“I’m so tired…” Said every small business owner ever.

“Why?” Said every compassionate ear.

“I’m so busy!”

As a small business owner, I spend a significant portion of my day working on new business development and customer happiness, that I run out of time for the day-to-day activities that keep my business running… like writing this article. Ironically, these are the exact services I offer my clients; support for the type of tasks they don’t have time for.

This fight against the to-do list, ever increasing like Pinocchio’s nose each time you say “Yes, good idea. I will do that too!”, is a problem every small business owner faces. It’s why I started Runway. So, how can you stop being ‘too busy’ without sacrificing your business ambitions?

With better time management.

The benefits of good time management for entrepreneurs

Obviously, more time to do the things that matter the most. But also because it enables efficiency and productivity.

Here are some other roll-on effects of better time management:

• It allows you to focus on growth. If your day-to-day is running like clockwork, you have time to concentrate on new opportunities like expansion or business development.
• Your clients will be happier. Efficiency delivers better quality work, faster, and a more satisfying customer experience.
• It can boost morale and increase profits. The more efficient you are, the more organised and clear your directions will be. This means your employees will know exactly what they need to work on and can get more meaningful work done; creating more value.
• You can make better decisions. With a clear head and defined set of goals, you can prioritise the tasks that are critical to your business objectives. Even more important, you know which tasks do not warrant your time.
• It can improve your competitiveness in the market. Efficiency delivers speed. If you are first-to-market, you will set the pace for your industry and have the competitive edge.
• It will lower your stress levels. Ticking something off your to-do list and achieving your goals gives you a dopamine hit. That’s your body rewarding you with greater motivation, attention, memory, and mood, which results in improved productivity… which results in getting more things done…

If all those benefits did not convince you, then hear this: one of the main reasons why small businesses fail is because they lack focus.

Small business owners, you cannot do it all!

It’s the nature of an entrepreneur. Ambitious visions of future potential. A competitive drive. The tenacity to succeed. If you have an endless supply of new ideas, the conviction it will flourish, and the unwillingness to pass up a good opportunity, of course you would try to do everything.

Add onto that the fact that most small businesses do not have the budget to hire senior team members. You will end up wanting to take on every new idea, but having to do all the strategic work yourself, and manage the execution.

But, taking it all on hinders your focus. You will find yourself being very busy, yet feeling like you are not making much progress towards your goals.

Your barrier to productivity is getting caught up in the day-to-day – it’s time to focus

As a small business owner, you need to focus on growth opportunities. Acquisition of new clients. Expansion into new markets. Diversification into new categories. Securing more funding. So, with limited precious time, you, as the business owner, should spend most of it on tasks that deliver on these objectives.

Here’s how to work out where you need to focus:

• Establish your vision. There are many ways you can grow your business. I listed a few above. To know which is the right strategy for your ambitions, you need to define your strategic intent. Your aspiration, or reason for being, will determine your direction.
• Set your goals. To make sure you are heading in the right direction, you will need milestones; a number of short-term and long-term goals. They can be anything that indicates progress towards your vision. As long as they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based).
• Organise your work. Now you know what you need to achieve, it’s time to determine which tasks help get you there, and which do not. Any task that distracts you from your goals, let it go.

Prioritising your tasks to maximise productivity and achieve your goals

Developed by Stephen Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the Covey Matrix, a variation of the Eisenhower Matrix, is a powerful task prioritisation tool. It will help you determine where you should spend most of your time.

Each quadrant represents the urgency, importance, and time requirement for each task.

Quadrant One – Urgent, important, and quick tasks

• These time-sensitive tasks need to be done immediately. But try not to spend all your time here because these tasks tend to have short-term value. It’s easy to get stuck in this noisy zone.
• Due to their urgency, they should be quick to get done. How do you make sure they are all quick? Because you haven’t left it to the last minute thanks to Quadrant Two.

Quadrant Two – Not urgent but important, time-consuming tasks

• These tasks are going to take some time to complete. They have longer-term value, like developing an expansion strategy or writing a heavily researched article or report.
• Because the deadline for these tasks are open-ended, or sometime in the future, it’s easy to procrastinate these. Only to one day end up in Quadrant One… for which you either need to do it ‘quickly’, or you lose sleep to get it done. To make sure you deliver top quality work, schedule these in and allow ample time to get these tasks done.

Quadrant Three – Urgent but not important tasks

• Once all Quadrant One tasks are done, most people fall into the trap of moving onto these tasks next – because urgent tasks are the squeaky wheel – even though these tasks are not important. Quadrant Two tasks are your priority.
• As soon as these tasks appear, delegate them elsewhere. Your time is too expensive and precious to spend it on these tasks.

Quadrant Four – Not urgent and not important tasks

• These will disrupt your productivity. You should spend very little time, if any, on these tasks. Sometimes they could be the distraction you needed to recharge. But move on quickly and get back to your Quadrant Two tasks.
• These tasks may not be important for your specific focus, but they could be important for someone else’s role. If the task aligns to the business goals, then delegate it to someone who is better suited to spend time on them.

“But what if everything is ‘important’?”

Importance is relative. Whilst organisational goals relate to what’s important to the business as a whole, your specific goals relate to where you should be spending your time to help achieve these high-level goals. For example, sending out invoices is essential for the business to hit revenue targets, so it may be an important task for your accountant, PA, or office manager. But, if something had to hit the cutting room floor, it may not be a task you should be dedicating your time to.

