Time-Management Tips for Busy Small Business Owners

By Pia Jaaskelainen

Out of all the resources available, time is often identified as the most precious resource from a small business owner’s perspective. 

Most of our Taste Success Facilitators offer a range of services such as nutritional coaching, life coaching, fitness coaching and personal training, which means that day-to-day life can get very busy at times! Adding to that, the constant change of mindset, when juggling between managing client services, doing business admin, posting on social media and networking. It is very easy to lose focus on the most important things. 

Here are a few simple ideas for improving your time management and minimising stress; 

  1. Write a list of the Top 3. priorities for the next day

By defining and writing down the most important priorities for the following day, the subconscious mind will have a chance to unravel some of the items even before you start your day. And by having a short list of key priorities, the chance of achieving these is much higher. 

  1. Meditate before you start your working day

Before starting your working day, take a moment to meditate or to do a relaxation exercise. This will keep you calm and positive for whatever the day brings with it and increase your ability to focus. 

  1. Complete one big-ticket item by 8am

By getting into a habit of completing one (or two) of your priority items first thing in the morning, before clients start calling you, you’ll have a sense of achievement and control of your day.  

  1. Hold off from checking your emails until later

Most of us have a habit of checking our emails first thing in the morning, which puts our mindset immediately on the reactive, rather than proactive state. By focusing on achieving our priorities before starting to react to other people’s queries and demands, will help minimise stress and improve our time management. In the end, most people do not expect your reply within 5 minutes. 

The tips covered above have something important in common; they are all done either in the morning or the day before. A simple mind shift towards paying attention to how you spend your early morning hours can make a huge difference to your sense of achievement and also provide a more enjoyable start to each day. 

To get started, write down how you spend your mornings of one working week. And after that, look to make small changes to your morning routine over a months’ time and experience the positive changes to your day.