Make More Time in Your Day

8 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day? If you’re consistently having trouble checking everything off your to-do list, I hope these hacks can help! Successful entrepreneurs adopt habits and take control of their schedules to be more efficient and effective.

1. Track your time.

Effective time management starts with an understanding of how you spend your days. Things like email, phone calls and meetings can eat up more time than you expect. Track your daily activities to get an accurate account of where your time goes.

2. Simplify tasks.

Now that you know where most of your time is going, what can you simplify, automate or delegate? Look for shortcuts and systems to make those repetitive tasks easier and simpler.

Create templates for emails, letters, or social media posts
Use tools such as Calendly to automate booking meetings
Develop workflows or processes that break down jobs into simpler tasks

3. Block off time for work (and fun!)

Successful entrepreneurs take control of their schedules. Block off time to focus on the specific tasks you need to get done. It could be an hour every week to complete bookwork and invoicing or a daily walk to clear your head

4. Practice saying No thanks!

Take a close look at the tasks in your day and the projects on your plate. Is there anything eating up your time that you could say no to? Often, we say yes without fully thinking through the time commitment. But don’t be afraid to set boundaries and say no thanks if you don’t have the time.

5. Pick up the phone – eek.

Back and forth emails can be time-consuming. If an issue or message arises that you know will take time to resolve, picking up the phone or hoping on a quick meeting can help you bang it out all in one sitting.

6. Pass off what you can.

As entrepreneurs, we can be serial DIYers, piling it all upon ourselves. While we all need to wear many hats in a day, asking for support and outsourcing tasks is the best way to free up your schedule so you can focus on the things only YOU can do.

7. Prioritize.

Not all tasks and projects are created equal. Not everything is due immediately. Look at your tasks and break them up into four areas:

Important & urgent (meeting client deadlines)
Important & non-urgent (responding to emails)
Non-important & urgent (answering the phone)
Not Important & Non-Urgent (watching TV)

8. Use Time-Saving Hacks.

Use tried and true hacks to help you take control of your time. We all have those little time-sucks (Wordle, anyone?) or ways to procrastinate and put off the tasks we don’t want to do. Using tricks to get moving can help you take control of your time.

The 2-Minute rule - If it won't take any more than 2 minutes, get it done and out of the way.
Eat the frog – We often procrastinate because we dread doing something. But the longer we procrastinate, the more we build it up in our minds, so it's best to just do it! Often, it’s not as bad as you thought.
The 5 Second Rule – If you’re not looking forward to doing something, count down from 5, jump up and get it over with!

Workaround your best times – We all tend to have a time of day when we are most productive and on the ball. Schedule your most important work during your best time.

In an overly busy world, we all seem to have too much on the go. While there are certainly time-saving hacks that can make us more productive and efficient, we also need to take time to slow down and have fun. Because life is so much more than how much we accomplish at the end of the day!

If you need any support we will always offer FREE business needs assessments!

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