Time Management ⌚️

Question: What is the one thing you cannot create more of?
Answer: Time.

Time is one of your most leveraged assets. So how are you managing your time?

If you lead others, your time is in demand. Having strong time management skills critical to increasing your influence within your team.

If you don’t manage your time, someone else will.

I am on a mission to leverage my time to make a bigger impact in business and life.

Here are 4 simple strategies for better time management

1. Say no more often

If you say yes to a project, meeting, task, etc., you say no to 100 other things.

By taking that coffee meeting, by offering to review that document, you are forgoing an opportunity to coach a team member or prep for a meeting.

It’s important to prioritize and delegate so you can say yes to the right things and no to the right things.

Bonus tip: delegation and prioritization are keys to proper time management.

2. Time block your calendar

Not all days are created equal. You need to have specific themes for specific days.

Why?

You need to show up to work and have a clear priority so you can control the energy and time you spend. Not only does this force clarity and focus, but it can leave you feeling accomplished.

If your role has you creating content. You need to know what days you are creating content, what days you are brainstorming content, and what days you are meeting about content.

If your role requires you to keep accurate finances and accounting, you need to know which days you are coding classes, which days you are creating reports, and which days you are presenting reports.

If you manage a team, you need to know when you are meeting with your direct reports, which day you are thinking about strategy and growing the team, and which days you are spending on growing the business.

Here is an example of a weekly calendar with time blocks.

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3. Ask for help

If you don’t have an assistant, you are one.

At some point in your profession, you are going to need help. It doesn’t need to be a full-time employee. There are hundreds of services out there that specialize in this type of work.

You are looking for someone to handle your repeatable tasks that take away your time to grow and scale a business/team.

Some common tasks you should delegate are

1. Calendar management
2. Inbox management
3. Note taking and dissemination
4. Other various tasks

Having a VA or team member assist with this ensures you aren’t spending time on transactional tasks.

4. Automate reptititve tasks

Use a tool like Clockwise to help you schedule common time blocks like lunch and focus times.

Allow your team to join in and allow automation to find the best times for everyone to have a meeting.

Bonus points if the software gives you analytics telling you how you are spending your time so you can hold yourself accountable for improvement.

Wrapping it up

Time management comes down to focus and behavior. No one is going to protect your time as much as you. It’s important you have a foundation of systems, processes, and behaviors so you can focus on high-impact and high-leverage work.

Feeling like your to-do list never ends?

Feeling like you can’t complete the hard things?

Feeling tired and overwhelmed?

These are all solved with time management. Take one of the strategies above and implement them this week. You’ll see a shift in how you plan your week.