- Do's and Don'ts.
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Managing time can be an all too real struggle for entrepreneurs these days. With so much to do in both our work and personal lives, it can be challenging to get things done during the day.
Engaging and maintaining your productivity is a difficult thing to do for most people, especially when the Internet is just a mouse click away, and unfortunately, your bad habits are killing your productivity. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way.
There are many ways for us to improve our time management skills to help us get more accomplished in less time.
All it takes to get your productivity back on track is a little awareness and some quick action on your part.
Use the following tips to improve your time management skills as an entrepreneur and find out which habits kill your time management efforts and decrease your productivity.
DO – Make a Schedule and Stick to It
You can start to improve your time management skills by taking the time to organize your days and weeks in advance. While there will always be surprises that you’ll have to deal with, you’re more likely to be able to tackle those surprises better because you have an idea about what tasks and responsibilities you have to deal with each day.
DO – Prioritize
Learning how to prioritize is another way to improve time management skills. If you want to execute your projects efficiently, then you have to decide which stages or components of the project are essential to your business. You have to be able to determine which activities and tasks will deliver the best returns for your business.
Here you can see an example of how you can use Trello to accomplish this. Click on the picture and use the template for your business.
DO – Set Boundaries
If you want to be able to work in peace, then you need to inform those you work with when you’re not available. Your partners and employees can’t read minds, so it is your job to set appropriate boundaries when necessary. Make sure that you communicate your limits in a polite, yet direct manner to ensure that you can have the time you need to work on essential tasks.
DO – Have a Work Routine
You’re setting yourself up for disaster if you are in the habit of working whenever you feel like it.
It is essential you establish a work routine if you want to get your mind into a productive gear. Without a work routine, you will always go into your work mode cold, which can make getting into the zone much harder.
DO – Account for Good Distractions
There will always be distractions that get the best of you, no matter how hard you try to avoid them. However, no one can work for hours on end, and to stay productive, we all need breaks. The best thing you can do is accept this reality and try to incorporate some distractions into your schedule. Try to block out some downtime every day. This might mean setting aside a few minutes to take a short walk, grab a cup of coffee, or find some other stress management activities that you can do.
DON’T – Multitask
Of all the bad habits, one of the worst and most common is multitasking.
Multitasking tricks you into producing incomplete, subpar work daily. When you fall into the habit of multitasking, you aren’t doing multiple tasks at the same time, but rather you are giving partial focus to a single task while giving the majority of your attention to switching jobs.
DON’T – Be a Perfectionist
Another common productivity killer is perfectionism, which can manifest itself in many ways, including being thrown off balance when thing don’t go your way or having unrealistically high work standards. When you set unrealistic standards for work, you will tend to work your tasks to death. This can lead to falling behind, which then causes a mountain of tasks to buildup.
DON’T – Have a Giant To-Do List
When you are creating your to-do list, it can be easy to get overzealous and fill it with a dozen or more tasks, that you most likely won’t be able to complete.
If you can only finish half of your to-do list at the end of the day, it can lead to you feeling overwhelmed. Unfortunately, when you start to feel overwhelmed, you can quickly lose your momentum.
DON’T – Be Indecisive
Indecision can quickly bring a productive work session to a halt.
When you don’t know what to decide on, you end up sifting through the information you have and mentally rehearsing the pros and cons until you end up making a decision. Indecisiveness can eat up a lot of energy and willpower in the process and derail your work.
Managing your time requires discipline, planning, and a healthy attitude.
However, if you get it right, you will start to notice improved productivity and lower levels of stress.
A few bad habits could be responsible for killing your time management efforts. If you find that your productivity is lacking, take a look at your daily habits to see if any of them could be sabotaging your time management efforts and productivity.
