There’s a lot in life and in business that we can run out of and just go get more. Supplies, products, customers, and even money can all be replenished. But there is one thing that we all need that is gone forever once it runs out. That is time.
As an entrepreneur, you probably often feel like there’s just not enough time in the day to get things done — I know I do. You need to email customers, market your products or services, update your blog, record your podcast, fulfill your orders, post on social media, and so much more. Juggling your personal life with your business can make it all very overwhelming.
When you’re an ambitious person, you try to pack as much productivity as possible into the time you have available. If you don’t have a workable time management plan, you can find yourself running in circles and getting nothing done.
My One Bold Action per Day commitment has really helped me to become much more productive, because I implemented a few simple time management strategies into my day. Here are 5 time management tips I use that can help you get more out of your day:
Have a Plan
One of the most important things you can do to make the most of your day is to have a plan. My personal favorite way of coming up with a quick daily plan is to write daily goals. I’m a big stickler for this, because it actually works. Prior to embarking on my One Bold Action per Day commitment, I didn’t write daily goals and I was not very productive at all. I’d find myself working on the same things for days and barely making any progress.
Since incorporating the practice of writing daily goals, I’ve been extremely productive. I usually have around 5 main goals that I tackle every day. Use the 66 Days of Bold Action Daily Planner I created to write and organize your daily goals. You can download it for free here.
1–3 Large Tasks per Day
I make it a rule to only plan between 1 and 3 large tasks per day. If I know that a particular task is going to take me hours to complete, I’ll plan to do that and a number of smaller tasks. Keeping the number of large tasks you plan to complete on any given day between 1 and 3 makes accomplishing your daily goals more realistic and less intimidating.
Minimize Distractions
Turn off phones, televisions, and anything else that distracts you from making progress. If you need to seclude yourself from other people while you work, do so. Keep your space free from things that will kill your productivity, and once you get the work going, keep the momentum.
Prioritize Your Work
Organize and plan each task in the order of importance. Things that are more important should be worked on first or at a time of the day when you have the least amount of distractions. If you have kids and you know that you can get bigger tasks done when they’re sleep, then plan those tasks accordingly. Getting the most important things done first, ensures that you’re at your best and less likely to be stressed out when you work on them.
Group Like Tasks
Group tasks that are similar in nature together. For example, if you have to write a blog post and you have to write an email to send your customers, you might want to do those tasks back to back. Here’s why. If you have to get your creative juices going in order to write your blog post, and you need to do the same to write your email blast, you wouldn’t want to get a good writing rhythm going only to stop and break that rhythm by doing something totally unrelated. In this case, you should keep writing while you’ve got the juice.