Running a business is hard. Oftentimes, you find yourself stuck between procrastinating or overworking. But how can you find a balance? Cultivating time management skills can help entrepreneurs become less overwhelmed and more productive. But with so many different time management strategies out there, how can you know which one is right for you?
Do you ever find yourself stuck between constantly procrastinating and not making time for things, or doing so many things that you’re overwhelmed and your time is just crammed with all of the stuff? If that’s you, I know that I’ve been in both of those places.
– Pamela grice, business coach
In this episode, we’ll share our personal experiences with various time management methods that we’ve tried. We’ll talk about what strategies we’re currently using in our own businesses. We’ll also summarize a few methods we’ve tried–what worked, what didn’t, and why.
Whether it’s sticky notes, paper planners, or one of the numerous time management books, what’s important is that you keep experimenting and figure out what time management strategy works best for you and your business.
Listen in to learn more. And we’d love to hear from you! What time management skills are you currently practicing in your business? How is your strategy working for you? Comment below and let us know.
Time Management Skills For Entrepreneurs to Increase Productivity
What We Talked About
- [00:00] Time management skills and methods for women entrepreneurs
- [00:48] Our individual time management styles and strategies
- [05:29] Reviewing time management systems that we’ve tried
- [05:53] The 12-week Year
- [07:00] The Eisenhower Method (Get your free worksheet below)
- [09:28] Eat that Frog
- [10:18] The Now Habit
- [14:55] Time Blocking
- [16:27] The Pomodoro Method
- [17:53] Mega Batching
- [19:30] What we would change about our time management
- [25:00] What we’ve read/bought/watched this week
Key Insights
- “I think it’s really important that you just keep experimenting and try and find exactly what it is that works for you.” – Pam
- “That is literally a sticky note on my desk, that gets thrown away at the end of the day, with the time blocks from beginning until end.” – Teri
- “There’s evidence out there that writing things by hand–not typing them, actually writing things by hand–actually makes them stick … That’s why I keep a notebook right next to my computer. I write things in my notebook, and then I put them on my Asana, and that way it gets in my head, and it gets it gets written down someplace where I can get reminded as well.” – Pam
Time Management Skills and Strategies We’ve Tried
- “The whole concept of planning quarterly blocks, or three-month blocks of focused time in your business and recognizing, ‘What am I working on and what’s important?’ So that when you start chasing squirrels, you can always go back to, ‘Wait, what was my goal for this three month period?’ and say yes to the things that help you reach that goal, and say no to things that don’t.” – Pam, on The 12 Week Year
- “[The Eisenhower Method] helps you prioritize what things are urgent and important–those are things that you do. What things are important but are not urgent–those are things that you decide, ‘Who’s going to do it?’ or you decide, ‘Am I going to do that today? Or am I going to do it another day?’ So it’s less ‘pressurey.’ Then tasks that are urgent but not important … So it’s going to go towards the bottom of the list. Or it can be something that someone else that you delegate to, and you get it off your plate. And then the things that are not urgent and they’re not important. So those things are in the Delete box that you can just get rid of those things.” – Pam
- “There’s a book called Eat That Frog … It is based off of Mark Twain’s quote, ‘Eat a frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.’ So it’s all about doing those things that you are avoiding. So as soon as you say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that,’ do it now so you get it out of the way.” – Pam
Time Managment Skills in Practice
- “The next one is called The Now Habit. It’s a book by Neil Fiore … This one is all about unscheduling. So instead of scheduling your work, you are scheduling your play. So you go through your calendar and you schedule your meals, you schedule your sleep time, you schedule meetings that you have with your friends, you schedule your recreation time, you schedule play time, you schedule social activities and lunches, and you do all of the things that make your life rich and enjoyable and life giving. And then whatever time is left over is the time that you plan for work.” – Pam
- “Time blocking is just recognizing, ‘What time do I have to work on my business?’ and then saying, ‘Okay, this half hour I’m doing this. This half hour I’m doing this,’ or, ‘This hour I’m blocking out to specifically work on such and such a task,’ and then getting it done.” – Pam
- “The last one on my list is the Pomodoro method, which is the set a timer for 25 minutes. Get some stuff done. Take a five minute break. Then come back and set the timer for 25 minutes. So it says, ‘Work on one task until time goes off. Don’t get distracted by the timer, and focus only on the task at hand.'” – Pam
- “I just thought of a another one, which is mega batching. It’s kind of like time blocking, but it’s more like a big chunk of time blocking, like, ‘I’m going to take three hours and kick out a bunch of video. I’m going to take three hours and kick out a bunch of newsletters and just get them scheduled out, bunch of social media posts, get them scheduled out.'” – Pam
Time Management Skills We Want to Develop as Entrepreneurs
- “I think also to build in some down brain time, because I run hard. When I run, I run hard from the time I sit here till I leave. My brain, there’s no downtime.” – Teri
- “I think it’s about, as entrepreneurs, looking at legitimately, what hours you have in the week, because we tend to believe we have more hours than we do.” – Teri
Free Resource: Eisenhower Strategy Worksheet
The Eisenhower Method of time management can increase your productivity by helping you prioritize tasks by importance and urgency. Click here to grab your free copy of our printable PDF Eisenhower Method Worksheet when you sign up for our mailing list. You’ll also recieve regular emails to keep you informed of all of the exciting things happening at the Business Besties Podcast!
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