph and thought, “Not a chance!” If you can’t stand the thought of parting from your phone, you can still turn your habit into a time management tool. Install a productivity app that will hold you accountable to your schedule. Apps like Evernote give you notifications when it’s time to move on to your next task while providing you with a space to collect and share notes, documents, and other useful information. Use it to write down your ideas throughout the day and evaluate your to-do list progress.
5. Give me a break!
Scheduling small breaks throughout your day energizes you and can help you return to tasks with a fresh mindset. Knowing that you’ve already set aside time to return phone calls or grab a snack reduces the risk of procrastinating and instead keeps you focused on the task at hand. Unplanned interruptions can ruin your day’s productivity, but scheduled breaks will enhance it. So as you’re planning your day, go ahead and write in that Kit-Kat break!
Sources
U.S. Small Business Administration
Entrepreneur
We can all agree: owning a business is hectic. But when a new task throws itself into the mix of daily routine, small business owners suddenly find themselves overwhelmed with all that must be accomplished in a day.
Luckily, time management habits can help combat your “so much to do, so little time to do it” mindframe. Tax season and other business events should not dictate how you spend your time-- you should. Take control of your schedule; here are five ways to manage your work week wisely.
1. Schedule time for scheduling time.
Setting aside time to plan your day gives you an important sense of productivity. Attempting to plan your whole week in advance can be nerve-wracking, but so is going into your day blind. Instead, take twenty minutes every morning to decide what you’re going to accomplish for the day and how much time each task deserves.
Also be sure to allot some time at night to take a retrospective look at what you’ve accomplished for the day. This gives you a list of completed goals that you can be proud of. You can also use your accomplishment list to increase your productivity. Try estimating how much time it took to complete each task on the list. Do some tasks deserve more time than others? Keep this in mind when planning your goals for the next day.
Write your schedule into your paper planner or on your phone calendar. Now you have a set plan to refer back to throughout the day; use it to keep yourself on track and measure your success.
2. Create SMART goals.
Short tasks might be able to be listed quickly, but when you’re tackling larger goals, make sure they’re SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The SMART model helps you create clear goals that can be measured in progress, are within your resources, and are important to your success. Most importantly, you will set a deadline for your goals so that you have a vision to move towards. Here’s an example of how you might write a SMART goal:
Goal: I want to expand my business’s marketing outreach.
Specific: I will gain one hundred new Facebook followers.
Measurable: I will keep track of how many followers I gain each week.
Attainable: I will reallocate my marketing budget to put more emphasis on Facebook page advertising.
Time-bound: I will gain one hundred followers by the end of the month.
When you make your goals SMART, you spend less time pondering how you’re going to achieve something and more time actually achieving it. To learn more about SMART, check out this pamphlet by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
3. Focus-- don’t jump from task to task.
As an entrepreneur, your mind is probably always going a million miles a minute. It’s hard to stay focused on one task when you’re itching to begin that brilliant idea you just had. Smart phones make focusing even more difficult; the temptation to put your tax papers down and check your Twitter feed is always tantalizing. Your attention is constantly being competed for, and while it may seem like pausing a task to reply to an email or text only takes a short amount of time, the quality of your work can suffer when it is interrupted.
This means you need to make the conscious decision to prioritize your schedule. Choose which tasks deserve the majority of your time, and then spend that time accordingly. Unless there’s an urgent matter at hand, you can schedule a separate time to reply to your contacts.
Turning off your phone or disabling your laptop’s wi-fi before getting down to business is always an option. Cutting off the source of your divided attention is the best way to ensure that you’re using time as efficiently as possible.
4. There’s an app for that.
Maybe you read that last paragraph and thought, “Not a chance!” If you can’t stand the thought of parting from your phone, you can still turn your habit into a time management tool. Install a productivity app that will hold you accountable to your schedule. Apps like Evernote give you notifications when it’s time to move on to your next task while providing you with a space to collect and share notes, documents, and other useful information. Use it to write down your ideas throughout the day and evaluate your to-do list progress.
5. Give me a break!
Scheduling small breaks throughout your day energizes you and can help you return to tasks with a fresh mindset. Knowing that you’ve already set aside time to return phone calls or grab a snack reduces the risk of procrastinating and instead keeps you focused on the task at hand. Unplanned interruptions can ruin your day’s productivity, but scheduled breaks will enhance it. So as you’re planning your day, go ahead and write in that Kit-Kat break!
Sources
U.S. Small Business Administration
Entrepreneur
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