Time Management Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs: How to Get More Done in Less Time

13 min read

Entrepreneurship is one of the most fulfilling but demanding careers a person can have. As a business owner, you’re in charge of nearly every facet of your company or venture.

From planning and executing a strategy to hiring employees, winning new clients, and all the back-end administration tasks — it’s no wonder entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed by their workload.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, time management is critical to ensure productivity, effectiveness, and overall success. Wondering how you can improve your time management skills to improve your company’s bottom line? Keep reading!

Unique Time Management Challenges for Entrepreneurs

Let’s first discuss the basics — what is time management? As a skill, time management helps individuals complete work on time, avoid distractions, and effectively prioritize critical tasks without ever sacrificing the quality of work provided.

But why is time management important for entrepreneurs? Time management skills are vital to be successful in any role, be it team leader or individual contributor. However, this skill set is arguably the most important part of an entrepreneur’s day-to-day because of their workload and the sheer number of hats they wear at once.

A whopping 89% of entrepreneurs see their workload as too heavy. So, what makes the entrepreneurial role so challenging that time management becomes an issue? Here’s what entrepreneurs are juggling that sets them apart from the rest of the workforce.

High-Level Responsibilities

Running a company is much more complicated than one might realize. Entrepreneurs and business owners have their hands in every facet of the business. On any given day, they might go from interviewing job candidates to a sales meeting, calls with investors, onboarding new customers, and handling customer support issues.

In a small business, the owner is significantly involved in most departments’ day-to-day functionality while simultaneously holding decision-making power that can impact the employees, products, and customers in different ways. This contributes to the stress many small business owners experience.

How stress affects small business owners’ lives (Source: Survey by Truist)

Unpredictable Schedules

Entrepreneurs are often called “makers and managers,” where they hold high-level roles and, at other times, are in the trenches with their employees. This is all part of running a business and can make for an unpredictable schedule.

Business operations can ebb and flow, requiring more involvement during some seasons and less in others. This makes time management strategies for entrepreneurs and professionals critical for the company’s success.

Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

Wondering how to improve time management for entrepreneurs? You’re in the right place!

Here are some practical strategies you can implement immediately and see how they improve your productivity as a business owner. You’ll be able to get more done in less time because you won’t try to focus on multiple things at once.

Prioritization Methods

Prioritizing is an effective time management strategy. It helps entrepreneurs define what important tasks must be completed first and set aside the rest. Various time management worksheets simplify the process.

These methods include the Priority Matrix (Eisenhower Matrix) method, where you draw a square and label the top two quadrants Urgent/Not Urgent and the bottom two Important/Not Important.

The tasks in the Urgent and Important quadrants become the priority items, while those in the Not Urgent and Not Important quadrants can be delegated or delayed/cancelled.

This method is also known as the four quadrants of time management. You can create this time management matrix using a notebook and pen or download a ready-made template below.

Other prioritization methods include the ABCDE method, where you rank the tasks on your to-do list based on their importance. “A” tasks are the highest priority, “B” tasks are ones that should be completed, “C” tasks have minimal consequences if not finished, and so on.

This method helps entrepreneurs accomplish essential tasks, freeing up their time to work on other pressing items. Plus, spending as little as 10-12 minutes planning your day can save up to two hours, so don’t underestimate the power of to-do lists.

Time Blocking

Time blocking is a highly effective strategy for providing structure to your day. It ensures you can accomplish everything you need to while setting boundaries and limits on certain items.

This method involves setting aside specific blocks of time for each task rather than trying to juggle multiple items at once and never getting anything completely over the finish line.

You can easily time block using any calendar app you prefer

For example, you can dedicate the first hour of your day to responding to emails, the next three hours to completing critical tasks, and the last hour to meetings.

By assigning must-do items within their own block of time each day, entrepreneurs and business owners can guarantee that critical things never slip through the cracks.

Delegation

Delegation is arguably one of an entrepreneur’s most effective skills. The ability to pass important tasks to trusted employees is a huge strength as a business owner.

Delegating lessens your workload, builds trust in your staff, and allows you to have more time to dedicate to areas of the business that need your attention.

