We all know that a key to being a successful entrepreneur is learning to manage your time well. But, with so many “best practices” out there, how do you decide what works best for you? Keep reading.
90 minute blocks vs. The Pomodoro method
Find your time management method to structure your whole work day around. I’ve found that most people tend to use either 90 minute time blocks or the Pomodoro method. The Pomodoro method is 25 minutes of working with 5 minute breaks in between.
Depending on what you do, you can vary between both in different stages of your projects. If you tend to get distracted by your phone I’d suggest the Forest app to stay focused.
Do your most-frequently-procrastinated things first
Nobody wants to hear it, but doing the worst task on your list first really helps a lot to keep going the rest of the day.
There is always something we procrastinate and finally doing it will definitely lead to a boost in motivation. Yes, this means sorting your receipts for taxes needs to come first in your day. It can actually lift a big weight off of you.
In the words of Nike: Just do it!
Have a lot to do? Use this system.
If you have too much on your mind and tend to be overwhelmed a lot, try writing down every task that comes to your mind.
It doesn’t matter if it’s writing an email or looking into someone to paint your house. Everything coming to your mind goes onto that list and after that you sort all these things into the following categories:
- Urgent & easy
- Urgent & hard
- Not urgent & easy
- Not urgent & hard
After you’re done with this excercise, you know what to prioritize next: The urgent and easy things. That will make your list shorter and your motivation stronger. This time management system works in pretty much any profession.
Save time by creating templates
A big saver in time management is templates for the things you do very frequently. That can be an FAQ for your website, creating an email template for your most common email answers, or maybe a Photoshop or Canva template for your social media posts. S
tore them somewhere for easy access, and you will notice how much faster you work. My social media templates really save me a lot of time, so I can focus on more important tasks.
Batch!
If you have a blog try to write as much as you can in a phase you are inspired to do so.
Create the graphics all at once to stay in a flow & pre-plan those posts on another day.
It will take you a few days, but then you’ll have at least a month that you don’t need to think about that part of your job.
This also works great for social media content. Plan, shoot and edit pictures, source a few copyright-free images, and schedule your whole month.
Not worrying about that part for a few weeks frees a lot more time in your time management system. This is also an incredibly important tip if your motivation tends to be unstable. A true lifesaver for any business owner.
Ready to finally master time management, ditch the overwhelm, and increase your productivity in life and business? Get our Ultimate Guide to Time Management.
