8 Time Management Tips That Can Help You Right Away
Everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day. No more. No less. But how can some people seem to get so much more accomplished? It's all about how we manage our time. I'll be the first to admit, I can easily get sucked into scrolling Instagram and looking up renovation ideas for our farmhouse, but those things are not going to move the pinpoint on my goals.
As a business owner, mom of two toddlers and a farm wife, I am in a season where I have to manage every minute from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. That doesn't mean I don't have flex days or buffers but I do have a pretty solid schedule to help me get everything I need to do done in a day. Over the past few years of starting my business and becoming a mom, I've gained some time management tips. So whether you have a business idea, are just starting it, or have owned a creative business for years, I have some tips for you!
Time blocking
This is the one thing that keeps me sane throughout the week. Time blocking is the practice of splitting up your day in blocks of time where you work on a specific task. My greatest tip is to find a calendar that you can write in where the day is broken into 30 min sections. This is the one I've used for the past three years and I'm obsessed with it. There have been times where I end up packing my day too tight when time blocking and I have learned that having buffers is necessary. Allow yourself time to breathe, reset, and catch up on last minute things or tasks that didn't get done.
Boundaries
When running your own business, it's important to set up boundaries whether it's with client relations or it's just set work hours. And the beautiful thing is that everyone's boundaries can and should be different. I would love to have the same set work hours each day but in this stage of life when my littles are home with me, that is not possible. However, you should have some sort of cutoff time in the evening where you can decompress and relax.
Set a timer
Have 5 minutes before a call or a few minutes before walking out the door? Set the timer and knock off a few of those quick tasks on your to do list. I promise you, just a little bit of time here and there adds up and it will make a decent dent in your tasks that need to be done.
Learn to say no
This one is HARD. But whether in your personal life or your business, you need to be able to say no to things. Whether you are taking a step back from accepting new clients, or you can't do last minute plans with your friends, being able to say no, allows for growth. Speaking from experience, it's not always no, but it's necessary.
Set work focus on your phone
Apple coming out with this feature was brilliant. Before you could just put your phone on do not disturb (which is very useful at times), but now there is a work setting where you can allow custom notifications come through. This way you are still getting the important information you need but you aren't getting bugged by all those little notifications.
Group similar tasks together
Hello batching!!! I don't know about you but once I get in the grove of things, it's hard to jump back and forth between different tasks. So if you are working on content, do all of your content for the week at the same time, or if you are working on client work, only do client work. One thing I want to start implementing is assigning certain days to certain tasks. For example: Mondays-content, Tuesdays-calls, Wednesday-client work etc.
Daily and weekly routine
This one is building off of the last tip. Having a routine helps our body and mind to know what is coming up and what to expect. Whether it's a morning routine, exercise routine, or workout routine, find something that works for you and train your body to know what to expect.
Sunday planning
Every Sunday evening I sit down with my planner and computer and I go over the week ahead of me. I convert all my appointments and schedule from my google calendar to my physical planner and start to time block around that. This gives me a clear picture on what is about to happen over the next week and if I need to move around anything. If you take anything from this post, it's to do a Sunday planning and brain dumping session.
Time management is something we are all learning and working on. I will continue be changing things to best fit my schedule and season. Head over to my IG and let me know what your best time management tip is, I'd love to learn more.
