7 Tips to Save You Time in Your Business
1. Do a Time Audit
It might seem counterproductive to take time out of your busy day to do an audit of your time and where you are spending the bulk of it. But taking a day to look at how long tasks are taking you, where you are wasting time, and what areas can be reevaluated is oftentimes the first step in being able to change your schedule.
If you look at your week and see that you are spending most of your time in meetings, being able to look at what things can be a quick email, or what meetings could be shifted can be helpful. On top of that, if it takes you an hour to do one task because you get sidetracked or other things that come up in the middle of the task, but it takes your employee only twenty minutes to complete the task, it might be more efficient to offload that task so you can spend your time elsewhere.
2. Blocking your schedule and batching tasks
It is difficult for our brains to jump tasks, even a distraction in a task can cause a delay in refocusing, sometimes taking as long as 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to task according to a study by the University of California, Irvine.
Blocking your schedule so you can batch your tasks together allows your brain to stay in one focused mode rather than jumping from task to task. Instead of going from email responses to a meeting, to social media posts, to creating products, try fitting as many meetings as you can on one day, a batch content day, and a separate day for creating your products. If multiple tasks need to happen in a day and can’t be avoided, blocking out a set time in your day for each task could be helpful to keep you focused.
3. Plan your day in advance
Once you are in your office setting, you’re in go mode. There might be a list of things you need to get done that week and you’re keeping them all stored either in your brain or on a million different notes and emails in various places. Taking the time at the end of your workday or before bed to outline what your day looks like tomorrow and what sort of tasks are a high priority to get done first can save you time in the morning when your brain is trying to remember everything on your to-do list. Going further out with your planning and planning things a week at a time can be even more beneficial.
4. Practice saying NO
It can be difficult. Someone asks you for help or a bit of the limited time you have, and you want to be kind and say yes to helping them. But it could drastically cut into the time that you need to be delegating to other tasks. If there is an event, meeting, or task that someone asks of you, but wouldn’t be a direct benefit to you or light up your heart enough to make the time and energy worth it, it is completely okay and, in your hands, to say no. That no doesn’t even have to mean that you never want to do the thing that someone is asking of you. It might just be a no for now until you have a bit more freedom in your schedule to make it work. And that is completely okay.
5. Eliminate Repetitive Tasks
Do you ever feel like you are doing the same thing repeatedly? Chances are that you might be. Look at certain things that you are doing that can be automated. Do you have a form that you have to send to clients to onboard? Can you automate it once they schedule a meeting with you? Did you have to send three or four emails of back-and-forth communication to even get that meeting scheduled? How about a link to your calendar so clients can sign up for a slot that works for you both without delay? Looking at systems, apps, and automation that will save you time and a headache could be a huge benefit.
6. Focus on Results
It can be hard to feel like the time that you are putting into something is worth it. Maybe you are trying to be more consistent with your social media marketing and you haven’t had a big viral moment like you have seen other businesses get, but you are slowly building a solid audience who genuinely cares about the products and services that you are providing. Which would you rather have?
Or on the other side of the coin, maybe you need to get sales on a product that you are creating, but instead of trying to sell to a consumer directly, it would be more beneficial for you to sell to a business that then sells to the consumer. Focusing on the results of the tasks that you are doing can be a huge sway in where you are spending your time.
7. Delegate Tasks
Do you ACTUALLY have to even be doing the task you’re doing? Do you have a social media manager who can be posting for you? Do you have a virtual assistant who can help you with your meeting and calendar maintenance? Or an employee who can be packaging and send out products for you. Look at what things are cost-effective for you to be doing, and what areas you could save time, and potentially start earning more money if you were to delegate them to someone else.
Finding a virtual assistant who can take on some of the work for you in areas in which you might not have the most knowledge or skills can be a first start and smart investment, giving you more time to work on the areas of your business that you are passionate about and why you started your business in the first place.
