Tag: Time management

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The Time Management Techniques to Learn as a New Entrepreneur

The number one skill most successful entrepreneurs understand or take the time to perfect is time management. Proper time management skills are essential for entrepreneurs and business owners as you are now responsible for every part and decision required to run your business.

 

If you are constantly behind schedule, you won’t have the proper focus to create value for your target audience nor have the time to communicate correctly. This can lead to a poor understanding of your marketing and place within the industry altogether. This will ultimately make it harder to market your products and run your business successfully. Thankfully, just like any skill, you can do the work to improve it.

 

The following are important time management techniques to learn as a new entrepreneur:

 

Work in Batches and With Deadlines

Batch work is where you make sure the tasks you start with and work on during your productive hours are similar. This way, you are using your time more efficiently by not going back and forth and, for example, responding to emails while trying to upload blog posts to your WordPress website.

 

While these tasks may seem similar, you will likely waste a lot of time going back and forth from your email provider to your WordPress site. You can easily miss important details required to get your post noticed and the point of the emails you are responding to. Keeping these tasks separate to maximize your time and quality will work best.

 

Use Proper Tools and Technology

Technology is your friend regarding social media and other marketing strategies entrepreneurs need to make. Unfortunately, one person can’t do all the work. However, many tools like Zapier make it easy to automate important yet tedious and repetitive tasks.

Free and Low-Cost Automation Tools You Can Implement Today

Learn To Fight Off Procrastination

Procrastination can instantly kill many start-ups before they even get off the ground. If you don’t do the work, you can’t expect success. Furthermore, an inconsistent schedule or work delivery doesn’t help install the trust and creditability you need to build a solid and successful business.

 

Schedule Everything You Can

A schedule is an entrepreneur’s best friend as it can save you so much time and frustration. It is always a great way to keep you organized between your professional and personal life. Anything you do should be scheduled so you know exactly when and what needs to be done to achieve your goals. First, however, you must conduct a time audit of each task you do so you have a fundamental understanding of how long it takes. This way, you know you are not under or overscheduling your work. It won’t be a valuable tool if you constantly go over schedule.

 

With these time management techniques, you can be sure you are consistently delivering value to your target audience. In addition, proper time management techniques make running a business more manageable as you no longer have to race with the clock to get finished. The more efficient you are with your time, the better your business overall.

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Cultivate The Daily Habit of Asking for Help

Emulating what rich folks do isn’t always best for people who want to live a principled and moral life. However, you can learn how to give yourself an advantage by studying what rich people do differently from what poor people do. When morality and reality collide, it’s a sign that the habit is one that you need to incorporate into your daily life.

 

One super clear thing is that rich people are not afraid to ask for help. Of course, many rich people do not even realize how much support they get, but let’s think about this and then let’s find ways to cultivate the habit of asking for help in your life that is both moral and enriching.

 

Do Not Trade Hours for Dollars

 

While most people you hire will often provide an hourly rate, when you get paid for something, don’t charge by the hour. Instead, figure out what the value of the service is to the recipient and charge what the market will allow. A lot goes into being able to offer the service such as education, experience, connections, and so forth that differentiates you from the next person.

 

Perception, time, education, experience (and so forth) is the reason someone like Bill Gates can command a year’s average salary for a short speech, or a surgeon can charge six figures for an 8-hour procedure – it’s not just about the time. Never has been, but it’s something often taught to the average person to justify low wages.

 

Delegate To Willing Family Members

 

I don’t mean to be stereotypical so if I’m wrong, let me know in the comments, but this advice will probably resonate most with the women. Men are really good at delegating tasks to family members despite their net worth. Women are not as good at doing that, although the habit, according to research, is more prevalent in higher-income earners.

 

We can argue about it, but the best course of action is to think about and narrow it down to only considering what you can control and what you cannot control. You can only control your actions and reactions to things. You can’t control someone else at all. So, if you are feeling resentful in any way against your family because you feel like you are taking on too much work at home, speak up and start delegating just like other confident people do.

 

Outsource To Experts

 

When money is not a concern, the things you spend your money on are different than when you are struggling. Those who are struggling tend to spend more on housing, healthcare, and food, while those in higher tax brackets spend more on experiences and downtime than the necessities of life. However, even so, they are more productive, and this is because they aren’t afraid to outsource to experts to let them do what they do, giving them more free time to have amazing mind-opening experiences. Of course, having time to experience more fun and joy increases their perception of happiness. Set income benchmarks that signal time to outsource all the things you don’t need to be doing to meet those goals and beyond.

 

If you don’t like doing something, stop doing it. Don’t be ashamed of not wanting to clean your own toilet. There is someone out there who values their toilet cleaning skill and who wants nothing more than to be paid good money to clean your bathroom. The same can be said about literally anything in life. If you like doing it, keep doing it. If you don’t like doing it, stop doing it and find someone willing to trade something with you to do it, either money or something else of value.

 

How to Outsource to Save You More Time

 

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Quit These Bad Time Management Habits Now

Adopting the right time management habits and routine for your business is essential for maximum productivity. Obviously, if you don’t have the time or can’t manage it appropriately, you will always be behind.

 

Here are five common bad time management habits you must quit now for better business success:

 

Creating Variable Deadlines

If your deadlines are not strict or hard, then you are only doing yourself a disservice and further using up and wasting time. More so than if you didn’t set one in the first place. Every time you move that deadline, you use adequate time to focus on action instead. Set firm ones to keep you on track and find the discipline you need to be a business owner.

 

Utilizing the Wrong Tools or Too Many

Tools are great until they are not. With any technology or resources, even if they work great for others, it doesn’t mean it will automatically be right for you. Each person and business is unique and needs to be studied, tried, and tested.

