Time Management: Balancing Work/Life as an Entrepreneur

Starting a new business can be exciting. However, for many small business owners, the excitement can soon turn to a feeling of being overwhelmed as their business grows. Often, leaving your 40-hour workweek means welcoming a 50, 60, 70+ hour work week as you exchange your employee responsibilities for self-employed ones. Accountability and productivity now have a new meaning when you are more than a piece of a project; you may be responsible for the whole vision. While the actual journey of being a small business owner may feel like it is all-consuming at times, there is a way to help you find balance in your personal and work life: time management. Here are a few ways to help improve your time management. Prioritize Your To-Do List Creating a to-do list is one of the fundamental approaches to time management. But what if your to-do list is actually making you unproductive and ineffective in your business? Everyone has their way of creating a to-do list. Some are broken down into multiple actions for one general task, while others take a more vague approach. However, it is essential to realize that not all tasks are created equal. When you are your own boss, you no longer have someone telling you what or how to prioritize the project, department, or company tasks. It is now your responsibility to decide where to place the most focus. Because if everything requires priority, it then becomes a meaningless label. Upon the review of your to-do list, decide what needs to take precedence that day. Even better, take a look at your upcoming week and determine if your to-do list may be broken into 6 to 10 tasks per day. Breaking up your list into a more focused, priority-driven one will lay the groundwork for a more productive day. Create A Schedule Once you have prioritized your tasks for the day, create a schedule for your available time. Creating a schedule for your day will help you measure out your time effectively for each task as well as plan for non-work related activities (i.e., family, exercise, etc.). When you plan out your day, it helps create a structure for your life in general. Developing a schedule will help reduce stress, increase efficiency, and reduce procrastination. Organize Your Work Space An unorganized workspace can not only hinder your productivity, but it can also impact your health. Studies have shown that a dirty desk can contain more germs than a toilet seat. Therefore, if the chaos of your desk doesn’t put you behind schedule, calling out sick surely will. Keeping your workspace clean and organized does more than reduce your employees’ judgment and potential clients/customers; it also increases productivity, reduces stress, and improves focus and mental stability. While an argument can be made that geniuses have messy desks, you must remember that it is important to find a balance between being creative and being productive as a small business owner. Creativity is not measurable and usually does not fall under time restrictions; therefore, you have to decide when you want to be creative and when you need to manage your time. So clean up your workspace after your “creative time.” Delegate, Delegate, Delegate You are not superhuman. But sometimes, when you try to be, you can make very human mistakes and burn out quickly. While many small business owners start off doing everything by themselves, it is essential to remember you don’t have to. It would be nice to take a vacation every once in a while, right? Even if you cannot hire team members at this time, you can still outsource tasks that are beneficial to your business but take up too much time due to your skillset or current schedule. Delegating tasks to a freelancer or a team member not only frees up your time, but it may also result in a better outcome due to the expertise of someone else. Time management is not only about what you can do within a timeframe, but what can all be accomplished for the greater good of your business if you spread the work out effectively.