It’s seldom understood by the general public: the struggle and difficulty of entrepreneurship such as daily mental exercise that requires numerous activities like sales, marketing, business strategy, planning, networking, and researching. It’s what some consider a state of mind wherein the personal and professional combine, all to ensure you can scale and grow your business or launch your startup.

This often results in entrepreneurs struggling to cope with the daily tasks and responsibilities like hopping on calls and attending events just to name a few. You have to take into consideration every decision you made or are about to make. This is why entrepreneurs look to efficiently handling their time.

Almost all starting entrepreneurs get burnt out because they can’t manage their busy lives. When workload far exceeds the time you have on the clock, stress, exhaustion, and depression kick in. Even experienced entrepreneurs experience such; however, they have pushed through those struggles and adapted important time management techniques and strategies. They can now fully handle the task and responsibilities without causing any problems in their workload. This clearly shows the importance of time management techniques.

Here are some of the things you can start doing to save time for your busy lives:

1. Schedule

Not everyone has the memory of a genius. You don’t want to be put in a situation when one important meeting was forgotten. This would make you look very unprofessional.

A decade ago, people had to use calendar notebooks to ensure those meetings were not forgotten. With new technology, inventions and gadgets come new ways in keeping a schedule.

Online calendars prevent you from filling your work bags with one more notebook. Apart from writing down your schedule, it reminds you of it as well. As long as you’re online, you’ll never miss a meeting. With a phone, you can use the ever-famous Google Calendar.

       2. Use Technology

Speaking of technology, there are other advancements humanity has made to make your life easier. You can save time and manpower using technology in your business. In some parts of the world, some businesses use technology to its fullest, leading to some becoming fully automated.

As they say, work smarter and not harder. If you need a little bit more help, you can use time-saving apps. Become productive without wasting time using the apps below. Here are some benefits of time-saving technological advancements that could save you a headache or two:

• No need to go to any payment centers. Set up your billing payments online through numerous payment services.
• Using zapier app integration to integrate all of your marketing campaign tools in one app. This will save you a lot of time from opening one app to another.
• There are now apps like Time Doctor that track what you’re doing. You can use this to assess and manage time-consuming activities.
• Need a way to communicate to your teams? Whether its multiple stores, offices, or shops, automation services can help.
• Use a paperless system instead of using paper and a folder to file all your documents. You can store all your information in a cloud-based server. That way, you can easily search for information or files you need without wasting your time flipping all the folders in your records room.

     3. Focus on one task

Most startups need a lot of work yet have few personnel on hand. This forces you to multitask. However, this also results in you not focusing on the essential work.

It’s false that doing multiple tasks will help you complete the project. There’s power in focusing on one task. That way, you don’t get distracted with the other responsibilities.

You’re able to be more productive and make less mistakes. This will ensure an efficient use of your time. You also don’t feel overwhelmed by the endless list of tasks on your plate. Deutsch 

     4. Don’t entertain distractions

It’s easy to let yourself get distracted by current events in your professional and personal life so much that you sometimes are pulled away from your work. This causes you to lose focus.

The problem with distractions is self-discipline. You sometimes let yourself drift away from work or tasks and responsibilities. You entertain guests and friends or take personal calls despite your deadline closing in. Don’t let this happen, and start disciplining yourself. Thus, you can say no to all of those distractions.

Saying no doesn’t only come in one word. It’s how you handle work and its load. You can see some examples below:

• Avoid activities that use up too much time. That mostly means no phone time or avoiding chatting with someone for a long time. Instead, make it a brief discussion.
• If you have something important to do, set your messenger or social media account status to away or busy. Be proactive.
• Assess all projects beforehand. Time is more valuable than money. Don’t go after projects that use up too much time yet yield so little results.
• Lastly, remember that you have the power and right to say no. You own your time, don’t let others influence your decision on how to use it.

     5. Outsource Employees

Asking for help is hard, especially for most entrepreneurs. They’re perfectionists at heart and would do anything to ensure the success of a project. As such, they believe they’re the only ones capable of completing a said task.

As a result, burnout sets in, and slowly but surely, a project or business fails horribly. Asking for help would have prevented this. One way is outsourcing wherein you outsource or give certain tasks or responsibility to an individual who is capable. Outsourcing these days goes to contractors and subcontractors, online or in-house.

Online outsourcing has exploded the marketplace, providing various help from simple data encoding to complex coding. With a wide range of individuals coming from different modes, you can find one who can help you with your business. Most of the time, outsourced employees are flexible to your needs and wants.

In spite of the growing market, others still do it themselves. Some do so as it’s hard for them to relinquish control. The main reason is usually simple: cost. Although it may be true in some cases, what you gain in cost, you lose in time, sleep, and growth.

To help you understand it, here are some benefits you can gain with outsourcing:

• Less workload results in a more focused individual. Business owners can now give more time and effort to responsibilities that are deemed more important. They can either start a new venture or focus more on their personal lives.
• Some business owners require expertise in certain fields like social media advertising. This part of advertising has become a cornerstone of any successful business. Anyone with enough experience and skill can post messages and advertise. Outsourcing this would cost much less and not require more of any owner’s time. These professionals do not only offer message posting and advertising. Some can even provide value added services like data analysis, content creation, and more. You can find even more skilled individuals online.

     6. Communication Is Key

The old practice is setting up meetings to ensure everyone is up-to-date on any and all changes of the project. With new technology, you can use CRMS like Slack or even Google Hangouts to keep in touch with the progress and changes of a project, ensuring no one is left behind on any little or large change. This doesn’t only save time; it also increases the level of communication in the workplace.

     7. Stop and Reflect

Time is very important to an entrepreneur. You seldom forget to look back and see the success and failures along the way, as you push on to completing a project. Some mistakenly see this as a waste of time, as no task is accomplished.

Time management doesn’t only mean eliminating time-wasting tasks, but also making time for important tasks. Reflection doesn’t only show your success, but helps you reevaluate the mistakes. This will inevitably prevent you from making the same mistakes over again. Take a few moments of your time to reevaluate the day. Ask yourself these important questions:

• What did you accomplish?
• What task are you most proud of today?
• Does your calendar give priority to your project’s needs?
• What did you do wrong today?
• What did you do right?
• Did you do everything you needed to do? Can you do more?

Conclusion

Following everything in this article will not be an easy task. This article may not be the first or the last article that can help you along the way. But, as business owners, you must work toward your goal, utilizing all techniques and skills at your disposal.

Time management will always be the center of all projects. It’s up to you to utilize all the tips and techniques written in the article. Time can be your friend or enemy. It’s up to you to use time well. You must manage it to ensure your businesses and projects become successful.

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