How many times have you told yourself that you don’t have enough time? Your to-do list grows longer, you work more and more hours and you still don’t have time to fit it all in. So, how can you expect to reach your goals when you don’t have the time?
How many times have you told yourself that you don’t have enough time? Your to-do list grows longer, you work more and more hours and you still don’t have time to fit it all in. So, how can you expect to reach your goals when you don’t have the time?
Running a business takes time. You are responsible for most, if not all, of the work and so it can feel like you never have enough time. Will it be easier when you can outsource jobs or decide how you focus your time? Maybe, but there are also lots of things you can do to give yourself more time right now. Here are 4 ways to create more time in your business.
- Track your time The first thing to do is track what you’re spending your time on. You might feel like you’re always on social media because it’s a good place to market your business, but if you’re there watching videos of cats or catching up with what your friends have been doing, then that’s not a good use of your time. There are online trackers out there that you can use or you can just keep a note of how long you spend doing each task. I bet you’ll be surprised how much time you can take back from your day by being aware of where it’s being spent.
- Set boundaries Working harder won’t make your business more successful. In fact, you risk burning yourself out and becoming stressed or ever ill. In order to have more time in your business, it’s vital that you take time off. Setting boundaries helps you make sure that you step away, relax and recharge, which means you’ll have more energy for your business when you get back to things. Have ‘working hours’, turn your email off, don’t reply to messages late at night, and even switch your notifications off now and again. Boundaries protect your time and mean that you’re more energised and focused when you are working.
- Say no Saying no goes along with boundary setting. Don’t spend your time on things that don’t make you smile. It’s your business and you’re allowed to create one that feels perfect for you. Say no to the clients you don’t want to work with, the weekend conference calls, the out-of-hours messages, and the things you know won’t add value to your business.
- Think about the cost I know that outsourcing things in your business might feel like something you will get to do in the future. When you’re more established, have more clients, or have more profit in the bank, but sometimes we have to think about the cost of what we’re doing now. Let’s think about your website. You might spend 5 hours trying to update it and make the changes you want to make to your online shop. You get frustrated, nothing is straightforward and you waste a whole day trying to sort it out so you can’t do any of the other things on your to-do list. However, if you’d outsourced it to a virtual assistant or even a website guru it might have only taken them an hour. Paying for that hour of their expertise means you saved yourself from wasting the whole day, you could tick off more things from your task list and you get to save yourself all that stress. So, yes outsourcing costs, but it can also save you time and money in the long run.
You can’t magically give yourself more time to work, but there are lots of things you could do to help you make the most of the time you do have and that will help you be able to fit more into your day.