Is Your Business Majorly Depleting Your Free Time?
Let’s talk time management
Are you spending more time working for your business than you ever intended to when you started it?
Your time is one of the most valuable resources you have and maybe you started your business underestimating just how much of it your business takes up!
Of course, everybody in the world has the same amount of time: 168 hours each week.
Take off 8 hours asleep each night, and you are left with 112 hours of time awake.
That does sound like a lot at first, but knowing how to maximise your time so that you can optimise your productivity is key. We take a look at that in the next section.
Often, as a business founder or a first time business owner, you find that most of your time is spent at work, doing the work, and then thinking about work once you’ve come home.
Work has started to consume your waking hours and is far exceeding the other valuable stuff in your life, like spending time with family, getting outdoors or even just having a weekend to yourself.
The business you started was meant to provide the lifestyle that you wanted, enough time to enjoy it, the bank-roll to afford it, a valuable, saleable asset and an outlet to develop your skills.
As I’m sure you’ve found, it sure is hard work!
It’s estimated that only two years from now, in 2024, 69% of a manager’s routine work will be able to be automated. This will free up more time to spend completing high-value business activities, or even just having more free time to do the things you care about.
But how do you get there?
I’m in the business of working with you to develop the skills and confidence you need to take your business to the next level, whether that means upskilling, outsourcing or putting better systems in place to avoid spending time on things you don’t need to.
As Tim Ferris, a widely known American entrepreneur, says, “focus on being productive instead of busy.” I can work with you to help you figure out what that will look like for your business.
Tips for Optimising your Schedule
I’ve covered some easy-to-implement tips below to help you get your time management on track and make the most of every day.
Plan out your time in colour-coded blocks, at least a week in advance. For the colour coding, you may use ‘green’ for business related tasks and ‘yellow’ for fitness related tasks. A good tool to use for this is Google Calendar. Having your tasks colour-coded allows you to more clearly see how you are spending time, and to distinguish how much time you’re spending in areas related to different parts of your life.
Write out all the recreational activities you have (or would like to do), e.g. time with family, mountain biking, social rugby, reading. Then rank them based on their importance to you. Make sure the time you allocate to each corresponds with their rank. Don’t overcommit to team sports, if family time is your top priority!
Always have something to look forward to each week. It is important to schedule ‘fun’ time to avoid stress and burnout.
Use technology consciously. If you’re the type of person who can accidentally spend a whole half hour reading the news on your phone without even realising the time has passed, then you may need to be more disciplined and conscious of your phone usage. You may want to set time limits for certain apps, which most phones will allow you to do. Or otherwise, you may want to set times of the day where you can indulge in mobile browsing, or times you don’t want to such as during breakfast or after 9pm.
Strategies for Managing the “Busyness” Buzz
To get you started, I have come up with some simple day-to-day things you can do to relieve "busyness.”
Take 1 - 2 breaks (2 - 5 min) per hour
Do exercise 2 - 3 times per week - get the heart pumping
Drink 3 - 4 litres of water per day - it’s a lot but your mind and body loves it when it is hydrated
Have 4 - 5 meals per day - smaller, more frequent meals can help you avoid the slump after a big meal
Take 6 - 7 deep breaths per hour - oxygen to the brain
Sleep 8 - 9 hours sleep per night - you have to recover
Has something in this article resonated with you?
Let’s take this discussion a step further. I welcome you to book a free 45 minute call with me to discover how I can fit into your business needs.