 

Doing Easy Tasks First

Don’t use your most productive time on easy or brainless tasks. Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean you should get it out of the way. Use these tasks at the end of your day, or when you don’t need to focus on a bigger or better project that brings you closer to your main objectives.

How To Manage Your Energy

Just imagine you start your workday full of energy, ready to tackle your most demanding project but then fall into the never-ending rabbit hole of emails. Your energy is drained before you know it, and now you have to slug through your work to reach your deadlines. Affecting the quality of your work and likely decreasing your willpower. Making you create excuses to give you permission to change your deadlines and delaying any results that truly make you productive.

 

Zero Time Tracking Tools

If you are not tracking the time it takes you to complete each task, you are not planning appropriately. Effective time management and planning include understanding precisely the time you need to get it done and then applying fifteen to twenty extra minutes to account for the unexpected.

 

Being Someone That You Are Not

Trying to go after all the latest trends or following the advice of everyone around you constantly without taking a break, being dishonest with yourself, and not being true to yourself is a recipe for disaster.

 

Their habits may work for them, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be the most valuable or comfortable for you too. If you keep doing things just because everyone else is but unhappy and uncomfortable about the process, your business and customers will see it too. Always be honest with yourself and keep the journey more personal for more success.

 

Don’t let these bad habits control your life. You have what it takes to do and be better as long as you put in the work and take a moment to reflect.

 

 

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The 2-Minute Rule You Need

This is the 2-minute rule you need to finally end your procrastination or other bad habits and achieve more out of life. Procrastination and other lousy time management habits lead to many missed opportunities and chances for personal growth to build up your business. It encourages laziness and lacks accountability, in turn stalling your momentum, focus, and consistency needed for success.

 

What Exactly Is The 2-Minute Rule?

It’s a stress-free approach to starting new habits and kicking bad ones. It’s a rule designed to help you achieve more goals without feeling overwhelmed and keeps you from delaying action any longer than you should.

 

The two main concepts for the rule include:

 

  • If it only takes two minutes, then get it out of the way right now.
  • Establishing new habits or routines should only take two minutes to begin with.

 

As with most methods, if they are misused, they provide the opposite results than you intend.

 

Here’s how to use the 2-minute rule effectively to kick your bad habits and achieve max productivity:

 

Keep It Relevant and Realistic

Only use the rule if it is relevant to whatever you are doing at that time. In other words, don’t just do whatever task comes to mind if it doesn’t relate to what you are actively doing.

 

For example, if you are trying to finish your next content package for your client, it’s not a good idea to go ahead and get that email notification about your next business meeting out of the way. It is unrelated and will ultimately get you off track and prevent you from finishing your course. Instead, think, “what can I do in two minutes to finish this course?”

 

Don’t Make It Hard

You don’t need to gain success or be the best overnight. Don’t make adopting new habits challenging and overwhelming by speeding up the process. Small gradual changes make it easier to accomplish and stick around long term. For example, science proves that those who lose weight over a more extended period of time maintain the weight longer than those who lose it very quickly.

 

Meaning you shouldn’t focus on what you can’t do; rather, what you can do instead. For just two minutes, what can you do towards changing one bad habit? Then the next day, add two more minutes and keep repeating the process.

 

It’s All About Perspective

The main goal of the 2-minute rule is to change your perspective on how you see a challenge or annoying tasks. You can trick your brain into believing a task is simple and easy, even though it can be hard. Anyone can deal with something for just two minutes, and sometimes the most challenging part is just starting.

 

Give this 2-minute rule a try the next time you feel that you need to push off your work to Monday. You won’t regret giving it a try.

The Secrets to Time Management and Why You Need It

 

 

 

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How to Be Realistic About Time

You know it, and practically the whole world knows it: time is money. It can instantly steal your success if you aren’t being realistic or use it right.

 

The following are a few things to keep in mind to ensure you are realistic about your time:

 

Time Yourself

Make sure you understand how long each essential task takes. How long is the average for you or the person you are working with? Don’t try to rush it or see how fast you can do it.

 

You want the actual time it takes to accomplish each task plus a few minutes to account for variables and unpredictable events. Write these times down in your schedule so you can be sure you schedule enough time out of your day to get finished without interruption or being late for other things.

 

Could You Be Automating That?

Investing in technology or outsourcing your work are great solutions that allow you to add more time to your day essentially. While you may only have 24 hours each day, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it by paying for other peoples’ time.

 

Outsource your blog post content, repeatable social media and email marketing tasks, accounting, and more. Anything these days can be automated as long as you have the income to do it.

 

Stay Focused and Keep Moving

In other words, don’t let yourself get off-plan or run off schedule. Planning, creating goals, and scheduling tasks only work if you do it and stick to it. In fact, the less you stick to your plan, the more work you create. Staying on track prevents burnout, stress and keeps you motivated as you continue to see progression each day.

 

Schedule Appropriately and Don’t Over-Book

No matter how lucrative, fast, or talented you may think you are, overbooking is terrible for business. That is the best way to lead you straight to burnout and dread coming back to work. You don’t need to rush the process to be successful. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

 

It’s Not Just You

As easy as this may sound, it’s easy to get into tunnel vision and only think about what you need to get it done. When in reality, no matter what you do, more than likely other people will be involved too. Never expect the same type of work ethic you display, and always be sure to over-communicate when scheduling meetings or delegating tasks.

 Scheduling to Avoid Burnout: Learn to Take More Breaks

 

eliminate, delegate, automate

In the end, to create a realistic and successful schedule, you need to take time to evaluate every aspect of your life and others. Be aware of your expectations, other people’s expectations, and never underestimate what it takes to get there.