Mumpreneur Monday Challenge: Time Management Tips

It’s that Monday time-of-the-week and that means it’s time for the Monday Challenge! (You can read all about the previous Monday Challenges here if you’ve missed them…)

Lately I’ve heard lots of business mums talk about not having enough time. Mums are permanently pushed for time so there’s nothing new there! But there’s no doubt the run up to Christmas puts us under even more pressure, especially if Christmas is a busy time for your business too.

So with all that in mind, this weeks challenge is to…

Try a new time management technique

Here are some ideas:

• Ditch your huge to-do list

Instead of having one huge, terrifying, bottomless to-do list, try having one per project. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now and it really has reduced my sense of dread! I have a list for my blog, another for promoting my book, another for promoting my e-course, one for general business stuff (bookkeeping, tax return and so on) plus a couple more. Each day I decide how much time I’ve got to work, then pick what I’m going to do off my lists. That way I actually get to the end of a to do list every day – well most days!

• Work in 30-minute blocks

I borrowed this one from Laura Morris…

“I work in blocks of 30 minutes. I have found that if I have sat at the computer all day I seem to not get as much done. Seems silly when put in such context but if you try the ‘30 block trick’ it works a treat as you get a break and your mind has time to be restored and focus. I.e. Breakfast 30 minutes, Phone calls 30 minutes, School Run 30 minutes etc”

• Be realistic about what you can really achieve

I suspect many mums feel they are failing at time management because they are trying to cram too much activity into too little time. You can try all the time management tips in the world but you’re only human and you can only work so fast. Is it time to adjust your expectations?

• Get someone else to do it

There are only 24 hours in a day -why not buy some from someone else? Here’s how to outsource if you can’t afford it.

• Have a power hour

Decide what you’re going to achieve in the next hour. Close down your email, Twitter, Facebook. Set your phone to voicemail and then focus on getting through the task(s) you’ve allocated to that hour. It’s amazing what you can do in an hour if you really focus.

• The 80:20 rule

You’ve probably heard about the 80:20 rule from many different people. ..

• 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions
• 80% of your clients come from 20% of your marketing efforts
• 80% of your profits come from 20% or your clients
• and so on…

Is it true for all of these different examples? I’ve no idea! But the basic idea is a good one – if you look at everything you do in your business, a small group of activities (the 20%) will bring you most of your results (the 80%). This week, look at how you spend your time. Are you spending lots of time on activities that don’t directly bring in money/clients to your business? How could you use that time more effectively?

Good luck and let me know how you get on by leaving me a comment :0)

P.S. A couple of weeks ago I put my best articles together on my new top articles page – there’s some good stuff there that I’d forgotten all about so you might want to go take a look…