Entrepreneurs have a lot on their plates – there is no doubt about that. But add being a woman with a family to the mix, and the situation might seem impossible. Still, there are so many successful business women all around the world today.
How do they do it? The key is, in fact, in time management. Time is a finite resource and therefore, we have to treat it with great care. It takes a lot of practice and experience to truly master time management, but once you find a system that works for you, you can forget about constantly feeling like you’re running out of time. Here are a few tips that might help.
Delegating is key
If you have both a household and an important job in your charge, your daily list of tasks probably exceeds what can realistically be done in 24 hours. However, there is no reason why you should do every single thing yourself!
Delegating is a valuable skill to learn early on, as it will allow you to better focus on the tasks that are actually important and do a better job. So, let your family do their part of the household chores. Your children will learn some responsibility that will come handy later in their lives. In the same way, let others help out at work.
Make use of lists
When you have a lot on your plate, it’s easy for something to slip out of your mind. Moreover, it’s difficult to organize your time when the tasks only keep coming and you cannot see where they end.
So, starting to write to-do lists and organizing your tasks into different categories so that you can always oversee where you’re standing can be a game-changer. Try to write a to-do list for the next day every time before you leave work and you won’t have to worry that you’ll forget something. Moreover, this way, you can actually leave work at work.
Schedule everything you can
The third thing that you should take up is scheduling. Of course, you have been doing this with some of your tasks before too, but the more things you can schedule, the better organized you’ll be. Write a weekly schedule every weekend and you’ll feel on top of your tasks as soon as Monday morning rolls around.
This is even more important if you’re self-employed or working from home. Moreover, you will find that for some things, the only way to find time is by scheduling them in advance. For instance, how long have you been postponing your hair salon visit because your days are so busy? So, search “hair salon near me” and schedule an appointment to actually get it done.
Work smart
You might think that effective time management equals using every free moment you have to do something productive, but sometimes, that can actually be counterproductive. Taking breaks is extremely important to be able to focus properly and get tasks done much more efficiently. A very tight schedule will exhaust you both physically and mentally.
So, even if you might feel dubious about this, try to add actual breaks into your daily schedules where you will do anything other than work. This will give a break to your brain, relieve some of your stress and make you feel refreshed and much more ready to tackle whatever is in front of you when you go back to your desk.
Keep your phone out of your bedroom
Just like we mentioned that you need to give yourself a break sometimes, you also need to define some boundaries when it comes to taking work home. Regardless of whether you have a family or not, your home should make you feel relaxed – which is difficult to achieve if the last thing you do at night and the first thing you do in the morning is checking your email from your phone.
It can interfere with your sleep and your morning routine; all in all, you have a lot of reasons to leave your phone out of your bedroom. Let those emails wait an hour or two and first, focus on yourself and on starting your day on a positive note. You’ll be much better prepared for anything that’s in those emails this way.
Learn to say no
If you want to advance your career, you have to focus on the things that actually take you forward. The problem, however, is that when you have a million other commitments, the time you can devote to those things is greatly diminished.
This is why you have to learn how to say no to things that you simply don’t have time for. You will find that you can free up so much of your time just by not taking on tasks that are out of your capacity. This is by no means selfish; it’s necessary.
We have a lot to learn from successful businesswomen, and one of those things is how to manage our time more efficiently. Hopefully, these tips and tricks will help you in your journey to becoming accomplished both in your work and in your personal life.