To delegate tasks effectively, look at the items that take up a lot of your time and energy daily. Can any parts of that task be handed off to a qualified employee? In doing so, you can strengthen your team’s confidence and skills while optimizing your productivity. It’s a win-win!

By the way, if you use Ecwid by Lightspeed for your online store, you can easily delegate some online store tasks to your team members. You can add staff accounts and grant permissions to ensure that only authorized employees can access sensitive information and critical functions.

Leveraging Technology for Better Time Management

How can an entrepreneur compensate for a time management weakness? Try one of the strategies mentioned above. To support your commitment, here is an additional suggestion.

Because we live in a digital age, technology plays a significant role in time management and the overarching success of any business. Fortunately, various tools and technology resources can offer support in time management for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Let’s discuss those here.

Productivity Apps

As a business owner, your phone likely lives in your hand during all your waking hours, ready to take calls, answer emails, schedule demos, and more. The good news is that many productivity apps can help make your day more productive. Some of the popular productivity apps and resources include:

Evernote for effective note-taking that you can share with employees
Slack for on-the-go communication with staff and clients
Zoom for convenient video conferencing from anywhere in the world
Canva for quick and easy professional graphic design capabilities
Lightspeed Payments for a simple payment setup in an online store
MileIQ for travel tracking to streamline taxes
ClickUp for project management and task organization.

Using Evernote for note-taking and project planning

Automation

Automation tools can help save time and increase productivity for repetitive tasks in your workload. From appointment or meeting scheduling to processing invoices or data entry, automation can help simplify your workflows and allow you to focus on the tasks that really matter.

This is where an ecommerce platform plays a role, too. For example, Ecwid by Lightspeed automates inventory management and order processing, making it easier for businesses to manage their online stores. With integrations with popular shipping carriers and payment gateways, you can focus on other aspects of your business while offering customers a seamless shopping experience.

Ecwid sends you low-stock notifications automatically, so you can restock products on time

Overcoming Common Time Management Challenges

Time management for entrepreneurs and business owners can be a challenge as they have to wear so many hats. However, acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses can help to understand where you need to focus your efforts and where you need support through delegation.

Here’s how you can effectively solve many challenges associated with time management.

Combatting Distractions

Whether you work from home or in an office setting, distractions are around every corner. Anticipating them can help reduce their power and remove your focus. We recommend turning off notifications on your phone and email as you work.

According to a report by Economist Impact, recovering from distractions is one of the top five causes of lost focus. For an average US knowledge worker, the time spent bouncing back from distractions adds up to 127 hours yearly. Imagine what you could accomplish with an extra 127 hours of uninterrupted work!

Annual hours of lost focus and equivalent economic cost per person (Source: report by Economist Impact)

Plan your day using the time blocks we mentioned above so you know precisely what time allotments you have to complete specific tasks. Take breaks to refocus your mind, walk outside to re-center, and set boundaries with staff when you need to buckle down and get things done.

Prioritizing Work-Life Balance

Did you realize that 70% of entrepreneurs experience burnout due to a lack of work-life balance?

Work-life balance often falls by the wayside for small business owners as they focus on growing a business and everything that entails. However, your mental health should never take a back seat for the sake of your career.

Continue to prioritize a healthy work-life balance by setting regular working hours so you aren’t constantly available to employees and customers. Create a consistent daily routine involving spending time with loved ones, exercising, and pursuing hobbies or passions.

You can also use the time-blocking method for personal tasks, such as breakfast with your family, school drop-off, an hour-long workout class, or anything else in your personal life.

Wrap Up

Running a business is no easy feat, but time management skills for entrepreneurs make it possible to be more productive and effective for your team and your business while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

It takes planning, strategy, and effort, but the outcome will lead to a more fulfilling career that requires less energy and time. What could be better than that?

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Selling Online

Jul 25, 2024

About the author

Anastasia Prokofieva is a content writer at Ecwid. She writes about online marketing and promotion to make entrepreneurs’ daily routine easier and more rewarding. She also has a soft spot for cats, chocolate, and making kombucha at home.