7 Essential Time Management Skills for Smart Planning | Lisnic

Are we Business Owners or ball jugglers? With so many balls in the air, time management is a must for every business owner. In this article, we’re going to look at seven essential time management skills for smart planning.

For the sake of your own sanity, you need to be able to plan your time effectively so that you can complete the primary tasks at hand AND have enough spare time for family, friends and relaxation.

Here are some handy tips:  

1.   Block out all distractions

There are all kinds of distractions that will throw you off your game. Whether it be social media (personal, not business) or the loud co-worker next door (who you now know way too much about).

If you are looking to block out any distractions on your phone, consider apps like FocusMe and SelfControl to block your social media apps. Get into the habit of operating computer programs in full screen mode too (especially when running a web browser) so you don’t see as many random pop ups.

As for the loud co-worker, well thank God for headphones (or tell them to turn it down!).

2.    Set a schedule for yourself

Scheduling tasks for yourself can be a challenge. As soon as you learn the art of delegation (giving tasks to someone else) and prioritisation, this will become a lot easier. To-do lists can get to the point where they can be a mountain to climb, but it does often help to just write EVERYTHING on paper so it’s no longer swirling around your head.

3.    Make sure people respect your time

People can often interrupt you with things that may not be relevant to you. For this reason, it is important that you apply a rule where people can only talk to you if it’s relevant to the business (or something similar).

You want as much focus as possible. The time for trivial conversations can be set for later. For now, you have things to do and it’s important that the other people working with you understand that.

4.    Don’t multitask, even if you are good at it

Whether you like it or not, multitasking does more harm than good. Even if you are the multitasking champion of the world, it’s not worth it.

You want to focus on one task at a time. Once it’s finished, focus on the next one. Never focus on two or more things at once.

5.    Remember your ‘call to action’

Your call to action is vital to your time management. You need to know what kind of action you are taking and avoid all the activities that are not relevant to what’s on the schedule. Know exactly what you are achieving for the day. Know the goals you have set and conquer them before close of business.

6.    Never forget about rest and down time

Everybody is work, work, work. However, they don’t find enough time to rest. This can lead to a lot of issues including burnout. Plus, a lack of rest can really do a number on your mental health.

That’s why it is important to rest and get down time when it’s needed. When you rest and relax, you’ll be refreshed and ready to go the next time you are back at the office.

It is so important to keep yourself in check. Be sure to schedule time blocks when you plan on working. Likewise, if you schedule a time to call it good for the day, follow it.

7.   Do a time audit

For our final time management skill, you’ll want to run a time audit. This allows you to gather all the activities you do on a regular basis and organise them by importance.

You need to know what activities are worth the time and which ones are not. First, prioritise the must-do tasks that are important and urgent, second, delegate the important but not urgent tasks, and third, get rid of the not important and non-urgent tasks all together.

Delegating tasks is certainly key here, especially when you have other priorities to tend to. If your team member knows what to do and how to do it, you should be able to hand off those responsibilities and trust that they will get done.

Know what the priority tasks for your businesses are and if they have a certain frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)

Conclusion

These seven essential time management tools are worth trying out to plan and prioritise your workday. Get rid of distractions, focus on the priority tasks, and delegate other tasks when needed.

If you want a good roadmap to get started, our Lisnic Experts are here to help. Our Experts have grown and scaled multi-million dollar companies- now that’s a lot of balls in the air. Book a session with one of our top-rated Experts and learn how you should be planning your time.

Don’t wait, contact us today and we’ll make sure your time is well spent, not wasted.