By Tope Longe
Time, like money, is one of the most valuable resources for an entrepreneur. Each of us has just 24 hours a day, but the way we manage these hours determines our success in life. Which is why time management is an art that you must indulge in if you wish to be productive and succeed in life.
To help you busy startup entrepreneurs make the most of your 24 hours, we’ve compiled a list of 10 handy productivity and time management tips to help you become more productive, by getting more done in less time.
1. Create Good Habits by Starting Your Day Early
Some of the most successful people in the world start their day early. By waking up earlier than your competitors, you get a lot of work done before your competitors even start their day.
If you are not used to waking up early, it can take you a while to get used to it. New habits take a while to build, but once they are built, they stay with you forever.
2. Stay away from the clutter
Clutter can have a negative impact on your productivity. According to Fast Company, keeping things together in a workplace is the snappiest and most straightforward approach to enhance efficiency.
Take some time to organize your computer, laptop, your smartphone, and your immediate physical surroundings.
An organized workplace gives you time to think and helps you stay away from the confusion that adversely impacts your mental lucidity.
3. Stay away from Interruptions
Although smartphones can be helpful, they are mostly an unnecessary distraction.
We’re discussing informal communities and applications, as well as calls, and text messages.
To increase your productivity, it’s best to utilize your landline and check your email just once a day.
A study led by Deloitte demonstrated that 50% of people in developed countries check their mobile phones within 5 minutes of waking up. Many psychologists believe that this behavior is not effective.
When doing critical tasks, think about putting your mobile phone aside. Even a simple vibration on your phone can be a distraction. So, use them only when required.
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4. Focus on one task at a time
Multi-tasking might look like an efficient skill. But it is not always productive. The most productive people focus on one task at a time.
Focusing on one task at a time gives you focus which helps you finish the task faster before moving on to the next task.
5. Use a Time Management Software
If you predominantly work on a computer or a laptop, you might want to consider using a time management software which tracks all your activities.
At the end of the week, you can eliminate all your unproductive activities.
Time Doctor is a simple software that is light and can be downloaded on your computer or as a chrome extension. It tracks the exact time spent on each task.
6. Delegate and Automate
Successful entrepreneurs don’t do every task themselves. They delegate as many tasks as possible.
They do the things that they and only they can do. In today’s advanced world, technology can also be used to automate several tasks.
Through automation and delegation, entrepreneurs can save themselves a lot of time. As they say, time saved is time earned.
Even saving one hour a day amounts to 365 hours a year, or 3650 hours in 10 years.
7. Plan your week ahead of time
The most successful people have a common schedule throughout their entire lifetimes. As the wise say, “Plan your work. Work your plan.”
Plan your week on Sunday before the start of the week. Taking a few hours to plan your week ahead of time can save you a lot of time throughout the week.
8. Take Breaks
The productive entrepreneur understands that breaks are an important part of his work schedule. Not taking a break can make you tired and unproductive.
Schedule 15-minute breaks between every 90-minute block of time. You may go for a walk, stretch, or even listen to music during your breaks.
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9. Manage Your Energy
Negative emotions like anger, envy, and jealousy can take up a lot of your energy. Highly energetic people are generally in a good mood most of the time and have learned to manage their emotions effectively.
10. Learn to say no
People who have made it big, know the art of saying no. It is practically impossible to take up every project, task, and opportunity that falls on our plate.
We must decide which tasks and opportunities take us towards our goals, and we must focus only on those tasks.
Every activity we do should take us towards our goals. Write your goals on a sheet of paper.
An exercise that has worked for many successful people is to write down a list of 25 different goals, then trim them down to 5 goals.
Once you achieve those five goals, only then should you think about other goals.
Conclusion
Time management is one of the most crucial skills for an entrepreneur.
Sometimes, we see entrepreneurs who seem to have all the time in the world, while there are others who seem busy all the time.
The only difference between both is their ability to manage their time and remain productive.
Tope Longe is a Content Marketing Specialist at Time Doctor. He’s a visual content junkie and passionate about marketing automation technologies. Find him on twitter @TemitopeLonge
