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As a business owner, you know how limited your time is, so you've got to make the most of what you have. Work smarter, not harder, and bust through procrastination and wasted time with these time management techniques: 

Plan your week out before it starts: 

Creating a plan for your week before it starts is helpful as it allows you to dive right into accomplishing the most important tasks each day. This way you can also break down your days into manageable chunks instead of working off of a never-ending to-do list! *link to other blog posts?* 

Leave 20% of your workday unscheduled: 

That means, if you work a typical 8-hour day, give yourself ~ 1.5hrs that are completely unscheduled. No meetings, no calls, no structured project time. You'll still be working during this time, of course, but it will give you flexibility day-to-day to prioritize what you need to do THAT DAY. Maybe something important just came up or you need some creative brainstorming time, or you want to network. Giving yourself time every day to just "go with the flow" of your business that day will not only allow you to stay on top of things as they come up by creating space for them but also encourages creativity, brainstorming and learning. ⁣

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Schedule weekly meetings with yourself: 

To make sure you stay on track and are progressing your business goals, take 30 minutes to an hour each week to have a meeting with yourself as the chief strategist of your business.⁣ Schedule it in your calendar so you don't forget, and hold yourself accountable for dedicating the time to grow your business. ⁣To start off the meeting, acknowledge what your big-picture goals are and then for each of those goals, figure out if what you’re doing right now is aligned with making those things happen. If it is, great. If it isn’t, figure out what you can do to change it. ⁣

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⁣Try out the Pomodoro Technique:⁣

• Work for 25 minutes, break for five minutes⁣
• Repeat until you work four 25-minute segments.⁣
• Then take a longer break.⁣
• Then come back and repeat it.⁣

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Each set of four lasts for about two hours.⁣

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Because you can “only” work for 25 minutes before taking a break, you feel like you need to have something to show for that time, so you automatically stop wasting your time. Also, because it’s only a 25-minute work segment, there’s absolutely zero pressure to finish a project in one sitting, eliminating the stress of getting started and making it easier to make progress.⁣

Try out one or more of these techniques and see how they work for you. From there you can create your own, customized time management plan! Want to read more small business-related content? Click here to view our Redefining Barter Blog Gallery or here to read a similarly helpful post on How To Manage Your Time And Capacity Effectively...