As a solopreneur who juggles multiple priorities while working on and in your business, you’re never bored!
Sure, the mundane tasks of business and personal life may seem boring on some days, but your task list is never done. How is it that your schedule is full, but it feels as if you’ve gotten nothing done?
You started a business to improve your life, but no one ever explained that working hard doesn’t necessarily mean you're more effective. Something’s gotta give because you have no time left in your day!
This is why impeccable time management habits are essential for service-based entrepreneurs like you. Otherwise, stretching yourself thin will make managing multiple responsibilities overwhelming and frustrating.
Without managing your time well, your business and personal life will suffer—as well as your own sanity!
Helpful Time Management Habits for Today’s Busy Solo Entrepreneurs
Between your business and personal duties, you’re always doing something!
Finding balance takes practice.
But once you have a few processes in place, your schedule becomes a well-oiled machine, with every task you set out to complete displaying a giant checkmark next to it by the end of the day.
Here are five time management habits that are perfect for solopreneurs like you who want to be more effective and efficient without working more hours each day.
Time Management Habit #1: Plan…The Night Before
When it comes to effective time management habits, nothing beats planning the night before. Starting your day off without a clear-cut plan or objective in place leads to chaos and aimlessness. Don’t waste precious time in the morning deciding what needs to be accomplished for the day.
To increase your productivity, plan your day the night before. Write out your next day’s list of action items at the end of your current workday. Make it the last thing you do before you stop work.
When you wake up in the morning, you’ll know what to work on to meet your short-term and long-term goals—for both your business and personal life.
Time Management Habit #2: Declutter Your Workspace and Your Home
Although there is research that suggests a messy desk leads to new ideas and creativity, removing clutter from your desk and your house is highly beneficial.
Clutter competes for your brain's attention and increases stressful feelings. According to Psychology Today, decluttering improves your efficiency, well-being, stress level, mental health, and eating choices.
Decluttering improves your efficiency, well-being, stress level, mental health, and eating choices.Click To TweetClutter stands in your way of getting things done. Your home and your office should be places where you feel pride, comfort, and support for living—not distraction or discomfort.
Keeping your work area and home free from clutter improves your effectiveness, which streamlines your daily life.
Time Management Habit #3: Say “No” More Frequently
You love helping others. The problem is that being a people pleaser deters you from your own goals and purpose. Saying “no” doesn’t make you a bad person!
Since you can do only one thing at a time, the task you’re working on is your top priority. Why put other people’s priorities ahead of yours?
Since you’re limited on hours and energy, devoting effort to other people’s projects and goals separates you from what you consider most important. Therefore, everything that others ask you to do is a potential barrier to your business success and your happiness.
Get out of the habit of saying yes by remembering that your time is your most precious, valuable commodity. Cherish it! And, don’t feel guilty for putting your needs before the needs of others.
Get out of the habit of saying yes by remembering that your time is your most precious, valuable commodity. Cherish it! And, don’t feel guilty for putting your needs before the needs of others.Click To TweetTime Management Habit #4: Eliminate Distractions to Improve Focus
Constant interruptions sabotage your daily progress. Distractions impede your concentration, making it more difficult to manage your time and task completion most effectively.
Here are some examples of what derails your day:
- social media
- smartphone
- phone calls
- kids
You’ll finish your tasks faster by time “chunking” or by dividing your day into dedicated slots where you focus on accomplishing a to-do list item or project.
According to one study, performance drops when you’re distracted and it takes longer to recover from the time lost. This is called “attention residue.”
Performance drops when you’re distracted and it takes longer to recover from the time lost. This is called “attention residue.Click To TweetTurn off your notifications, close your office door, and stick to your schedule rather than popping over to email or social media for a brief look.
If you need a few hours of focused time in your business when you’re working from your home office, get up early. Use the wee hours of the morning to crush your to-do list or meditate before the craziness of the day begins.
Time Management Habit #5: Delegate More Tasks
You want to do it all! Maybe you prefer involving yourself in every aspect of your business. Or, perhaps you don’t have the systems in place to delegate tasks to another person.
Whatever the reason, it’s time to abandon your hesitation when it comes to delegating certain tasks in your business or even in your home life.
There are plenty of services that offer the outsourcing of assistants, marketing, accounting, or even grocery shopping and dry cleaning.
You may believe that it’s more efficient to do it all yourself. But, being superwoman will lead to burnout. Even worse, you're not necessarily accomplishing more by taking on more work.
Outsourcing frees up your time and gives you more hours in your day. And, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a day off now and then?
How Important are Good Time Management Habits?
When you commit to improving how you manage your time, you’re also improving your life as well as the lives of those around you.
Time management skills help with productivity, relationships, and achieving harmony in your business, home, and personal life. So, it’s very important to develop good habits in this area!
Plus, managing your time more effectively means a higher chance that you’ll stop putting yourself last when it comes to self-care. Setting aside time for yourself leads to a healthier, happier lifestyle.
UPDATED on February 7, 2022
