5 Simple Steps to Better Time Management

April 17, 2014 by Christine

“Time flies when you're having fun.” It's almost a cliché at this point, and yet it's so true, even in the business world. When you're enjoying your work and having fun running your business, it almost seems like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that you have dreamt up for your organization. But when you become unhappy, unmotivated or uninspired, time seems to endlessly drag on.

However, one of the biggest reasons that business owners become unhappy or unmotivated is because they become unorganized and get caught up in tasks that they didn't foresee. The best way to combat this is by engaging in better time management practices, to ensure that you accomplish at least a small list of priority tasks every day. The more tasks you check off your list, the better you'll feel.

Here are five steps you can follow every day to improve your own time management skills:

• Create a “to-do” list every morning. This list should comprise any tasks that you are hoping to get done that day, both big and small. It can also include larger tasks that you break down into smaller chunks for the sake of making progress.

• Prioritize the list. Which of these tasks that you have listed are the most important? You can come up with your own prioritization system, but you could assign letter or number grades to each, depending on how important you feel it is to accomplish the tasks that day.

• Execute all of the tasks on your list in the order that you have prioritized them. This means that your highest priority task should come first. This is the best way to proceed, because many people tend to postpone higher priority tasks because they dread completing them. If you get it out of the way right away, that means you've accomplished an important task and can breathe easy for the rest of the day as you move on to tasks that are lower on the totem pole.

• Re-write your list every day. If you didn't accomplish any particular tasks on a given day, just roll them into the next day. Chances are the tasks you don't accomplish are lower on your priority list anyway.

• Repeat. If you follow this strategy every day, you'll find yourself in a much better place in terms of time management.

You'll be amazed at how much time management can make a difference in your motivation as a business owner. Follow these steps and transform the attitude you have about your business.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

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