Many of us dream of running our own businesses, but something that we need to greatly consider is planning our working hours, being flexible, living wherever you would wish to in the world, and the list goes on. Having your own business may make you feel pressured to excel in every aspect of your business, from budgeting to hiring staff.
Are you working a solid 16 hours a day without the impression that you are getting anything done? Do you keep seeing your to-do list getting longer and yet have no clue how to get through half the points? If so, you may feel like you need more time. What if, we found ways which we can reduce your workload and increase your output?
Below are 5 ways which you can allocate your time efficiently for your small business and to increase your productivity.
- Planning, Planning, Planning
The ultimate mistake that many small business owners tend to make is trying to work on everything, all at once and without a certain order to follow. The issue with this approach is that, indeed you may be able to get certain things done, however, there is no long-term planning. This is an issue, as you aren’t able to plan how you would manage the various small tasks to get done throughout the day as well as over the next few weeks. We need to plan more and set time-based targets. With goals to achieve, you are able to break down parts of your work which take more time.
- Use Block Scheduling
During planning, you may realize the following: While you thought you were working 16 hours a day, you were actually busy getting distracted every few minutes. These distractions add up and using block scheduling can help you avoid them. Block a few hours at a time and stay focused on this specific task throughout the entirety of the countdown.
- Outsource Time Consuming Tasks
It is important to consider how you plan to deal with tasks which you are not very good at or knowledgeable about. We may want to believe that we can do everything on our own, at least till we are able to afford full-time staff. Well, it is always an option to outsource the most time-consuming tasks you have, such as hiring a virtual assistant or finding talent on websites such as Fiverr.com
- Simplify and Streamline your Marketing
One of the main activities which may take up a lot of your time is marketing. This is due to one simple reason: You may feel like you are spending multiple hours on social media everyday trying to market your business. Instead, free up some of your time by creating a content calendar and batching your content. This way, you won’t be spending extensive period of time on apps as it will all be done in advance.
- Take Time to Rest
Finally, and alright, this may be a bit obvious, you need to schedule time to rest. While entrepreneurs love to work, we also struggle to stop ourselves from overworking ourselves quite often. The result of being burned out can make you lose focus on tasks, and that is if we are able to get it started on the first place. And with this in mind, you need to take the time to reboot yourself from time to time.
