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Time management to increase productivity as an Online Business Owner

Time management to increase productivity as an Online Business Owner

How do you think about your time? To better your time management to increase productivity, first, you need to consider it your most valuable, non-renewable resource.

Why time management is so important

Now, this is important do you know where you're spending your most valuable resource?

Why is it your most valuable resource?

We overlook our time as a valuable resource, in truth once it’s gone you’ll never get it back. Have you thought about it like this before? It can be surprising how many people don’t. If you get it, good for you!

How to improve in time management

Stay with me here as this may sound daunting, but you need to keep a time journal or track your time somehow. Not forever, unless you want to, but for at least a week or two.

Here’s how to do it yourself online with a few applications. Toggl is for time tracking and has a chrome plugin.

RescueTime is an app that runs in the background to track your time. 

Timeular is what I use for my time management/tracking because I like to have the physical tracker on my desk to flip. ← This is NOT an affiliate link, maybe someday but not yet. (:

You’re not able to improve what isn’t measured.

The only way to know where you're actually putting your time in is to keep track of it.

But here’s the thing once you’re aware of where your time is spent. This is when you’re able to improve your time management and productivity as an online small business owner.

Tracking time is a huge eye-opener into how long you’re actually spending your precious time on different tasks.

This allows you to make the decision if the tasks that are receiving your time are worth it.

Once you get really great a knowing exactly where your time is going and how long those different tasks are going to take. You guessed it time management becomes a ton easier.

Be sure to give yourself grace in the beginning, not everybody knows where they truly spend time wastefully.

It's a matter of keeping track of your time and shifting your mindset to viewing time as valuable.

Time management to increase productivity

How time management helps you to increase productivity?

How? Simple it keeps you out of doing the tasks that aren’t providing you a return on your investment.

With your time journal in hand figure out the return on investment (ROI) on each task.

Or another way to handle it if figuring the ROI feels difficult, ask yourself “Could I outsource this for under $20 per hour?”

put the dollar amount next to the task in the journal.

You need to make sure that the tasks you're doing are tasks you should be doing.

As a small business owner, you need to know that the tasks that you invest time into are actually connected to revenue in your business.

If you're not able to connect a task to an ROI, it may not, let’s be bold, it should not be an activity that you are doing in your small business and would be better served to hire a contractor for a few hours a month to do that.

Hey, we get it at Miss Task as we’ve been in your shoes when you're first starting out, you're like, no way am I going to outsource.

In order to increase your productivity, you must become a steward of your time.

Time management to increase productivity

How time management helps to reduce stress

And the best part is as an owner time management helps to reduce stress when you’re not getting caught in all the low returning, high energy tasks.

As a result, it feels really good when you can invest the time to focus on tasks that only YOU can do in your business, the tasks that bring a true return on investment in your small online business.

If you're stressed out about a $10 task that somebody else could do and handle for you, then you’re not going to have the ability to grow and scale your online business.

Time management strategy

One of the best time management strategies is repeatedly performing a mind sweep.

If you’re not familiar with the term mind sweep, it is the same as a brain dump.

In other words, making sure that you're going through and clearing your mind by doing a mind sweep of everything that you have going on and the things that need to happen?

Here’s how it works take that mind sweep and figure out the return on investment.
“Ask yourself is this the best investment for my time or could I hire somebody else to be doing that for you.”

Owner do not forget this applies to your personal life, as well as your business life.

Outsourcing

Next, pull out that time journal again of all the things that you’ve been doing, what are the things that you could easily outsource?

What are those things that you just cannot stand to do and you want somebody else to do?

Because it drains you completely of all your energy.

And it takes you a lot of time, a lot more time to do than it should.

You can either spend your time being busy, or you can spend your time being productive.

It necessary you're spending your time on productive revenue-generating tasks that are moving your online business forward.

A few other tricks to time management

Another great trick for your time management, making sure you're planning things well. Take the time up front on a project and break down everything that needs to be done.

Put all those tasks on your calendar in focused time blocks. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your next great idea.

