Productive Not Busy Podcast - How Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Time Well

How Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Time Well

11/18/22 • 6 min

3 Listeners

Time management is one of the most critical skills for any entrepreneur. After all, your time is limited, and successful entrepreneurs need to make the most of every minute. Here are a few tips for how to manage your time successfully as an entrepreneur: 1. First, prioritize your tasks. Create a task list and then order them by importance. Making a list of your most important tasks will help you focus on the essential jobs. Of course, some jobs will always take precedence over others. You can also use the Eisenhower Matrix to help you better prioritize your tasks. The Eisenhower Matrix is a time management technique used to prioritize tasks. President Dwight Eisenhower introduced the method and was known for his practical time management skills. The matrix categorizes tasks into four quadrants: Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important. Quadrant 2: Important, but not Urgent. Quadrant 3: Urgent but not Important. Quadrant 4: Not Urgent and Not Important Tasks that are both urgent and important should be at the top of the list. These are the tasks that you need to complete first. The tasks in the second part of the series are also important. Quadrant 3 tasks are urgent, but you can often delegate them to someone else. Quadrant 4 tasks are neither critical nor essential, and you can eliminate these tasks. 1 2. Second, create a schedule and stick to it. Having a set schedule will help you use your time more effectively and ensure that you forget nothing important. Leave some flexibility in your plan to account for unexpected tasks or delays. One effective way of creating an efficient schedule is to use the time-block method. It involves scheduling specific periods for certain tasks. For example, you might block out two hours to work on a project and one hour to check and respond to emails. Once you have created your schedule, try your best to stick to it. 3.Next, delegate tasks. As an entrepreneur, you probably have a lot on your plate. Don’t do everything yourself–delegate tasks to others on your team or hire outside help when necessary. You can free up your time to focus on the most critical tasks. Hire a virtual assistant to handle some of your administrative tasks or use a project management tool to delegate tasks to your team members. If you have trouble trusting, try using the 80/20 rule. This rule states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. Focus on the tasks that will have the most significant impact and delegate the rest. 4. Set boundaries. It’s important to set boundaries between work and personal time. When working, try to avoid distractions and stay focused on the task. Once you’ve clocked out for the day, resist the urge to check your email or do any more work. It would help if you also learned to say “no” when feeling overwhelmed. It’s better to focus on a few tasks and do them well than to do too much and end up doing a poor job. 5. Finally, take breaks. Working non-stop is not sustainable in the long run. You will burn out quickly if you don’t take breaks to relax and rejuvenate. Schedule some time for yourself every day, even if it’s just a few minutes. Take a walk, read a book, or take a nap. Breaks will help you stay focused and productive when you are working.

Previous Episode

Don't be a D#@%- what leaders must avoid at all costs

3 Recommendations

Some leaders believe that everything revolves around them and that whatever they say is correct. When you become self-absorbed or have an exalted ego, you create your own sense of reality, making it impossible to gain the trust of other team members. Trust is critical. Leaders are unable to generate buy-in from team members at any level of the organization without it.

A genuine sense of community is required to move a health-care system forward. When animosity exists among team members, it is impossible for everyone to put their shoulders to the wheel together. Some leaders believe that encouraging competition among members of their C-suite is a highly effective motivational strategy, but you would be hard pressed to find a successful sports team that thrives on this dynamic. The best teams in any sport emerge from the locker room ready to fight for one another, and they understand that resentment jeopardizes their chances of success. Healthcare organizations are no exception, and leaders who believe otherwise are doomed.

Next Episode

How to be a Winner at Life

2 Recommendations

Everyone wants to be a winner. Let’s not confuse this with how competitive some are. No, not everyone likes to compete. But we all like to win. We all want to succeed. When did you experience the joy that comes with this? Was it as you received admission to your preferred college? When you received the job offer you were expecting? Or when your football team won their game? We have all won at something in our lives, and we love the feeling. Where does this urge to win come from? Scientists believe the pleasure-stimulating neurochemical dopamine is responsible. Yes, beating your friend in a game and excelling in a test gives you bragging rights. Your body also rewards you with a feel-good sensation for winning. What other benefits are there to winning? Winning boosts our confidence. With this boost, it’s easier to win again in similar situations. From the looks of it, even nature supports our drive to succeed. While this desire is inherent to us, it is not always easy to meet. It is because some challenges are more complex to overcome than others. One of the biggest challenges we face is how to succeed in life. Put another way, how to win at life. Sad to say, there is no one size fits all formula for overcoming this challenge. The reason for this is simple. It’s because success looks different to everyone. 1 Yet there are general principles we can all apply to achieve this. Practice these essential strategies to win in life: 1. Set clear goals. A runner cannot win a race unless he knows where the finish line is. Likewise, without establishing what success means, you may struggle to find it. That is why you need a definite goal. You’ll know exactly where you are to head and what it will take to reach there. When we work toward goals, we are working with purpose. And when we reach them, it will count as a win for us. 2.Create winning habits. Habits are nature’s way to help you make sustained progress. They make some behaviors easier to repeat by automating them. Once you establish the habit, you’ll do the action without much effort. These are a few of the many habits we can leverage to achieve success in life: Developing habits that will help you achieve your goals will make it easier. These habits can help you smash your goals and win in life. With regards to organization, be systematic, plan, set priorities, and arrange things like your schedule well. Personal care means taking good care of yourself and paying attention to your health. Frugality isn’t the same as stinginess. It’s being thrifty with money and resources and spending with prudence when the time calls for it. 3. Don’t fear making mistakes. If you are to succeed, you cannot be afraid to fail. When you make mistakes, ask yourself what went wrong. What did you learn from it? What will you do differently next time? We must make mistakes and learn from them to win in life. Before we can learn from our mistakes, though, we need to accept them. It’s important to take responsibility for our actions. Winners don’t make excuses, and they find solutions. Understanding and accepting our errors 2 contribute to us finding success in life. 4.Be willing to learn something new every day. Never stop learning new things throughout your life. There are so many advantages to this. For example, it keeps your mind sharp and reduces the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s. Also, it provides you with intriguing topics to discuss with others and updates you on what is going on. Besides all this, you will have so much fun when you learn about things that interest you. If, as the saying goes, knowledge is power, then learning is the key to gaining control. You’ll find that power will help you succeed at most things in life. Winning isn’t new to you. You’ve already done so in many aspects of your life. When you work to apply the principles discussed, you’ll continue to do so now. And in the end, you’ll not only look back and see a life well-lived, but ultimately, a life well won.