Managing Your Time and Reducing Distractions - Part 1

One of the most difficult aspects of running a business is managing your time effectively. There are a number of reasons you may be unnecessarily spending time in your business or career. This 2 part blog post will be a summary of the time management books Eat That Frog and Time Traps by Brian Tracy and Todd Duncan. It is important that you learn how to manage your time, reduce distractions and increase productivity when running a business or working a job.

You want to think of time management as task or goal management. Your job is to organize and then complete the most important tasks in your business and spend less time on or eliminate the non-important tasks. Start with writing down a list of all the goals you want to complete accompanied by each task within those goals. Next, you'll want to organize the list by priority and set a deadline for each task. If a new task comes up while you are working, assess the importance of that task and add it to the list if necessary. Once finished, this list will give you an overview of everything that needs to be completed in your business. About 20% of the tasks on your list will have more positive impact on your business than the other 80% of tasks. That 20% is where you will focus your time and energy.

Break down a large task into specific step-by-step activities and complete each step consistently. You will soon develop momentum while working and complete a large part or all of the task. Most of the really important work that you will do requires large chunks of unbroken time. Commit to working a set number of hours on a task without distractions. Starting and persisting on a task until it is 100% complete is crucial. Do not worry about completing a task perfectly, work on it and get it 80% right then correct it later. The key to successfully completing your tasks is action, you want to take action immediately on your task.

Your knowledge and skills can determine how efficient and effective your are at completing a task. Learn what skills you need to incorporate to become better at the task and continually upgrade your existing skills in key areas of your job. You'll also want to evaluate the tools and systems that you use in your business. Is there a tool that is more efficient for your situation? Or would dropping an existing tool completely give you a boost in productivity? One piece of information or one additional skill can make a difference in your ability to do the job well.

Another point to consider is you may not have time to complete all the tasks on your list. Look at the least impactful tasks on your list and consider outsourcing or delegating tasks that don't make much of a impact in your business. One way to do this is to hire a part-time assistant to help you with low impact tasks. You should also consider building and training a team for different categories of tasks in your business.

In the next part of this topic we will focus on how your time and energy can be sapped by unnecessary tasks, general distractions and technology. If you have any questions or concerns you can contact me here.