If we want to maximize the little time we have in a day, we must determine what is urgent vs what is important. Once we do this, we are able to improve our time efficiency and mastery. Keep reading if you’d like to learn more about: How to Decide What To Spend Our Time On6 Ways to Improve Time Efficiency

If we want to maximize the little time we have in a day, we must determine what is urgent vs what is important. Once we do this, we are able to improve our time efficiency and mastery. Keep reading if you’d like to learn more about:

  • How to Decide What To Spend Our Time On
  • 6 Ways to Improve Time Efficiency

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If you’re looking for ways to improve time management, you’ve probably said one, if not all, of these things:

“I don’t have enough time to do …”

“If only I could find the time to do …”

“Or “I am too busy to do …”

Listen – here’s a hard truth we have to face: it’s time to stop blaming time. Time is absolute-there are 24 hours (1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds) in a day and that will never change. If you feel that 24 hours is not enough time in a day then the problem isn’t the time, it’s you.

You cannot manage time, you can only manage yourself and your choices. This will allow you to use time efficiently.

Here’s what I mean by this. Everyone, from Bill Gates to the small business owner, has the same time each day – 24 hours. But to be successful, we have to be strategic with our time.

Too often we think we can better manage our time by changing our schedule, extending our work hours, and waking up early to make room for everything we must do. We have to be selective about what we fit in a day and instead of filling up the time with tedious, menial tasks. As business owners, we should be focusing most of our time on things that will help us achieve our business goals.

How to Decide What To Spend Our Time On

If you don’t have enough time now, it’s because of the choices you’ve made in the past, which is great as it means that all you have to do to get more time is to make better choices!

The first step to making better choices is to determine if what we’re doing now is URGENT and/or IMPORTANT? We determine these things by identifying our purpose, vision, and goals.

The things that are urgent to us can be a part of the day-to-day of our business – making calls, creating reports, hiring new employees. The things that are important to us can be developing a 90-day plan, developing our employees, and spending time with our family.

So instead of trying to make time to do everything, we must determine our goals and divide up our list of “urgent” vs “important” tasks to match those goals. It’s okay for some tasks to be completed later down the line or to be delegated to someone else on our team.

Success comes from a laser-like focus on one or two goals. Once they are accomplished, we move on to the next set of goals and focus on those.

6 Ways to Improve Time Efficiency

1. Understand that there is no such thing as too much or too little time. There is enough time in a day for us to be successful –  remember this and believe it. We must take ownership of our situation and be accountable for our results and responsible for our actions.

2. Determine what you want to accomplish. What do you want to be “successful” at?  This may mean being healthier, improving relationships with family and friends, or expanding the business. What we determine is our goal. We must also understand why it’s our goal and the benefits of achieving the goal. Both the goal and our “why” must be written down with a timeframe.

3. Determine the next steps. Once we have decided the goal and our “why”, we must now determine the activities that will be necessary for us to accomplish that goal. We must also determine the time commitment and the sacrifices we must make to achieve this goal. Remember, if it was easy for everyone, we would have already done it. What separates the successful users of time from the unsuccessful ones is the discipline and determination to obtain their goals no matter what. Winners never give up and they never quit on themselves.

4. Prepare our calendar each week. We should create “appointments” to do the activities that we have identified. These are defaulted into our calendar before anything else. We should treat these as if the appointment was with our most important customer. Would we easily change your Monday 2-3 pm “meeting” just because someone asked for that time slot? No, we’d work around it. We should be militant about it.

5. Review your successes/challenges. Evaluate how well you are meeting your schedule each week and adjust where necessary. We must be honest with ourselves and continually reinforce our “why”. Remember what we are trying to accomplish and how important it is to you.

Overall we want to work ON our business and not IN our business and we do this by Time Mastery.

Find an Accountability Partner or Mentor to Keep You on Track.

We can all use help now and then- it is a strength to admit this, not a weakness. Sometimes we need someone to hold us accountable for meeting our goals. That’s where business coaching comes in. Working with a business coach can uncover ways you can free up your time and establish your own time mastery. Contact us today to get connected with a business coach in your area!