Can you save time? No. There isn’t some kind of time-bank where you can deposit that spare hour until you need a ‘time withdrawal’. So, let’s consider time management tips.
365 days in a year – 52 weeks in a year – 7 days in a week – 168 hours in a week – 24 hours in a day – 60 minutes in an hour – 3,600 seconds in an hour – 60 seconds in a minute.
I don’t care which figures you use, you have exactly the same number of seconds, minutes, days, weeks and years as every other person on the planet.
You have as much time as every successful entrepreneur.
It’s not time that is the problem; it’s what you do with the time you have.
- Many employees dream of their transition into entrepreneurship. They have their idea, but feel that time is against them: “How can I work full-time and start a business?”
- Many mature people feel time is their enemy; do they have the time to develop their idea, learn new business skills and start a business that makes a profit?
- Many start-up business owners believe there is no time to do ‘business’ because they have to spend all of their time doing their ‘passion’
- Many established business owners think they don’t have time because they have to keep the treadmill turning.
We all have our personal, time rabbit-holes that whisk us off until…. “Where did that hour go!?”
I know what mine are: TV – I love the telly and it’s often quantity over quality; my bed – I have always hated getting up in the morning. I don’t care how Iate I have to work as long as I can have a lie-in; anything with cats – pictures, videos can keep me entertained for hours.
Do you Know What Time-Thieves Are?
How do you manage them?
Do you manage them?
Let’s get brutal. If you don’t acknowledge what your time-thieves are and if you don’t do everything you can to manage them, you will never have enough time.
End of!
So, here eight of the major time-thieves I have identified in my years as a Business Mentor, and my top tips for keeping them at bay.
1. Not Planning
Interestingly, the people who most often tell me they have no time are those people who have done nothing to identify the actual time they have or the actions they need to take within that time-frame.
It would be so simple if we have a business idea, start a business, grow a business and have a successful business within a ‘business bubble’. Everything outside that bubble still happens regardless of whether we take part or not. Kids still get to school, the shopping miraculously appears in the fridge, the washing and ironing is always done, birthday cards and presents are bought and so on.
But it doesn’t happen like that. This is why planning is essential.
I’m not talking about formal business plans; they take no account of your daily life. I am talking about a plan that shows all of your commitments – both personal and business – and highlights the gaps where you can actually get on with business.
Top Tip: Carry out a ‘time and motion study’ over a period of 4 weeks. Be honest with yourself. Make a note of what you are doing every hour / every day of the week. When you analyse the data what does it tell you? How are you spending your time? Are there things you could / should change?
If you can alter your pattern to give you 15 minutes extra a day that’s an hour and fifteen minutes a week or 5 hours a month. Think what you could do with an extra 5 hours every month.
2. Family and Friends
We love them, but they do demand time.
You read about the stress caused to people on the career ladder who want to be the best employee in their field as well as the best parent, child, friend etc. And they are employees. Earning a salary. It gets paid every month.
Now consider the micro or side-hustle business owner. They have to be the best in their field; they also have to be the marketer, the accountant, the bookkeeper etc – as well as the best parent, child, friend with absolutely no guarantee of salary.
You cannot have it all
Top Tip: Have ‘the conversation’. Only you know what your family and friends commitments are. However, when you start a business it’s important for you to be clear with the people around you that there will be occasions when you may not be able to be there. You don’t love them any less it’s just that time is a commodity in short supply.
3. Over-Consumption
I have already confessed that TV is a big one for me. But let TV stand for over-consumption of any activity. This could mean music, video games, reading, networking, attending training, Facebook, listening to inspirational speakers.
You may question the inclusion of things like reading, networking or training. The fact is none of the things I have listed (and quite a few I haven’t) are bad for you – many of them are really good for you. The problem is that they are often used as a displacement activity. “I can’t sit and make client lead calls because I have to ….” (You fill in the blanks)
Reading for 30 minutes a day rather than an hour will give you two and a half hours a week or 10 hours a month.
Top Tip: When you create your plan, schedule specific times for the things you like to do. Or use them as a reward after a job well done.
4. Organising Your Personal Activities
Everyone has personal activities and responsibilities — there is no way around them. While you can’t avoid things such as supermarket shopping, trips to the bank, going to the gym and other miscellaneous errands, you can structure them in a way that makes you more efficient.
Saving 10 minutes a day by grouping personal activities will give you 50 minutes a week or two hours 10 minutes a month.
Top Tip: If you group activities together so that they flow into each other you will accomplish more. For example, pop to the supermarket on Tuesday morning after the gym; take an hour out for lunch, go for a walk and visit the bank and the post office. Grouping these tiny tasks together can save masses of time.
5. Set Realistic Goals
This goes back to planning and knowing exactly how much time you have. If you set yourself goals for activities that cannot be achieved in the time you have (rather than the time you think you have) YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL.
So, you haven’t got as much time Just rearrange your completion date. Understand things will take longer.
Top Tip: Plan. Plan. Plan. Know how much time you have and set yourself realistic targets. If you find yourself running out of time reorganise the completion date. If it’s a deadline you cannot miss acknowledge the fact that you are going to have to put in some late nights and early mornings (and maybe miss that birthday party).
6. Keep Accountable
Being a micro or side-hustle business owner can be incredibly lonely. It can also be incredibly hard because everything in the business is you and is, therefore, determined by your skills, knowledge and experience.
The earlier along in the process you acknowledge that you cannot do it on your own the easier it will become and the faster you will achieve your goals. To illustrate this here is something one of my clients wrote as part of a testimonial.
I have been able to clarify the goals for my business that had been fuzzy in my head, test other business ideas and be kept accountable for the work I am pouring into my business. It is clear in my mind that a large chunk of the business development I have done over the last few months have been successful because of Kathy’s guidance.
Top Tip: Find someone who has been there, done that and bought the T-shirt. In other words, a Business Mentor who can guide you, act as a sounding board and is not afraid to tell you to just get on and do it. Why not book a complimentary conversation with me to discover how I help?
What are the your personal time-thieves? What methods do you use to ensure you get everything done? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
I have read this before but for some reason it resonates more this time. Its so difficult to find the right balance between work/life personal life.
It can be a struggle, Rachael. It seems to be all or nothing most of the time 🙂 The biggest thing is to be aware of what you are doing, make it a conscious decision, rather than having things just ‘happen’