The Best Kept Secrets to Time Management
- Alexis Isom
- Jul 1, 2022
- 2 min read
To be a successful small business owner, you have to manage your time. To be successful at managing your time, you must also be successful at understanding the mindset, the best way to plan, and the tools that work for you.
Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. … The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. … What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.
Atomic Habits, pg. 15
By wanting to better manage your time, you will most likely need to change your habits. Start by picking one new time management tool, then implement it into your small business long enough that you
Decide if it is the correct tool for your business and,
It becomes integrated into your business systems and procedures.
The most common time frame to gauge a new habit is 21 days. However, if your business runs on quarterly goals, you may take those 3 months to implement one new tactic. Your patience in exploring slowly will pay off.
Having effective time management for your small business will involve you saying “no.” It can be hard to cultivate the skill of declining. When you say “no,” you are choosing your priorities and plans for your time. When you say “yes” to something other than what you scheduled your time for, you are also saying “no” to what you had already committed to. Now, of course, there will always be times when schedules need to shift. Creating boundaries around the time you spend in your small business will help you navigate when to say “no” or “yes.”
In Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism, he says:
The more we think about what we are giving up when we say yes to someone, the easier it is to say no. If we have no clear sense of the opportunity cost- in other words, the value of what we are giving up – then it is especially easy to fall into the non-essential trap of telling ourselves we can get it all done. We can’t. A graceful “no” grows out of a clear but unstated calculation of the trade-off. Essentialism, pg. 138
Some examples of where to say “no” within your small business:
When you procrastinate out of fear (of judgment, of failure, or of the unknown). If you find yourself not working on what you had scheduled time to do, notice this and examine why you’ve chosen (either consciously or unconsciously) to avoid the work. This insight can help inform you of mindset changes you may need to work on.
When you become distracted. Say “no” to social media, friend’s calls, and emails (to name a few) during your promised focused work time.
When your work is the priority. Your friend may invite you to a last-minute lunch date, or your client may “need” a meeting with you that day. You get to decide if those really should take priority over what you had already scheduled for the day.
For more resources on this topic:
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