TIME FOR TIME MANAGEMENT

 

As a woman entrepreneur or business owner, you are most likely wearing many hats and trying to manage multiple tasks and responsibilities every day. With so much on your plate, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and struggle to keep up. This is why effective time management is so crucial. By taking control of your time, you can increase productivity, reduce stress, and ultimately achieve greater success for your business without neglecting family responsibilities and self-care.

Set Goals

“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do.”  — Norman Vincent Peale

One of the first steps in managing your time is to set clear goals. Determine what you want to achieve each day, week, and month, and prioritize your tasks accordingly. This will help you focus on the most important tasks and ensure that you are making the most of your time. It doesn’t matter how many times you have set goals in the past and abandoned them like new year resolutions; this is a new day. You have the power and ability to do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true. With proper planning and implementation, you can do this. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of things you are capable of doing, but you will never know unless you try.

Goals can be inspiring and motivational because they give you something to work towards and look forward to. In other words, they give you hope. The reward is not just in achieving your goals, but in the journey itself. You will not be the same person once your goals are accomplished. By making the necessary sacrifices and pushing yourself to conquer fear, insecurities, obstacles, barriers and setbacks, you will find strength that you never knew you had.

Eliminate Time Wasters

Everyone should want to be at their productive best and have absolute control over their time. Unfortunately, there are so many things that can take away your focus from what you should be doing. Once these time wasters are identified, it’s easy to avoid them and manage your time better. Here are a few:

• Social Media—a quick check of your Twitter, Instagram or Facebookpage can end up wasting an hour or more. Instead, set a specific time during the day to log into your social media accounts. Maybe you could wait until you have a short break or after you’re done working for the day.
• Not Prioritizing—prioritize necessary tasks instead of wasting time performing tasks that aren’t really important. By planning ahead for the day or an entire week,  you can hit the ground running in the right direction and accomplish a lot more in a short amount of time.
• Procrastination—postponing tasks that we find either too difficult to tackle or just don’t want to do only delays the inevitable. Allowing the task to become urgent creates stress that could have been avoided. Instead, accept responsibility and just get it done!
• Checking Emails—checking your inboxcan be a huge waste of time. A study published in Harvard Business Review estimated that an average person spends about 28% or 2.6 hours of work time reading and answering emails. Give yourself a time-limit and check the subject line to determine whether or not it is essential. Unsubscribe from anything that is not relevant or valuable to reduce inbox clutter. 

Time wasters must be dealt with if you want to boost productivity and grow your business. Turning off your phone, closing your email, and minimizing other distractions while you work will help you stay focused and avoid wasting time on tasks that are not essential.

Improve Process Efficiency

You should also look for ways to streamline your process. This can include automating repetitive tasks, delegating tasks to others, or using technology to streamline your workflow. By simplifying your process, you can free up more time for the tasks that are most important.

To improve process efficiency, follow these steps:

1. Map out your current process
2. Identify what is working well and what is not
3. Make changes to develop a more ideal process
4. Implement the improved process

A more efficient process will decrease turnaround and response time, lower costs, and increase profits, making your business more competitive.

Family Responsibilities

Women entrepreneurs usually have to juggle business responsibilities with caring for children, family members, and loved ones—all while trying to make time for a personal life as well. In order to strike a balance between your personal and professional life, it’s imperative that you focus on creating a balance that works for you. Don’t compare yourself and your challenges to those of others, especially friends on social media.  What works in another woman’s home may not work in yours and vice versa. Stop making yourself despondent by feeling like you aren’t achieving enough. Be realistic; you’re not Superwoman!

• Communicate what you can and can’t do
• Use a calendar to keep track of everything
• Delegate jobs or workloads in your business and at home
• Schedule quality time and do the best you can

As you become more organized, you will have more time for what’s really important.  

Self-care

Don’t forget to consider setting aside dedicated time for self-care. This could include exercise, healthy eating, meditation, or simply getting a break from work. Taking care of yourself is important not only for your health but also for your ability to be productive. If you’re not at your best, you're not much good to anyone else.

In conclusion, effective time management is a key component of success for women entrepreneurs or small business owners. By setting clear goals, eliminating time wasters, improving process efficiency, taking care of family responsibilities and yourself, you can maximize your productivity. 

Remember, the goal is not to do more in less time, but to do the right things at the right time, and do them well. By staying organized and focused, you can stay on top of your workload and achieve your business goals with ease.