How to Manage Yourself & Free Up Your Time
Time management is a misnomer. There is no such thing as time management, as the clock keeps ticking no matter what. Instead, there is self-management. How do you manage yourself?
The whole goal in business is to get productivity up. How do we get productivity up in ourselves and in the people in our organization?
Measure & Manage
Ultimately, we have to look at it from the most basic point of view. How are we measuring what needs to be done? And how are we managing what needs to be done?
You cannot manage what you do not measure. So, if you want to start freeing up your time, let’s start with the basics:
- Time log. Where is your time actually going? Track your time over the next two weeks (either with your phone or on paper) to see what you’re doing with your time each day. How much time is taken up in management? How much with customers? Log each of your daily activities.
- Systematize or Delegate Your Top 5. Take the top 5 things in which you’re investing your time and figure out how to either systematize or delegate them. How can you train someone else to do them for you?To be blunt – a lot of business owners don’t have any time because they’re not willing to let go of the tasks in their business. Many owners struggle because they are reactive in their management and in training people, and thus they have to do everything themselves. Or, in some cases, they want to save money by doing things themselves. Tip: never save a dollar that will cost you a fortune. Doing tasks yourself to save money is actually costing you money in the long run because it takes you away from selling/meeting with clients and growing your business.
Being busy should not be your goal. Instead, you should be focused on running the business and the business should be taking care of you, not the other way around.
Consider: What tasks are you going to stop? What tasks do you need to do more of? And what tasks do you need to start?
- Focus on doing owner’s work instead of employee’s work. Owner’s work will pay you back long term. Employee’s work is work that you do once, and it pays you back one time. Reassess where and how you’re spending your time.
As you become a better business person, the business gets bigger and the business gets better. That’s what you should be striving to do. Invest in yourself, because the more you learn, the more you earn.
