Time Management Tips for Small Businesses

Running small businesses is hard, from organization administration to managing staff; selling products and services to taking care of customers; chasing leads, managing web and social media presence and the loads of other activities that are necessary for business owners to stay afloat. Looking at all the activities, it is sometimes hard to create time for other things!

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do about being busy. As a small business owner, you’re always going to have some packed schedules and until you reach the level of success where you can pay other people to do the heavy lifting for you. The best you can do is proper time management so you can pack as much productivity into the time you have as possible.

Some of the best time management tips for small business owners that can be utilized to improve your organization processes. Hopefully, they’ll assist you and your business thrive through even the most hectic of working days.

1.   Set a schedule list for yourself and stick to it

Having a defined set goal and objective about how you accomplish your daily tasks at the workplace brings about productivity. Disorganization could lead to inefficiency and time-wasting. Organizing your time based on your current priorities and breaking down your tasks per hour or just creating a to-do list for the day would help in effective time structure.

Designating each day to achieve one or two tasks would help. Maybe Mondays are for strategic meetings and reviews of last week’s activities. Tuesdays are for sales calls, Wednesday for invoicing and so on. Ensuring that tasks do not clash on a daily basis and whatsoever the case, ensure that there’s a structure you can stick to. Otherwise, you’re bound to spend as much time worrying over the next task to carry out.

2.   Do not multitask

Doing different things simultaneously might seem like a smart way to save time, but it is overloading tasks on yourself in a short period of time. It will likely do more harm than good. Focusing on one task at a time improves productivity and performance. Conversely, trying to take care of a single task while you answer every new email, respond to every new text message, and micromanage every issue as it arises means you’re not giving anyone the necessary attention that they require. This means that you’ll likely have to go back and make corrections on tasks you rush doing as some careless errors might have come in place, it also means you’re wasting time at the moment by doing the same task over and over again. One thing at a time is always the best way to go.

3.   Delegate

Work with people you can trust, and give them the leverage to work on tasks you don’t have time for or the tasks you don’t know how to accomplish. This will give you more time to focus on the tasks you’re best at. Sometimes, using interns and outsourcing to freelance contractors can make things happen.

4.   Organize Your Space

“When your space is filled up with things you haven’t organized, all of those things are constantly ‘yelling’ at you,” said David Allen, a veteran productivity expert and creator of “Getting Things Done,” a work-life management method.

When something catches your eye as you work (like a dirty coffee mug you want to clean or a paper that needs to be filed away), it may seem momentary and harmless. “But this drains your energy and focus, even if you don’t realize it,” said Allen, the author of "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity."

5.   Identify and get rid of your time wasters

Everyone has something that leads them to procrastination. Take steps to identify the time wasters as they might be very hard to notice. Once they have been identified, then try to cut them out of your day.

If social media is a distraction for you, identify the app and uninstall or disable the apps. Disabling Notifications is also a good way to remove distractions. If you spend too much time answering emails, set a cap on the time you want to spend on emails on a daily basis.

6.   Automate your processes

Recent technologies have made work easier and also offers numerous opportunities to streamline and optimize organization processes. With various applications, programs and online services, there are various ways technologies can handle them for you.

TAMS, a time attendance focused human resource solution has been designed to help organizations optimize their process. With the following features, TAMS allow organizations to manage their time effectively:

• Track employees attendance with accurate reports
• Automate shift for employees to track lateness and absenteeism
• Automate payroll for seamless salary payment
• Intuitive and interactive dashboard for swift decision making and many more…