When we look at some of the most successful entrepreneurs on planet earth, we can learn quite a bit from them in so many different areas of business, but also secrets for our personal lives. These secrets can be something like finding out how they get funding for their new startups, or some marketing plans and ideas.
Some of the inherent quality traits that a successful entrepreneur possess that helps them be the most successful is the ability to pay attention to time management. Time management helps so that the entrepreneur will be able to handle starting businesses as well as keeping perspective on family and other priorities in life, without going absolutely nuts.
We All Have 24 Hours in a Day
Each person has only so many hours in a day, so it is important that we make each and every one of them count. In business, there is a concept that many don't quite understand. Money is a commodity that we can replace. Time, on the other hand, is something that we can never get back once it is gone. What this means is that we need to be adept at working in a mode that gets the job done when it is supposed to be done, rather than always playing the catching up game. While managing your time is far easier said than done, we need to make it a focus in everyday life, whether it is a work day or not (but who are we kidding, for a startup, every day is a work day).
Save Your Energy by Creating a Routine
Making sure to wake up and keep to a set routine is invaluable. One of the pieces of advice I like to give to budding entrepreneurs is to make a list of the things to accomplish the next day, before hitting the sack at night. That way, when the unexpected urgencies come up, you will be less likely to throw your plan out the window, you will simply modify it. If you have this routine set up, you will make sure that your unplanned events do not de-prioritize your planned day tasks. If you can introduce this kind of predictability into your daily schedule, your time starts to be more predictable and effective.
You may also want to consider beginning your list of the things you would like to get done in the next week. This is a list of what may be calculated as "b" priorities, but they are not tasks that you want to completely disregard. Separating the first list from the second one, will help distinguish and separate the urgent needs for the day with the semi-urgent needs that you start working on.
Always Strategize with Your Eyes on the Prize
The biggest flagship for time management is to make sure you have an end goal, something that you are striving to work toward every single day - something driving you to be successful. When we have sight of the end goal, it puts into perspective what we are using our time for, and how we are prioritizing it. Setting a timeframe for the goal to be finished is a must.
For example, if you give yourself ninety days to do a certain project, and you end up working on something that is not as high a priority as your main goal, begin to notice that your goal is still waiting for you, and waiting, and waiting...
It's a huge time waster and your time would be far better spent completing the task that you set in the first place. Notice that you were thinking of this first, more important goal that you didn't do - the whole time you were working on goal "b" and thus you were distracted, causing the secondary task to take a lot longer than it would have if you had given it your full attention.
Take a look at your time management skills, prioritize, plan, and stick to the plan, and see your productivity increase tenfold - and you'll be less stressed, too!