It gets better putting those tasks on your calendar lets you know when those tasks are going to get done.

Then if you’re not able to get to it for some unplanned reason, because you know, things come up that we aren’t expecting they always do.

Well, you need to take those non-essential tasks that you may have on your day and move them over to another day.

So it's very important that you're actually taking and planning out time.

In case you have a whole bunch of tasks that will take five or 10 minutes for each or a couple of minutes here and there, put them all into one time block so that they're all getting done all at once during a single time block.

That's a great way to manage your time and your tasks as well.

Similarly, one point that Brooke Castillo made in her YouTube video on tips for time management make sure you schedule your free time.

Why is that? If you're taking longer to do something, it's gonna cut into your free time.

Guess what happens it puts a little bit more fire underneath you to actually get it done in the time in which you have scheduled it for.

And on top of that, track your time leaks. A time leak is some unforeseen event that causes your schedule to get completely out of control.

For example, a poodle or a golden doodle who do things that you don’t anticipate and requires giving them an unplanned bath.

Bottom line, keep track of your time, what are the things that take the time that you didn't plan for in your schedule, and took away from doing the things that would have been more productive.

So where do you spend your time?

Given these points, you need to figure out where you spend your valuable time so that you can make sure that you're completing the tasks that only you can do.

Thank you so much for reading, I appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

l

Little Side Note

We either pay for things in time or money. Which is more valuable is up to you. Here’s the big secret you can earn more money you’ll never be able to earn more time.

✁ Just a Snippet

Here is just a snippet of the important points for time management to increase productivity, you know for the skimmer in you. 🤪

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Wow, another new year is upon us, are you planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur? 

You may resist planning in your business because the thought of it feels difficult. Friend, with even an outline of where you’d like to go and what you’d like to accomplish it, will keep you from feeling insanely busy EVERY single day. 

I’m sure you’ve heard if you don’t know where you’re going how will you know when you get there. This holds true in business as well. 

You’ll always have people and things that will pull you around in your business. 

But, you put together a plan it will create the focus you need to move ahead. Cause I know you do not want to be in this same place next year. 

Reflection

Reflecting on the things that worked, areas of improvement and dropping what you need to walk away from. 

What was really successful this past year? What did you achieve?

What didn’t go as smoothly as you hoped this past year? What challenges did you face and overcome or not overcome?

What pulled your attention away from your goal?

What were the numbers?

Gather all the status of your business. How many followers you have on your social media accounts. 

What was your profit, expense, income, clients? 

You’ll want to make sure that you’re measuring your progress.  

What is the vision for the next year?

What’s the vision for your business? 

Do you have an idea of where you want to be in three years? Come on, it’s time to write down the vision you have for business, where are you going?

From your three-year vision, what can you do in the upcoming year to move in that direction?

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Let Me Guide You Through An Annual Plan

Firstly, pull out the calendar and figure out the actual number of working days you’ll have in the quarter. What days do you plan to take time off for vacation, rest or leisure? 

Block those days off in your calendar now. 

Secondly, grab your notebook it’s time to create an exhausting list of all the projects that you want to accomplish in the next year. When I say exhausted, I mean get it all out even those crazy ideas. No project is too small or simple for the list. Write down everything that pops into your head, without any judgment.

What projects are in aligned with your vision

With your exhausted list of ideas, which projects do you feel is the most aligned with the vision and mission of your online business. Next, go on and cross off anything on your list that is unaligned or doesn’t bring a sense of joy. 

Then, circle all the ideas that you feel are aligned with the vision of your online business and rank each of the tasks by importance to you and your ideal clients. This will aid in where you need to start. 

Each quarter will be assigned three projects to achieve! Basically, one per month. Start with the projects that have the most impact on the growth of your online business or is the quickest path to cash. Either highlight the three tasks for Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 with a different color or note the Q in front of the task.

Mindmap the Quarters

My favorite way to create a plan is, to begin with, a mindmap. I’ve talked about mindmap previously in the post if you’d like to read it. 

