Time is money. It’s such a cliche, but there’s a lot of truth behind it. And when it comes to owning and managing your very own small to medium-sized business, this cliche really comes across as important. How you manage your time is a direct reflection of how your manage your company. The more time you waste, the more money you’re effectively wasting. The chances are pretty good that, at some time or another in your life, you’ve taken a time management class. Maybe you’ve tried to use an electronic or paper-based day planner to try and organize, prioritize and schedule your day. After all, you’re busy, and so organizing and allocating your time equates to quality time management, right?
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Well, it’s complicated. Even dedicating time itself to simply organizing your time might leave you feeling like you still can’t get everything done that you need to. Ultimately, time management is fairly complicated, but our lenders at The Commercial Finance Group can help you out in a certain department. Our useful and effective small business lending solutions through finance factoring and invoice factoring are designed rapidly get the funding that your small but growing business needs to grow even more and excel in a competitive business market.
In today’s blog post, we’re going to cover some useful ways to manage your time as the owner of a small business. We’re also going to look at a time as a concept (without getting too abstract, we promise) as it relates to getting the most out of managing your company. Don’t forget to learn more about our factor financing services by visiting here. Otherwise, let’s dive in.
Understanding Time Itself
Before you can really begin to effectively manage your time, you should first learn what time actually is. Put simply, time refers to when things happen or occur. Dictionaries tend to define ‘time’ along the lines of ‘the point or period at which things occur,’ to be more formal.
When understanding time as a concept, consider two types of time: clock time and real time. In clock time, there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year. As such, all time passes equally. When someone turns 30, for example, they are exactly 30 years old, no more and no less.
In ‘real’ time, all time is relative. This means that time flies or drags depending on what you’re doing. Spending two hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles can seem like nothing short of eternity, and watching your children grow up over a decade can feel like it happens in the blink of an eye.
So, following the distinction between real time and clock time, here’s the problem with time management strategies and gadgets.
Managing Real Time
Time management systems don’t work for many people primarily because they are designed to manage clock time. Clock time is irrelevant because you live in real time, not clock time. You constantly perceive time subjectively, whether you want to or not. But hey, there’s great news about real time, and it is that real time is mental. Real time is something that you can create and manage. ‘Not having enough time’ or today ‘not being the right time’ to start a business or to take the next important step to growing your company is a mental construct, a self-limitation that doesn’t have to exist.
But really, there are only three core ways to spend time: thoughts, conversations, and actions. The type of business you own, be it a service or a product, doesn’t matter because your work is always composed of those three items. Now, coming from an entrepreneurial background, you are probably often pulled in different directions at the same time. While it might not be realistic to eliminate your daily interruptions, you do have power in terms of how much time you spend on your interruptions and also how much time you spend on your own thoughts, conversations, and actions that will eventually lead you to the success you’re seeking.
Borderline-abstract time concepts aside, let’s look at some practical tips for mastering your own time as it relates to your small business.
Carry A Schedule And Record Your Thoughts
Sure, the irony here reeks because this action is, in itself, time-consuming. However, carrying a schedule and recording all of your thoughts, conversations, and activities for a week will help you better understand how much you can realistically accomplish during a standard day. This strategy allows you to see how much of your time is actually spent producing results and how much time is wasted on unproductive thoughts, conversations, and actions.
Assign Rough Time Estimates
Any activity, conversation or meeting that’s important to your success should have a time value assigned to it. To-do lists tend to get longer and longer to a point where they’re unworkable. As an effective alternative to to-do lists, appointment books actually work. Schedule appointments with yourself and create time blocks for high-priority thoughts, conversations, and actions. Just make sure to actually follow through and keep these appointments.
Take Time To Schedule Time
The most important time of your day is the time you schedule to schedule time. Does that sound a little contradictory? Perhaps, but the time that you take at the beginning of your day will set the foundation for maximizing the productivity for the rest of your day. Don’t rush your planning or start your day until you complete your time plan – even taking 20-30 minutes at the start of every day to make a time plan is a smart and worthwhile move.
Get More Out Of Your Calls
Before every call you have, take a mere five minutes and ask yourself what you really want to get out of it. Knowing what success looks like before you’re even on the call will set your intentions for the conversation and also help to slow time down. After the call, take just a few minutes afterward to determine whether or not your desired results were actually achieved. Jot down a few simple notes while the impression of the call is still fresh in your head. If you didn’t get what you wanted out of it, then what was missing, and how can you put what’s missing into your next call or activity?
Embrace The White Space Of The Day
A jam-packed day with little to no breaks is not only stress-inducing and unhealthy, but it also leaves you with little to no time to deal with unexpected challenges or opportunities. Leaving a small time window in the morning and at the end of the business day (or at the end of your personal day, however your own hours work) will allow you to catch up on things that aren’t scheduled into various time blocks throughout the work day. Additionally, you could also read industry insights, research motivational content, have a quick meeting with your team, or do anything that adds value to your day that isn’t officially structured.
Plan And Account For Disruptions
This fits into utilizing the white space of your days. Unexpected things can and do happen, so why not be on top of it and expect the unexpected? While you create your plan for the day, think about allowing at least two windows of time for planned disruptions, as this may actually help keep your mind focused on the task at hand.
When you’re deeply focused on something and unplanned distractions break your concentration, it is said that it takes about 15 minutes (or more) to get fully back into the flow of your work and the mindset that you were originally in. By allocating specific time periods for any distractions or disruptions, you’ll be able to stay concentrated on other areas of your work.
Don’t Instantly Answer Emails Or Chat Messages
If it’s extremely urgent, then do what you need to do, but try to teach yourself the importance of delayed gratification. We’re not saying that answering each email will be the most satisfying thing that you’ve ever experienced, but it does feel good to get things done. Again, try and dedicate a specific time slot to answering these messages so that you can put some thought, intention, and meaning behind your replies.
Take The Time To Take Some Downtime
While being a small business owner is a typically a notoriously demanding job, your work is only one part of your life. Not only is downtime and relaxation vital to your mental health and sanity, but it will also make you a more patient, well-balanced and quality leader among your team of employees. In all honesty, if you’re not taking any time off for yourself, you’re essentially doing a disservice to your clients or your customers, and your team members because you can and will burn out.
The Commercial Finance Group Can Help You Save Valuable Time
No one is perfect at managing time, whether its ‘real’ time or clock time. However, our factoring services and small business funding capital solutions are quick fixes to an insufficient cash flow or lack of small business capital. Curious about what we can do for your business at our Burbank, Atlanta or Los Angeles locations? Get in touch with The Commercial Finance Group.
