By Fernando Berrocal

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Everyone has a different formula for success in any business or personal field. Naturally, there are different pieces of advice that entrepreneurs have. It's difficult to distinguish between what’s worthwhile and what might not be; different founders can face distinct sets of challenges. However, the majority of successful entrepreneur behaviors revolve around time management.

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There are traditional "secrets" of any professional businessperson.  In some instances, this could be the practice of healthy eating, doing exercises and hobbies, taking time off, etc. Time management is a crucial component, and is therefore a skill that all business owners must have to run a successful enterprise and a healthy lifestyle. Do you feel up to the task?

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Most founders realize, as business owners, that they must effectively manage their time to meet deadlines, expand the business, and produce high-quality work. Time management, however, is not only for the workplace environment. Achieving your ideal work-life balance is equally important (even if it may appear different for entrepreneurs than for employees). You may position yourself for successful entrepreneurial habits by practicing good time management activities such as:

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• Try to eat well and do exercise.
• Spend time with your loved ones.
• Take time off when necessary.
• Obtain seven to eight hours of necessary sleep.

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You can prevent burnout by actively managing your time appropriately. Research conducted by the Harvard Business Review  found that entrepreneurs are highly susceptible to burnout due to the multitasking their role entails. Again, maintaining balance is key to being successful in your business and personal life.  Time management may help you do precisely that.

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Increasing your Business Capacity for Time Management

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Like most things in life, time management requires effort, commitment, patience–and a few pointers to get started!  You need to become a disciplined business person in addition to working on your time management skills. To start with this, you can make a timetable, procrastinate less, and avoid multitasking (as much as you can). Concerning business operations, you should delegate chores when necessary and automate manual jobs to help you manage your time better.

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• Establish a business schedule: What do you do when the day first begins? Do you schedule your day by making a list of the things you want to get done? You might find that creating a daily and weekly calendar can help you get better at managing your time and be more productive. There are traditional ways, such as sticky notes, that may be used to make a daily or weekly list of things to accomplish. There are also more innovative online tools.  Calendar software, such as Google Calendar, and other online tools for project management (such as Trello) are worthwhile options to check out. 

You can write down tasks as they come to you, but be sure to order your list by importance–what are the most crucial items to complete? Some people like to employ a “snowball” effect, finishing smaller jobs first before tackling larger ones.  In these instances, entrepreneurs prefer to take on more challenging tasks towards the end of the day.  being more challenging at the end of the day, etc. However, other professionals prefer to do the most challenging jobs first, so this depends on your preferences. Making a to-do list might help you remain on target and prioritize work when there is so much going on in a day.

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• Less procrastination:  How frequently do you put off getting things done that you need to? You could put it off for a few hours, days, and even weeks. Suddenly, Task X has a 10-minute deadline; creating tension, exhaustion, and a formula for mistakes. About 1 in 5 people consistently put off tasks in their personal, professional, and/or social life. Additionally, if you fall into one of these categories, you might think about intentionally limiting your procrastination. 

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• Avoid multitasking as much as necessary: In businesses, multitasking isn't all it's made up to be. Consider the following multitasking-related facts if you insist on multitasking in your startup:

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• Only 2.5% of individuals can multitask well.
• When you multitask, you must constantly switch between jobs–which can result in (otherwise avoidable) errors and wasted time.
• As a result of overstimulation, multitasking can cause persistent stress.

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You might want to reevaluate whether you multitask in your leisure time, your job, or both. Stress, and the amount of time you spend on activities all rise when you multitask. And as a result, your time management suffers. Keep multitasking to a minimum for optimal time management. Focus on just one thing at once. To reduce distractions and the possibility of multitasking, you may consider disabling alerts (silencing your Slack, for instance). Eliminating multitasking may improve your capacity for knowledge acquisition, in addition to preventing fatigue and stress.

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• Delegate duties: This can save you time, but the most typical justification given for this is that individuals are too busy. Therefore, you're probably too busy to delegate because you're not doing it. Your choice in hiring them was intentional. Don't be afraid to delegate to free up your time, promote independence, and develop leaders. By delegating, you free up time and energy for tasks you are unable to outsource, allowing you to reduce your daily to-do list and relieve yourself of stress. It could be difficult to let go since your business is like a child to you. However, you may improve your time management abilities and free time for important activities by delegating.

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• Automation of manual labor: At least 25% of the workweek is taken up by manual, repetitive duties for more than 40% of employees. If so, have you thought about how much time automation may save you? Data input, payroll processing, and customer billing are some examples of the manual, repetitive duties you could have. Use software if you want to simplify these duties, and manage your time effectively (for example accounting software or payroll software). You might reduce the time it takes to complete payroll manually to three minutes with the correct software.

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