A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to be with the Group of Women Entrepreneurs “Women with Wings.” I was invited to share some tips and advice from a topic that is relevant to all entrepreneurs: Time Management.
It is surprising how there is only one resource in the world that everyone has the same amount. No matter where we come from, what type of business we operate or how big the business is, we all have only 24 hours per day.
Learning to use those 24 hours is really important and it is normally something that I get asked quite a bit when coaching Entrepreneurs.
The question I normally get is: How can I squeeze more time in my day?
We need to rephrase the question a little bit. Let’s say: How can I utilize my time more effectively?
In reality, there is no way we can add more hours to our day. Until someone invents a time machine, we are still stuck with only 24 hours per day.
So, how can we use our 24 hours more effectively?
A couple of tips.
In order to create any change and improvement, it is important to first know where we are, in other words, what is the current situation. In terms of time, this means we need to know how we are using our time every day. We are doing something with it, we just don’t realize how we are using it until we take the time to do this exercise. The way we do it is we count how much time we are using for the different activities we do every day. For instance, we know we should sleep between 7 to 8 hours per day so that takes a third of our day. We all have to eat, some people eat 2, 3 or 4 times per day which may take between 2 to 3 hours normally. So already, we have taken between 9 to 11 hours of our day. In the morning or before we leave for our business, we all need to get ready, and that may take from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. Do you see what we are doing? At the end of the exercise, you will have a clear view of how much time you really have in the day. We tend to believe that we have 24 hours, but in reality, we only have a portion of that every day. This exercise is important because we start learning where we are spending our time. It’s very interesting how business men and women are surprised of how much time they really have per day.
The second element is to understand that time management is a matter of priorities. That means that we need to choose from the different activities we want to do based on their priority. Because we can’t do everything in one day, or even in a week, we need to be very selective of what we choose to do. That’s where priority comes in. We need to prioritize the different activities we have in the list and then start with the ones with the highest priority. There are activities that we tend to do first because they are easy but they bring low value to us and our business. So, when prioritizing, it is important to start with the activities that bring the most value to us.
The third tip has to do with one of the first things I notice when helping Entrepreneurs, that in many cases, they don’t plan their day. They wake up in the morning with the best intentions and a lot of motivation, but no plan of what activities will be accomplished. They try to let things happen. Once, one entrepreneur shared with me his personal way of looking at it: “No matter what comes, I will figure it out.” Even when it sounds like a great positive reinforcement, when it comes to planning, it is not an effective approach. One easy way to plan is to start using an Agenda. That simple tool has been used for centuries and is still as effective as when the first person started to use it. Here, I always recommend to start using an Agenda and plan your next day the night before. This simple exercise will have a great positive impact in the use of your time.
So, the meeting ended with questions about the tips shared, and some great histories about how these business women have seen the benefit of these tips or how they were planning to use them. And we had some great desserts too. It was for sure time well spent.