In the center of a new sheet of paper pick one of the ideas from your list. This is how you start your mindmap.

Circle your idea in the center of your page and begin to create lines off of this idea with all the items that need to take place in order to bring it to completion.  Then create small accomplishable tasks off of items that need to be completed. 

For example, if one project in the next quarter is to create a new opt-in. You’ll need a landing page for one of the items. What are the small accomplishable daily tasks to create a landing page? Here are a few ideas. 

  • Find images 
  • Write Copy
  • Create Wireframe

What else do you need to do? 

l

Little Side Note

If you’re planning to create a new offering this should be your single focus for the one whole quarter.

Get it scheduled

If you have a project management system you can set this all up inside, so that you know what to do when. If not, a paper calendar or Bullet Journal will work just fine. 

At the top, write out your online business mission, vision, and goals for the first quarter. Under this breaks it into three columns. One for each project. 

Looking at your list if you had to pick just one project what would it be? 

Start with that one. 

Under the Project Header

Now we are going to put in all the tasks that need to be completed by who and when. Will you need any resources, such as a new software application, to complete the task? 

Not all the tasks must be completed by you. It’s very important that you stay in your lane and delegate out the tasks that can be done by someone else.

Stop believing that old story that you're not someone that likes to plan.

Do you have a recurring pattern of starting and stopping when you feel unsure, frustrated, and incapable of doing the things you want to do?

90-Day Plans Are Important Because: 

You figure out beforehand what needs to be done. No more deciding as you go.

You confidently step into the leader and CEO of your business. 

It creates a clear plan, vision, and goals for your business. No more second-guessing yourself. 

Download The Planning Workbook Today!

 

 

Quarterly Project Plan For Your Online Business

Quarterly Project Plan For Your Online Business

Quarterly Project Plan for Your Online Business

This is a great time to begin your Quarterly Project Plan for your online business. I’m not talking about a huge extensive plan, just getting your projects laid out for the next quarter. What is the best use of your time and energy?

l

A Little Side Note

If you’re planning a large launch to take place in the next quarter and you know all focus needs to go into this. This would be your only project for the quarter.

Let Me Guide You Through A Quarterly Project Plan…

Brainstorm an exhausted list of all the projects that you want to accomplish in the next three months. When I say exhausted, I mean braindump all the ideas and information from your head on the list. No project is too small or simple for the list. Write down everything that pops into your head, no judgment.

Get out your pen and paper and get the projects out on paper. I like to highlight, cross off and of course color code.

With your brainstorm list, figure out which projects are aligned with the vision and mission of your online business. Cross off any that is unaligned or feels heavy in your business.

Circle all the projects that are aligned with your online business and rank each of the tasks by importance or if they have an outside commitment. An example of an outside commitment to someone else to be a guest on their podcast. This will aid in where you need to start.

Now on to Quarterly Project Plan for your online business

From your list above what did you circle as projects to work on for the upcoming quarter?

If you have a project management system you can set this all up inside so you know what to do when. If not, a paper calendar or Bullet Journal will work just fine.

At the top, write out your online business mission, vision, and goals for the upcoming quarter. Under this break it into three columns. One for each project.

Looking at your list if you had to pick just one project what would it be?

Start with that one.

Under the Project Header

Now we are going to put in all the tasks that need to be completed by who and when. Will you need any resources, such as a new software application, to complete the task?

Not all the tasks must be completed by you. It’s very important that you stay in your lane and delegate out the tasks that can be done by someone else.

Quarterly Project Plan for Your Online Business

Would you like assistance?

Download the planning checklist! The checklist will walk you through the items to begin planning your next 90 Days. 

 

Stop believing that old story that you're not someone that likes to plan.

Do you have a recurring pattern of starting and stopping when you feel unsure, frustrated, and incapable of doing the things you want to do?

90-Day Plans Are Important Because: 

You figure out beforehand what needs to be done. No more deciding as you go.

You confidently step into the leader and CEO of your business. 

It creates a clear plan, vision, and goals for your business. No more second-guessing yourself. 

Download The Planning Workbook Today!