​

4 Time Management Techniques for Entrepreneurial Success

To be a successful entrepreneur, it is essential that you are able to manage your time to accomplish as many tasks as you can throughout your day. While you may have tried various methods for planning, organizing, and scheduling your time in the past, you still feel like you can’t get everything done. This is because many of the techniques that you're using are a waste of time and simply don't work. Here are four, time management techniques that are worth implementing into your daily routine.  

1. Make and Use Lists

There isn’t a single time management system that doesn’t involve making and using lists. This is because you just can’t keep all the tasks that you need to complete in your head. Here are three lists that you should start creating and using today. 

• Your schedule – This is a list for your entire year, day by day.
• Things-to-do – This is a basic list of the things you need to do, organized by month, week, and day. It should be organized by priorities.
• People to Call – this list is everyone you need to call and should be prioritized alphabetically.

It is important to start implementing a regularly used list system if you want to be successful.

2. Carry a Schedule and Record Your Thoughts

Begin carrying a schedule so you can record all your thoughts, activities, and conversations for the week. Doing this will help you to understand better how much you actually get done during the day and where your valuable moments are going. This will allow you to see how much time you are spending producing results and how much time you waste on unproductive thoughts and activities.  

3. Don’t Instantly Give People Your Attention

Start practicing not answering the phone just because it’s ringing and stop reading your emails the moment they show up. Disconnect instant messaging and stop giving people your immediate attention unless the matter is critical to your business and needs a human response. Instead, begin scheduling a time during your day to answer phone calls and respond to emails.

4. Schedule Time for Interruptions

Every day block off time in your schedule for interruptions. No matter how hard you try, you will always have to deal with disruption through the course of your day. Block out time on your schedule to account for these interruptions.

Having a solid plan for managing your time will help you get more done throughout the day. Excellent time management skills are essential for entrepreneurial success.