As a small business owner, your time is at a premium. If you are like most of the small business owners I work with, your to-do list is never empty—there is always something to be done.
In my time working with countless small businesses over the years, I have observed an important reality: the most successful business owners aren’t necessarily the hardest-working, the smartest, or even the best leaders. The most successful business owners are the ones that spend their time most effectively. They recognize that they have limited time and they allocate their time to the tasks that produce the most “bang for the buck.”
And one of the keys to spending your time effectively is simply avoiding tasks and habits that waste it. In that spirit, below are five particularly common time-wasters to watch out for:
1) Checking email throughout the day. When I ask business owners to tell me about their email habits, almost all of them admit that their email program is open all day long. This means that they are constantly hearing the “ping” of a new email arriving in their inbox. This is a very real problem—because essentially email becomes a constant distraction that sidetracks them from the task at hand. I recommend designating several times throughout the day to check and respond to email—and keeping your email program closed the rest of the day!
2) “Firefighting”. Too many business owners spend their time reacting, instead of acting. They are responding to problems and addressing unforeseen challenges rather than proactively taking action. And while it’s unrealistic to think that you’d never have to react to anything, the less time you can spend reacting, the better off you are. Set your priorities and stick to them. Train your staff to address issues that may arise… so that you can stay on task!
3) Unproductive meetings. Meetings can be an incredible waste of time. Do you find that you spend a lot of time in meetings that accomplish relatively little? If so, consider changing up your format to increase efficiency. Set a time limit. Instead of abstract concepts and plans, make the objective of your meetings to generate tangible “action plans.”
4) Too much multitasking. Believe it or not, multitasking can slow you down. Multitasking forces you to “spread” your focus and your energy—and you are often better off focusing on one task at a time. Try to avoid multitasking for a day and see if your productivity increases.
5) Disorganization. Finally, disorganization is among the worst time-wasters I see in small businesses. Disorganization forces you to waste time searching for information, struggling with billing and inventory, and so forth. Disorganization causes tasks that should take 2 minutes to take 20 minutes. Invest the time and get the chaos under control. I can help!
Spending your time effectively is the key to running a successful business. These tips will help—please let me know if you’d like to learn more!