Everyday, more employed workers choose to work as self-employed entrepreneurs. However, one of the greatest challenges to them is managing their time. All the while they have been following the daily routine working hours set by their employer (i.e. 9am till 5pm). The moment that they switch to self-employed entrepreneur, they are so free to decide on their working hour or without any planning, as they know nobody is going to question or fire them. They will really feel the impact of it when the income or profit is so less or not sufficient to cover their expenses at the end of the month.
Therefore, if you are one of the new self-employed entrepreneurs, you need to realize the importance of time management and practice some of these basic time management techniques as early as possible.
1. Clear Objectives and Goal Setting
Effective time management begins with knowing clearly what your objectives are and what do you really want to achieve. Subsequently, you need to set SMART goals in align with the objectives.
2. Planning and Prioritize
List down the entire task and schedule them. Based on the urgency and importance of the tasks, prioritize all the work accordingly. You need to set more buffer time for any unexpected events since you are new in entrepreneur world.
3. Leverage Your Time
Since you are self-employed, you need to be smart in leveraging your time. Consider outsourcing certain non-productive works, errands or works not within your expertise, so that you can concentrate on your core business which you love to do.
4. Self-Discipline
As mentioned earlier, new self-entrepreneurs tend to think they can work whenever they feel like it. Always work as per your scheduled activities for the day and stay away from non-business related tasks during your working hours. You need to stay focus and always ask yourself “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?”
5. Minimize Interruption
Find a working place with minimum interruption. If you work from home, close the room door while you are working. If you need time to concentrate on your work, try to unplug the phone and disconnect the internet connection during that period of time.
6. Productivity Tools
Invest on some automation tools to maximize your productive, example, answering machine, time management software.
7. Balance Up Your Time
Normally in the first few years, any new entrepreneurs need to sacrifice a lot of their personal time to build up their business. Therefore, proper planning of your time in advance is important to ensure that you have time for your family, health and other important parts of your life.
8. Continuous Improvement
Create a time log and review it every day. Identify any time wasters and try to reduce them. As a newly entrepreneur, you need to continuously improve yourself by gain more knowledge from books or courses or mentors to improve your time management skills.
Always remember, you have to pro-actively improve on your time management skills as you are the employer and worker too.
"Remember that time is money." - Benjamin Franklin, 1748
