Have you ever felt like your days fly by most of the time?

It’s a common sentiment for most of us, especially if you’re running a business. 

Entrepreneurship is filled with endless tasks, constant decision-making, and the weight of wearing multiple hats. This often leads to the feeling that you have insufficient time.

But don’t lose hope. Mastering time management isn’t a mythical concept reserved for a chosen few.

Today, I’ll share some of the benefits and best time management practices you can start doing.

How Managing Time Helps 

The usual pros of improving time management skills involve rewards in your personal life, like spending more quality time with your family or having extra time for your hobbies. Let’s also add time for self-care here too!

But it can also do wonders for you and your business. Here are some of the benefits of learning how to manage your time.

• Boosts Productivity. You can achieve more in less and increase your output.
• Reduces Stress. When you’re on top of your schedule, you decrease the frantic rush against deadlines and improve your mental well-being.
• Enhances Work Quality. Time management can improve the quality of your work by eliminating hasty, last-minute efforts.
• Better Work System. Managing time helps you prioritize and work towards your goals. 

5 Best Time Management Practices You Can Follow

You can follow these effective time management strategies to get started.

1 – Monitor how you use your time

Before overhauling your schedule or routine, reflect on the factors that are causing you to feel time-starved.

For one week, take detailed notes of how you spend your day, and how you are allocating your time to tasks and activities. Every email you send, coffee break you take, client work you’re doing – jot it all down.

Monitoring your time gives you a clear picture of where it is going. It helps you spot those sneaky time-wasters and identify important tasks that could be streamlined. Furthermore, having a clearer picture of where your time is going to which tasks can also help you identify how much time you’re allocating to tasks that are actually moving the needle for your business versus tasks that are busy work and you can perhaps outsource.

It may be challenging, but do this without any judgment on yourself. Think of it as a self-awareness exercise.

Tip

Use a notebook or your phone, whichever is more accessible to you most of the time. Write the action, time, and duration.  

You can set an alarm every hour to help you remember that you have to track your time. Then, take a moment to review it at the end of the week.

You might be surprised to see how much time you spend on all the tasks you have.

2 – Tackle your MIT when your energy is still high

MIT means “most important task.” It’s your to-do that will have a significant impact on your day or goals.

Addressing your MIT immediately ensures it gets your best energy and focus, leading to better results. 

But what if you have two or more urgent tasks? This is so common for business owners as everything feels urgent. 

Here’s a quote from Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog to answer that question. 

If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

Always go for the most enormous and complex task first. Compare them and see which will have the most impact on your business. 

If you’re still having difficulty figuring that out, use the Time Management Matrix. It’s a self-management tool created by Steven Covey. 

List down all your tasks, then put them in one of these four quadrants: 

• Urgent and Important (Q1). Tasks or issues that are deadline-driven or time-sensitive.
• Not Urgent but Important (Q2). Long-term strategizing, capacity building, and relationship-building.
• Urgent but Not Important (Q3). Interruptions, some emails, and meetings.
• Neither Urgent nor Important (Q4). Time-wasters and activities that yield little value.

Tip

Write your to-do list and choose your one task the night before. Doing so will let you wake up with a clear direction. And if your MIT is too overwhelming, break it down to 3-5 subtasks. 

That way, you can tackle each minor task sequentially and still feel the accomplishment of making significant progress toward your main objective.

3 – Take advantage of technology 

Technology can be a double-edged sword. It can breed procrastination with those never-ending social media scrolls or notifications. But it can also amplify your productivity and help you develop good time management skills fast. 

From managing your tasks and setting reminders to collaborating with teams – there’s probably an app out there that can make your process smoother.

There are tools and app options that can provide a structured way to visualize, plan, and execute your to-do lists, giving you more time for what truly matters.

But first, you must identify areas in your business that consume the most time or cause frequent disruptions. 

Then, seek out tools tailored to address those challenges. 

You can get started with tools like:

• Trello – project management
• Todoist – task organization
• Slack – team communication

If social media is a significant part of your brand, consider using schedulers like Buffer or Hootsuite to automate post publishing.

Tip 

Periodically review the tech tools you’re using. As your business evolves, your needs might change. What worked a year ago may not be as effective today.

4 – Limit distractions and social engagements

As an entrepreneur, the line between work and play can often blur, making it even more crucial to set your boundaries.

Establish and follow your work hours, even if they don’t align with the traditional 9-5. 

Every unplanned break or unscheduled chat, delightful as they may be, can pull you away from your objectives.

The best way to reinforce these boundaries is to create a designated workspace. It doesn’t have to be a grand home office — a specific corner of your living room or a particular spot at the dining table can work wonders.

This will train your brain to associate that area with focus and productivity.

Tip

Turn off non-essential notifications during your peak productivity hours. Apps like Focus@Will can also help you get into the zone with background music designed for concentration.

5 – Schedule buffers 

Have you ever heard of “buffer?” In time management, it refers to that little extra time you squeeze into your schedule to anticipate unexpected interruptions. 

You can view it as a safety net. Because as much as we love when things go according to plan, they seldom do. 

Maybe a client calls with an urgent request, your kid needs unexpected attention, or perhaps that task you thought would take an hour stretches into three. 

So, always allocate more time than you think you’ll need. If you estimate a task to take 30 minutes, slot in 50 or 60. 

You can also apply this when writing down your monthly or weekly plans. Sprinkle some “buffer blocks” so you’ll have open slots to work on your backlogs. 

Tip 

Use buffers in other areas of your business, too! That includes content creation. If you plan to launch a coaching program or course, give yourself some wiggle room. Work backgrounds from your launch date and schedule in a buffer. This ensures quality isn’t compromised in a mad rush to meet deadlines.

Take Control of Your Time Now 

I hope this guide offers you a clearer perspective on managing your time better and working on your most critical tasks.

Time indeed waits for no one. But with the right strategies, you can make every moment count.

Let’s use the acronym TIMES so you can easily remember the best time management techniques.

• T – Tackle your MIT early. 
• I – Invest in technology. 
• M – Manage or limit distractions and social engagements. 
• E – Evaluate your time usage. 
• S – Schedule buffers.

Feel free to share this post with someone who might need some tips on how to manage time better.

Let’s Hear From You! 

What time management strategy resonates with you the most? We’d love to read it in the comments!