5 Crucial Practices For Entrepreneurs To Stay Ahead of Time

“Better to be three hours too soon, than a minute too late”

–William Shakespeare

We are living in a world where everybody is running in the race of becoming the best. Besides, this race is the most competitive in the business world. This is the reason why entrepreneurs are preparing themselves in advance to face every type of situation that incurs on their entrepreneurial journey. 

However, if you are also on the same track, you might also agree with the fact that in the race of being the best in the market, entrepreneurs often get tangled in the time management process. Besides, we all know how crucial time management is when it comes to handling a business. One delay in the decision-making process can literally cost you a huge amount of money. By incorporating practices that cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurs can develop the skills and resilience needed to thrive in a challenging and ever-changing landscape.

That being the case, it is really essential for you to stay ahead of time, in order to be the best version of yourself and sustain your business in the highly competitive market for the long run. But, now it all comes down to that with so much on a plate, how exactly you as an entrepreneur can manage your time for getting the desired results?  

If that’s the worry, there is nothing to worry about because this blog will effectively highlight the 5 essential techniques that can assist you in staying ahead of the curve and managing time more efficiently. So, let’s dive right into the blog and discover the unique strategies and tactics that can assist you in managing your time efficiently. 

5 Essential Methods For Entrepreneurs To Manage Time 

1. Utilize technology to the fullest 

Different technological advancements have been the biggest time waster of humans. But did you know technology can also be your way out to save and manage your time efficiently?

In the case of entrepreneurs, productivity is the main foundation of business plan success.  That being the case, there are many productivity and time tracking tools that can assist you in keeping track of your time spent on performing each task.

Moreover, when you have everything recorded and tracked, you will be able to identify the key areas where you are spending time on unnecessary tasks. This way, you will effectively be able to manage your time more efficiently. 

With the help of time tracking and management tools, you can set time blocks for every task that needs to be completed. Once the desired time blocks and time tracking tools get in coordination, you will successfully be able to manage your time effectively. 

2. Eradicate Hindrances 

Effective time management and distractions are the two words that can never go hand in hand. Besides, we all know that we humans are very much vulnerable to distractions. Just a small call from a friend and we can successfully waste our hours talking on the phone forgetting how much we have still left on our plate. While bootstrapping is common, considering a Personal Loan for Career Development can help entrepreneurs invest in crucial skills and certifications. This is the reason that if you want to manage your time, you have to eliminate all your distractions. 

The mantra here is really simple, if you cannot eliminate the distractions, just eliminate the sources causing distractions. This is the most effective way of managing your time well. Because how are you going to waste time when you won’t have any time wasters around you? 

Once your distractors are eliminated, you won’t have any other option than work. So, eventually, you will be more productive and efficient in terms of completing the assigned tasks. Whenever you will master the art of eliminating distractions and focusing on important tasks, you will automatically become a successful entrepreneur. 

3. Employ The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro technique is one of the most effective techniques that can assist you in managing your time efficiently. The technique suggests that you should always break your working day into chunks of 25 minutes and then take a break of five minutes. Each interval you take after 25 minutes will be referred to as a Pomodoro. Once you are done with 4 to 5 Pomodoros, you can take a longer break. 

This technique will instill a sense of urgency in completing the work as you would have a deadline to ensure the 25 minutes are utilized to their fullest, so that, you can enjoy the next 5 minutes of break without any stress. 

Moreover, we all know that you, as a business or startup owner, have many tasks that need to be completed in the corresponding days. Hence, implementation of this technique will ensure that you do not waste any time on other unnecessary tasks. This way, you will be able to manage your time more efficiently and effectively. 

4. Avoid Multitasking

Multitasking has always been considered a great trait in an individual because it was always assumed that a person who multitasks has the ability to complete tasks quicker. However, did you know that in reality multitasking always impacts your productivity negatively? 

Understand this by an example, you are completing two tasks together, and you are continuously shifting your focus between those two tasks. Now shifting focus, again and again, highlights two negative consequences. 

1. Shifting focus continuously can end in making mistakes and errors that can result in serious consequences. In point of fact, as per statistics, multitasking of any sort increases the chances of making mistakes by up to 50%. 
2. When you shift focus to another, it takes you time to build that concentration again and focus with all your potential. To validate, factual data states that it takes almost 23 minutes to concentrate again on a task. 

This way, ultimately you will end up taking more time than required and it will eventually impact your efficiency and productivity negatively. Besides, as an entrepreneur, we are assuming that you do not want that right? If not, then stop believing that multitasking makes you more productive and focus on one task at a time to manage your time efficiently. 

5. Ignite Self awareness

It has been proven that in order to improve something, first, you should know it very well. So, if you are not self-aware, you might never know where you lack in the process of effective time management.  Also, as an entrepreneur, it is essential for you to be self-aware then only you will understand the way you can run a successful business. 

In terms of time management, you should be self-aware of the time you are the most productive version of yourself. For example, some are night owls while others are early birds. Entrepreneurs must prioritize “Plan your Retirement” practices to ensure financial security beyond the years of building their business. If you successfully complete the most essential work in your most productive time, you will be able to get the most efficient results. Pareto Principle given by Vilfredo Pareto implies here that states that 80% of your results come from 20% of efforts.

Now imagine that if you add your 20% efforts during your most productive self-time, not only you will save time but you will also be able to get the most efficient version of your desired results. 

Moreover, for effective self-awareness, you can conduct a SWOT analysis that will lead you to successful identification of your strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. This way you will be able to analyze that during which time, you can work with the utmost efficiency. 

To encapsulate, the concept of time management is not new, especially for entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur understands very well that in order to run a successful business, they need to value time first. After effective time management with Pareto Principle, you will successfully stay ahead of time and build an unbeatable business in this highly competitive market.