3 Time Management Strategies No One is Teaching

Business Tips and ToolsPersonal DevelopmentTime Management

Mar 5

Written By brandmerry

3 Time Management Strategies No One is Teaching

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

“I don’t have enough time!” This used to be a regular phrase in my vocabulary and although I didn’t realize it at the time, it was hurting my overall productivity. Yes, you guessed it, your mindset impacts your productivity. Today I’m sharing 3 Time…

Time Management is so important as an entrepreneur.

I’ve found throughout my journey that by not only planning better, scheduling my time, creating more time, but also changing my outlook around time, I’ve been able to do more.

Before I can give you all the strategies I’ve used, I want to talk about how your beliefs around time are actually limiting it.

The truth is it isn’t about the strategies, if it was the new planner every year, the new calendar and the use of a tool like Trello, would magically make your time management better, but that just isn’t the case.

If the strategies work for a little while, but then you fall off the wagon, it’s time to look deeper at the root cause.

If you feel like you’re running out of time…

If you feel like you never have enough time to start…

Or you feel you’re wasting time…

This is for you!

1. MAKING TIME A TOP PRIORITY

THE VALUE OF YOUR TIME

I firmly believe that time is our greatest value.

A very significant part of my story is that I lost my brother to childhood cancer at the age of 18. It didn’t happen right away, but over the months and the years I started to change my view around time.

I know we all recognize that life isn’t infinite, but is this knowledge translating into how you spend your time daily?

How are we spending our time on this earth and are we doing the things we truly want to do?

When we put more emphasis on time as our greatest asset, we enjoy life more and the other pieces, like money, success and strong relationships, fall into place.

The biggest mindset shift I want you to take with you today is how to make time your greatest priority.

Actionable Step: Answer this question

How do you value time? How are you spending 24 hours a day?

If it’s true that we can’t get our time back then why do we use it so poorly?

HOW WE SPEND OUR TIME

When I started my business, I had to figure out how to fit this whole business into my schedule.

I had to learn very quickly that how I was spending my time wasn’t conducive to the goals I had for myself.

And before you start to think you have to make sacrifices in to reach your goals and create more time, I encourage you to focus on the choices.

It is a choice.

Where do you want to be?
What are your dreams?
What are you working towards?

You’re not going to get there if you don’t make the choice and yes sometimes the choice requires making hard decisions.

Actionable Step: Complete a time analysis

Spend the next 72 hours to track your time and how you’re spending it. This will give you a great overview of where the “time sucks” are happening. When you have this information you’ll be able to see just how much time you’re actually wasting.

Imagine if you spent 10 minutes less (minimum) on social media that’s over an hour. What could you do in an hour that will get you closer to your dreams.

If you’re not making the choice of where you’re spending your time, none of the strategies will matter.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR PRIORITIES

When is the last time you sat down and thought about your top priorities?

It’s not something that comes up in typical conversation, but it’s so important.

Actionable Step: Answer this question

You have 24 hours tomorrow to do whatever you want to reach your goals and dreams, what do you do?

We need to be asking ourselves this question because it’s so easy to get sucked into priorities with our jobs, children, spouses and more.

When you answer this question those are your values and priorities.

Maybe for you it’s:

Going outside
Exercising
Snuggling your babies
Traveling more

It’s not just about moving up the corporate ladder or having a $50k launch it’s about the things that bring you the most joy.

Identifying your values is just one step, the next part, and the part that’s up to you is how often are you living those values daily.

Please remember that you get to choose how you spend your time.

Yes, I know many of you work a 9 to 5.
Yes, many of you have children.

Of course, there are things that are required of you, but how are you spending the other hours in a day.

You will prioritize in your schedule what you prioritize in your life!

When you decide the techniques, tools and strategies will work.

3. CREATING MORE TIME DAILY

Use your calendar. We have calendars everywhere, yet so many people are not using their calendar correctly.

If you struggle with time management and aren’t scheduling EVERYTHING in your calendar, then it’s time to start.

I used to schedule date nights with my husband at the beginning of my business.
I used to schedule friend time (I still do)
I would schedule my content, coaching time and my time with my son.

By doing this, we can make the things of value to us a top priority. They are on the calendar and everything else can fit in where it can.

Get as detailed as possible to get yourself into a routine.

If you are a modern woman you are busy, there is no shame in using your calendar to prioritize your values. Put those in first and fill in the rest.

Create Boundaries. If you need to create more time you need to be clear with others and yourself about your priorities.

Find your people that you can trust and open up to about your dreams to ask for support and help. Creating boundaries with yourself allows you to ask for support from others.

This support can look like exchanging babysitting, asking for kid-free time from your husband (try for the same time every single week), it could be moving money around to invest in an assistant 2 hours a week to grow your business.

Not only is it important for you to understand that you can’t do it all, it’s also important to understand you don’t have to.

Creating boundaries with others frees up more time in your schedule to focus on the things that matter most.

You sometimes have to say no to things, to do things that get you closer to your goals and dreams.

Again, it’s not a sacrifice!

If you’d rather be doing something else, maybe it’s time to see how invested you are in your dreams.

TIME-SAVING HACKS: TOOLS I USE TO MANAGE MY TIME

Trello and Asana. Any task management platform will work, but these are my favorite.

I use them every single day for my business, but I also use them for our travels as well. You can use it while working your 9 to 5, with your weekly schedule, for project management and more.

Prepare for your week. Do yourself a favor and spend 20 minutes every single Sunday to plan out your life. I spend 20 minutes to see what my priorities are, where I’m dedicating my time, any deadlines and how I’m going have fun. This allows me to head into Monday prepared and not flying by the seat of my pants, which we all know leads to procrastination.

Have batch days. You can bulk write your content on a specific day, or meal prep on Sundays. In addition, I suggest choosing specific days that you do backend things in your business and different days to work with clients. When you batch your tasks together you will actually save yourself time.

CONCLUSION

Time is our greatest asset and it’s important to remind yourself how valuable it truly is. If you’re struggling with time management it’s time to go deeper than any strategy, it’s time to shift you’re thinking.

I promise you do have enough time, it’s all in how you use it.

If you want more tips on time management, creating boundaries and productivity be sure to subscribe to my new podcast, The Beautiful Climb on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.