Effective Time Management Tips for Small Business Owners
As a small business owner, you understand that time is the greatest asset you can ever have. It is possible to lose your hard-earned money and get it back. In fact, you can even lose your business and acquire it back. However, you cannot retrieve time. Thus, there is a need to protect it. The following are some effective time management tips for small business owners.
Start with Time Logging
Before doing anything else, you should complete a day of time logging. Get a sheet of spreadsheets or paper and start from the time you wake up and sleep. Ensure you track every single minute of your day as you list the different tasks you have done and the total amount of time it takes. There is a need to track everything for this to be useful. Do not try to change your behavior on this particular day.
Identify Your Big Time Wasters
After completing a time logging day, you will easily discover where you are wasting most of the time. Using your time log, try to categorize all the activities you have done after this do simple basic calculations to determine the amount of time to spend on every activity. That will help you determine where you are spending too much time. Some of the categories to consider include Phone, Email, Meetings, Calls, Errands, Breaks, and non-productive tasks.
Use the Pomodoro Technique
This is a popular time management technique that involves setting a timer for 25-minutes as you focus on a single specific task. After this, you should take a short 5-minute break before beginning another task. Ideally, you can customize this technique to suit your activities. The good thing about time logging is that it helps you see where you spend a lot of time and too little time. That will help you to set your daily goals and weekly goals for the tasks you are planning to accomplish.
Apply the 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule is an important technique that can help you determine where you spend a lot of time. Ideally, the rule states that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your efforts. Thus, your task is to increase the amount of time you spend on productive tasks in each category. Remember that this is a process, and you should keep applying it each time until you have an idea of where to get the most buck for your time.
