When you’re your own boss, you can make your own decisions on the strategy of achieving your goals. Since you have greater autonomy, you are responsible for the speed in which these results will be attained.
It is critical for entrepreneurs to stay ahead of the competition and use their time wisely to make the most of each moment.
Avoid procrastination or burnout by improving your time management and planning. Here are simple ways you can maximize your time as your own boss.
How to Maximize Your Time When Working for Yourself
1. Don’t do everything yourself
Although you may be a one-person show, that doesn’t mean that you have to limit everything to yourself!
You should focus on your core specialty and delegate the functions of your business that you don’t have a lot of experience in and which are time-consuming to perform.
Marketing, IT and web development are common functions that can be outsourced with growing industries within each. You can choose to order outdoor prints for your business via an online printing service or use SEO and content marketing companies to boost the growth of your website.
Rather than juggling multiple tasks that will reduce performance quality and trying to keep up with the demand of business’ clients, you can delegate tasks by hiring employees to assist you with tasks.
This way, you can maximize your time and focus on managing the entire business and centering efforts on expanding.
2. Use focus/productivity tools
Since you are working for yourself, you will be more distracted. Use focus tools to concentrate on the task at hand.
You should also allocate your own deadlines to finish a task and be thorough with following them.
Apps such as Escape and RescueTime are tools that measure the amount of time spent on each distracting app and encourages you to work more productivity.
Productivity apps such as Asana and Trello are also effective tools to keep on track with your agenda for the day.
You can maintain to-do lists on your digital desktop that can be visually seen. You may prefer writing down on physical post-it notes, but be sure to recycle the paper once you no longer need them.
Read also: How to Organize The Apps on Your Phone
3. Take advantage of weekend events
To maximize your time, attend weekend conferences and meet-ups that are relevant to the growth of your business.
Familiarize yourself with the panellists and important people and companies that will be attending the event. Formulate questions prior to and during the event to ask key persons about their strategy to success.
Use this opportunity to network with other conference guests to gain potential clients and partners.
Take notes of the important information that has been articulated during the event and incorporate helpful tips within your own business.
You may have the temptation to attend every conference but ensure to consider the relevancy of attending the event.
Consider whether watching the event online is a more productive way of viewing the information. Or if the speakers or companies representing the event are aiding your business growth.
4. Be stubborn with scheduling
You can also maximize your time by using a digital calendar that can be accessed from all your devices.
Avoid scheduling sudden spontaneous events that can delay your planned schedule.
If you need to block time for an upcoming demanding project, don’t allow yourself to schedule meetings within that timeframe.
Of course, you will need to balance your family life as well. So if there is an anniversary, birthday or family event, remember to block out the date to prevent overlaps.
Set a single day to schedule back to back meetings so you can optimize your time. You can also schedule your meetings at the same café location to avoid having to travel to and from the office and to maximize time.
5. Use your free time wisely
Spend your free time efficiently too.
The time spent while travelling on public transport, waiting at a doctor’s office or queuing in a line can be spent more productively.
Use this spare time to read updates within your industry, jot down ideas or plan for future meetings.
You may also want to use your spare time to improve your mental and physical health through partaking in mindfulness exercises or going for a jog.
6. Prioritize
List your tasks in order of the most important one to the least. Then break the list into three sections: the highest priority, medium priority and lowest priority.
This will allow you to have a clearer idea of what to complete first and organize your time more efficiently.
You can also list your tasks in terms of their duration. Is it a long-term project that will take weeks? Or can the task be completed within 5 minutes such as when replying to your emails?
You will also need to flesh out who will be involved in the tasks and whether you will need to arrange any meetings.
Maintaining an organized lifestyle will allow you to instantly boost productivity at work and maximize your time.
Which tips will you use to improve your time management while being your own boss?
About The Author
Jennifer Kerr is a Content Marketing Specialist working at Non Stop Signs in LA. She is a lover of all things digital and has a special interest in creating compelling content for the digital world.