Time Management Part 1: The 3 Ways You Are Managing Your Time Wrong (and How to Fix It)
Everyone wants to learn better time management. It’s an epidemic out there — a battle that we as entrepreneurs are always fighting. How do we time manage so that we can get more money and find more space to breathe?
As someone who has read tons of time management books, books on how to get more money, and books on how the brain works — here’s what I’ve learned: most of us are doing this wrong!
Not because we are stupid or lazy — but because the stuff out there is out-dated, or uber “push” oriented, or just plain silly. I’ve learned that we have to work with our nature and not against it. And when we do that — everything becomes easier.
Let’s get started and get to the heart of time management made better:
1. I’ll Wait Until I Finish My To-Do List
What We Tell Ourselves: “When I get to the end of my to-do list, I’ll take more time off, hang out with friends, take care of myself, etc….”
The Truth: I’m sorry to break this to you — but it ain’t never going to happen! That to-do list will always be miles long. In fact, the more driven and successful you are — the longer that list will be!
The Solution: Look at your running to-do list daily. I use both evernote and Teamwork PM for my to-do lists. Prioritize the most important tasks each day, using the Eisenhower matrix — see below. Focus on finishing the tasks that fall under the urgent and important category. CHOOSE NO MORE THAN 3 TASKS THAT FIT INTO THIS CATEGORY PER DAY.
For those things that are important, but not urgent, make sure to make time for them during your project time (see steps below). For all other tasks — delegate, delete, or defer until later.
Remember, you aren’t EVER going to get it all done. One of the keys to better time management is to learn to celebrate getting to your THREE urgent and important tasks. Then make a plan to get to your urgent but not important tasks. And then let the rest go!
If you are struggling to prioritize and use the matrix — I’ll be writing a future article on that one! Once I write it I’ll come back here to update the link. ( Time Management Part 3: How to Finally Find the Time to Get It All Done!)
2. I’ll Do Everything Myself
What We Tell Ourselves: “I can get it all done on my own. It will be cheaper and faster for me to do it on my own.”
The Truth: We really aren’t good at everything! And often having someone else help you to do things will save you time and money. For example, even in the writing of this newsletter — there is someone else on my team who is doing the editing, formatting, picking out the photos, etc. I used to think I was good at those things — until I started getting help. Then I quickly realized that writing was in my zone of genius — and everything else — that could be handled by others.
The Solution: Realize that every task can be broken down into multiple parts. And usually there are some parts that someone else can do. For example, if you are making a powerpoint presentation, someone else can put together the slide template and pick out the pictures. You can do the slide outline.
If you are shooting videos, someone else can help with setting up the cameras and the lights, and even writing out your scripts on big pieces of paper. You can focus on practicing and then doing the videos.
If you are hosting a meeting, someone else can buy the snacks, set up the office, and make the copies. You can focus on creating the agenda and being prepared to run the meeting.
Once you understand that every task can be broken into parts — the trick is to give yourself enough time to delegate the parts that can be delegated.
For those of you that are worried about money — know this — focusing on generating revenue doing sales conversations is a far better use of your time than doing those other tasks you can delegate.
I’ll also be doing a full article in this series on how you can afford more help.
For a full article on help with managing and delegating see this article: How to Delegate and Communicate with your Team: One Secret For Women Entrepreneurs and How To Do Self Care
To find great people to help, look on www.upwork.com.
3. I’m Not Disciplined Enough
What We Tell Ourselves: “If I were just more focused/disciplined/determined/better I would get more done.”
The Problem: Yes, sometimes we do need to be more focused, more organized, and more productive. Frankly, we could all be working on that every day all the time.
But more often than not, there’s also a deeper issue at play — a question that we need to ask ourselves: “What’s the real reason I’m not getting more done?”
From the experiences of my clients, I’ve found lots of reasons:
- You really need help with what you are trying to do — and you need to find someone to give you assistance.
- What you are trying to get yourself to do isn’t aligned any more with what you want.
- You aren’t taking care of your health, sleeping enough, eating the right foods — so you can’t focus on things that are hard.
- You’ve got a lot of personal stuff on your plate — and you just don’t have extra energy to handle the business stuff that is coming up for you.
- You aren’t taking enough time off to rest — so when it comes to working hard and doing things that you are afraid of, you just don’t have the energy to do it.
The Solution: There’s not one solution here. The resolution of the bullet points above could each be a course of its own. But the key piece here is to delve into true self exploration instead of just beating yourself up. To lean into curiosity instead of brute forcing your way into doing something.
I’ve found over and over again that my clients are not inherently lazy or disorganized. But they become that way when they don’t have the energy to take risks. Or when they are forcing themselves to do things they don’t really want to do. Or when there’s just too much on their plates to allow for the space and courage to face the everyday rejection of being an entrepreneur.
The simple solution: stop beating yourself up and instead look deeper.
So if you are telling yourself these three things:
I’ll do it when I finish my to-do list…
I’ll do everything myself…
I’m not disciplined enough…
Know that there is a better way! I hope that this article helps you with time management. And, as always, my hope is that you’ll take these better ways, use them, make tons of money, and make this world a better place.
Photo: Flickr, john.schultz
