Business Owners: Does It Feel Like You Never Have Any Time?

Starting a business and becoming your own boss is demanding, there’s no denying that. However, does it have to be so hard? If you feel like you’re constantly being run ragged from one end to the next and that you never have a moment to relax or to strategise, then you do run a major risk of burning out. Regaining some of that time can help you find a working situation that works for you, but how do you do it?

Know what tasks can wait til later

Procrastination might not sound like the most effective strategy to grow your business but don’t worry, that’s not really what this is about. You might already keep track of a to-do list that shows everything you need to get done, but how much of it needs to be done immediately? With the help of tools like a priority matrix from Appfluence, you can rank your to-do list task by order of how urgent and how important they are. Conversely, you will get an idea of which tasks can wait or aren’t as important, so you can take them off your plate until there’s a little less on it.

Make tech work for you

You might not have the funding to start employing right now, but what about making use of the tools that can do a lot of the work for you? There are a lot of ways that modern business tech can help, including automating many of your processes so that you don’t have to do it all yourself, whether it’s with social media, marketing, outreach, finances, project management, which you can read about at teamhood.com/kanban/scrum-vs-kanban-vs-scrumban-how-do-they-compare,  or otherwise. Look at the processes that take up the most of your time during the day and find the tools that can help you do them more efficiently.

Leave it up to someone else

Even if you’re not able to hire, that doesn’t mean that you’re able to work with other people. Finding the right outsourcing partners for some of your business processes can free up your time so that you can work on the things most important to you. Managing your business finances can easily be some of the most time-consuming work on your plate and companies like Xperion can be a big help with that. Know when you need to get some outsourced help, whether temporarily or for the long-term.

Know and deal with your distractions

Of course, it’s not always the most productive pursuits that are eating away at your time. Everyone gets distracted, and sometimes distractions can help you take a break from work before refocusing. If you’re getting too distracted, too often, however, then you might want to start tracking the lost time and where it’s lost. If there are a few distractions in common, you need to think of tactics how to beat them, whether it’s to block social media outside of designated hours or to soundproof the workspace.

Work smarter, not harder. That should be the mantra here. Hopefully, the tips above help you claw back some time from your business without losing any productivity in the first place.