Managing your time is often easier said than done, especially if you’re an entrepreneur.
Enterpreneur Time Management Tips
Improve your time management skills with these three simple tips and tricks.
1. Make your work environment more productive
You would be surprised at how much time you can kill working in an unproductive environment. When you decide to plop down with your laptop in front of the television, even the simplest of tasks can take you twice as long. In an environment full of distractions, something you plan on taking a mere 20 minutes to complete could end up taking an hour, which is not great for your focus, or for time management. Power off your television, and set yourself up in a more serious workspace free of distractions. Your productivity will soar, and you will end up wasting less time.
2. Hold fewer meetings
Meetings can be a major waste of time. They often tend to start late, drift off topic, and rarely accomplish everything their organizers intend for them to accomplish. The bottom line? Meetings are wasting your time. The next time you’re feeling tempted to compile your staff together in a conference room, stop and ask yourself whether the meeting is really necessary. The meeting may not be wholly necessary if you do not have a clear objective for calling the meeting that can be clearly and coherently articulated, or you have a clear objective that can be met using the phone, email, or Skype. You can also call off meetings if the objective can be met by having a quick face-to-face conversation with all applicable parties.
If you insist on having a meeting, limit the timeframe. Make sure the meeting starts on time, and get started even if people are late. Arrive with a clear agenda to keep things on track, and when conversation starts to stray, direct it in the right direction to avoid wasting time. If you’re aiming for a short and sweet meeting, try conducting the meeting while standing up, especially if your goal is to keep the meeting under 15 minutes. This creates a sense of urgency, as people are much less likely to stick around if they don’t have a chair to kick back in.
3. Set realistic expectations
Setting unrealistic expectations for how much you can accomplish in a workday is a recipe for disaster, and can leave you feeling stressed, frazzled, and inadequate. Always set realistic goals, and before diving headfirst into a task, think realistically about how long it will take you to complete. As time goes on and you start completing projects on time, you will have a more accurate understanding of time requirements, and facilitate improved time management.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
