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3 Easy Ways to Manage your Time as an Entrepreneur
"To be successful, entrepreneurs have to become good managers and that starts with managing one's self."
- Rony Israel
Time is one of the scarcest resources on earth and the best way to handle it is to manage it. Carefully. When you work for yourself, you have full control over everything that you do and all the decisions that you make. If you decide to wake up and spend all day doing nothing, guess what happens?
Nothing.
When stepping into entrepreneurship, it's important for you to understand how to manage your time wisely. So, I conjured up a few of my favorite tips on how to properly manage your time in order to be more productive. With that being said, continue reading for some easy ways to combat with time management as an entrepreneur.
Time your tasks
Many people prefer not to work under a lot of pressure, but as an entrepreneur, we tend to be under pressure more than usual. Whether you're making a big decision or coming up on a deadline, you're constantly working towards something when there is "never enough time" to complete it.
One thing that I like to do is time my tasks. Sometimes I have so much to do, that I get caught up on one thing and end up spending ALL of my time on it. This is one of the worst habits you can have as an entrepreneur, especially when you have a laundry list of tasks to complete. In order to stop this from happening, I give myself between 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete or work on one task at a time. The time frame can vary depending on how much time is needed to complete the task and when the deadline is.
I simply set the timer on my phone or watch, plug in my head phones and get to work. When the timer goes off, I stop and move on to the next task. Simple, right?
Plan ahead
Procrastination is your worst enemy as an entrepreneur and is one of the top reasons why most of us get nothing done. Google calendar is my favorite app. I make sure I add everything from meetings to phone calls and lunch dates into my calendar so that I can plan out my weeks ahead of time. I also like to set events at least 30 minutes before the actual start time to avoid being late.
Do you utilize the calendar app on your phone? If not, you should. It will definitely help you to stay organized and manage your availability a lot better.
Prioritize your tasks
The key to managing your time is prioritizing your tasks. After you determine what actually needs to be done and set specified deadlines, you should now be able to decide which tasks should be completed first.
I always recommend completing the hardest tasks first. That way, you can maximize your time on the tasks that take the longest to complete. Even if the deadline is far out, being able to complete a little bit of that task each day, will help you to stay on schedule.
I really hope these three easy tips will help you to save lots of your time when tackling your to-do lists for the weeks ahead.
Here are some of my favorite items that I use to keep me organized and on track to managing my time wisely:
- Notebook