Time Management Tips for Small Business Owners
At the SOHO Solo West Cork meeting today Jim Flynn of MTS Consulting gave a very interesting talk on Time Management for Small Business Owners.
Here are the slides from Jim’s presentation:
Jim covered a fair bit of ground in his presentation… including tips on organising your contacts and a history of your interaction with them, and focusing on the tasks that add real value to your business. He suggested keeping a log of your time for a week, then analysing it with a critical eye to see where you could improve efficiency.
Some of the highlights included:
- Identify the tasks that are really productive (focus on them) and those that are just making you busy but deliver little return (reduce, eliminate or delegate them)
- Look at ways you can speed up your regular tasks – set yourself deadlines and strive to meet them
- Organise and plan your workload with prioritised to-do lists
- Keep your promises to yourself
- Focus
- Monitor and manage stress
- Under promise and over deliver
- Know yourself – how do you work most effectively?
Jim certainly offered plenty of food for thought… and I think everyone at the meeting went away with at least one thing they could apply that would be of tangible benefit to their business.
If you have any feedback, or some time management tips, techniques or tools that you’d like to share – please dive right in and add your comments at the bottom of this post.
You can download Jim’s Time Log and To-Do-List templates (PDF files) using the links below.
Time Management: Time Log (168) Time Management To-Do List (201)
[...] SOHO Solo West Cork Time Management Presentation Jump to Comments I’ve just posted information, including a presentation slide-show, of the latest SOHO Solo West Cork meeting at which Jim Flynn of MTS Consulting presented a talk on Time Management for Small Business Owners. [...]
the presentation today by Jim gave me a few things to think about namely what do i do with my time and where does it go. i never seem to have enough hours in the day whether it is time for my business which is at the stage where i need to put time into getting a marketing plan going (anyone out there that could help me with it free of charge !) must be catching Calvins bug , and dividing my time at home with my family with the usual school runs etc having to be fitted around my work time. i find that this doesn’t gear to a good beginning or end to a good working day where i’ve accomplished something. though i have found this week that i’m more inclined to get into a routine but that won’t last for long as i have found out to my cost as sure as hell something will turn up and turn my nicely established routine up on its head causing me to think what the hell has gone wrong again !!! i did come away with 1 promise to myself today and that was to manage my time better and to stick to it.
Hi Caroline,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. For me, managing my time effectively is probably the biggest challenge I face working from home. One of the best things about being a SOHO Solo is the flexibility it affords, and the opportunity that presents to spend more time with my family.
My big problem with “traditional” time management techniques and theory is that they tend to demand wrapping lots of structure around your working day — tying yourself to set hours, routines and systems. While that might work in terms of getting more done every day/week/year, I find that erodes much of the freedom and flexibility that I value so much.
I know I could probably work more effectively by imposing more structure on the way I choose to work, but I’m not sure, yet, that I’m prepared to make the sacrifices that demands.
I guess I need to find a happy medium… and Jim’s presentation certainly helped; it provided a few fresh ideas, and rekindled some old ones. But I’m not there yet… it’s going to take a bit of… you guessed it… time!
Hi All,
Just dropped by to see what I missed at the presentation. quite a lot by the look of it!
Time is certainly a slippery beast in this house with two people trying to fit work in with keeping some kind of order on the domestic front and give time to children and that thing called life too!
My partner and I have a six day rota for work and life through the week so that each of us gets three ‘clear’ days to focus on our work and three days where we *can* work but looking after the house and family take priority. The other day, usually Sunday, we try and spend together as we don’t get to see much of each other between working, getting young people off to school, cleaning up and cooking the dinner!
This seems to work pretty well for us although we also try to be flexible. Our system is not set in stone and a trip to the beach will often put work on the back burner.
I do wonder how other people manage their own work/life balance?
Hi Dave,
Thanks for stopping by.
I think that’s what it’s all about when you work at home: finding a “system” (and I use the term loosely) that works for you and your family in your particular situation, and that moves you towards your goals (be they personal or professional).
I’m definitely with you on the “trip to the beach will often put work on the back burner”
angle.
[...] Time Management Tips for Small Business Owners [...]
Hi Folks,
I agree with ye all its sometimes hard to focus, sometimes the mind wanders or we go on the net and an hour later you relaise you havent done what you intended. on the other side of it if you were out at work ie an office there is also lots of districations ie the work collouge whom comes to talk for an hour or so, I am always reminded to plan plan, I try but the next phone call can change that, what I will do if time pressure is against me to get a task done or i set myself a goal to get something is put the phone on silent for a hour or so just to get a task completed, my hate is doing my VAT returns every 2 months, I seem to always find something more important to do.
Hi Trevor,
Thanks for commenting, and great point about the myriad distractions in the traditional office environment.
I think a few people are naturally gifted at focusing their attention and getting things done — they don’t even have to think about time management, they just weave it organically into their working day (the lucky b******s!).
The rest of us have to work hard at it — and are generally not very good at it.
But hey — at least Jim’s presentation helped point out a few of the things we’re not doing
.
Hi all,
thoroughly agree with calvin and trevor time keeping is one thing i’m good at if i’m asked to be somewhere but when it comes to office time management i like you trevor hate doing my books but thank goodness i’m not big enough to have to do vat returns . i’d definitly would find other “Excuses” not to have to do them. Definitly an excuse could cover alot of things but i think we have to become more diciplined in what we do but yet be flexible enough to give a little when needed. i know it all goes back to time management .