The most common mistakes entrepreneurs make that screw up their time management

Even with the best intentions and a well laid out plan, where does it all go wrong?

Distractions

Your phone. Your desktop notifications. Your growling stomach. A Quadrant Three or Four task. That shiny thing in the corner of your eye. Our constant need for entertainment and stimulation can feel like we have an attention span of a fish.

Procrastination

It goes hand in hand with distractions. Anything and everything you would rather do than start that Quadrant Two task. Kind of like commitment-phobia; it takes a large amount of energy to dive in because you know once you are in, you are in.

Multitasking

I am such a hypocrite. My worst habit is texting whilst talking to someone. The alert of an incoming text message causes an urgency response. Many tasks with a perceived ‘immediate’ deadline, tasks you want to allocate to Quadrant One or Three, trigger the same panic receptors. Tricking you into actioning the task now. Even when you are in the middle of doing something else (whether or not it is of greater importance).

All work and no play

When you are so ‘busy’, and when your team is so ‘busy’, to-do list guilt can prevent you from taking a time out. A power nap, an afternoon wine (or two) with a friend, or spending quality time with a significant other (that means without your laptop). You need rest and relaxation to perform at your peak. Otherwise, you’ll be running on fumes.

Trying to do it all

Sometimes it’s just easier to do it yourself, right? Plus, why pay money for someone else to do it when you technically can do it yourself? Oh, and an amazing new idea just came to you so you had go for it. Squeeze it in somewhere. But the thing about time is, it’s finite. A day is 24 hours. An hour is 60 minutes. A minute is 60 seconds. You cannot negotiate a better deal.

Time management techniques that keep you on track

Let’s start with, you do not have to do it all. At the very least, let some of these tools and tricks help you out.

Digital apps

Whilst some can distract us from our to-do’s, many can help us get things done.

I use Microsoft To Do (or previously, Outlook Tasks) to record my tasks, and Trello to note new ideas. Other tools include Asana, Jira, Monday.com, Airtable, ClickUp, or simply Apple Notes (which has a checklist feature). Find a system that works for you and your type of work.

Whichever app you use, the way to make it work for you is to:

• Make a note of the task or idea as soon as it springs up, otherwise, you’ll forget about it… even worse, you’ll write it down somewhere else and suddenly you have ideas and tasks scattered across every surface that was once within arm’s length, including the napkin you left at the restaurant.
• Allocate it a priority. You could colour code or tag it according to its appropriate Quadrant, or you could assign it a value and an effort/time score. Something that visually represents it’s size and merit.
• Set a due date or automate a reminder so you can forget about it and clear up your headspace. The app will remind you to action that task, or ponder that idea, at the appropriate time.

Calendars and day planning

Technically, nowadays this is also a digital app. Most of the digital apps above will also enable a calendar view. But, for those that do not (e.g. Apple Notes), using your calendar can help you visualise your day.

If there are too many big tasks scheduled for the same day (or week), you can reassign them before it’s D-day. You can also see if you are filling up your day with too many Quadrant One (or Three) tasks, and not allowing enough time for Quadrant Two tasks.

• Quadrant One tasks
  • As these tasks tend to need immediate action, you’ll likely do this on the spot. However, to avoid these tasks distracting you from dedicated Quadrant Two time, book time in your diary every day for Quadrant One tasks.
  • You may schedule 30mins or an hour, two or three times a day, to identify and action these tasks e.g. check your emails or messages, check in on your team, or hold WIP decision-making meetings.

• Quadrant Two tasks
  • All these tasks should include a time estimate. Time block it and force yourself to stick to the amount of time you feel it’s worth (in relation to its ROI to your goals). Then, add it to your calendar like it’s an appointment with yourself. Psychologically, you’ll feel more committed to a booked meeting than you do to an arbitrary task on your list. If something comes up, you will have to physically move the meeting – a considered action.
  • You’ll also quickly see if there is no other time slot to move the task block to, for example, if there are other meetings or task blocks in the way. Then, it’s time to decide:
    • Prioritise it and cancel the thing that just popped up
    • Move it to another time slot and cancel (or reschedule) whatever you were meant to be doing at that time, or,
    • Delegate one of those task blocks to someone else.
  • By doing this, you will know ahead of time if you have enough time to get everything done. And, if you don’t, you can be more strategic with your decision making.

• Quadrant Three tasks
  • Should these even be on your to-do list? Delegate them elsewhere unless you have time ‘leftover’ after assigning realistic time blocks to Quadrant One or Two tasks. If they somehow make it into your calendar, these should be the first to go if a Quadrant Two time block needs a time slot.

• Quadrant Four tasks
  • Do not allocate time in your day for these. Any task on your list that falls into this Quadrant should be thrown in the bin. It’s not worth your time.
  • As for distractions that pop up, if it positively impacts your motivational force, like responding to a funny meme from a friend or having a chat with a co-worker, do it. But do it quickly. Then get back to work.
  • CSA: rest and relaxation time are Quadrant One or Two tasks because a clear head is important to achieving your goals. Get them out of this Quadrant.

Organise your space

How can you be expected to work systematically if your workspace is a mess? Clutter distracts us with an overload of stimuli. This can trigger cortisol production i.e. stress. Not only that, it can slow you down – like when it takes you several minutes to find that random piece of paper you wrote that very important note on.

Keep your workspace under control and this will be reflected in your work.

Change your environment

Most often, I sit at my desk. Other times, I prefer to get comfortable on a couch. When I need more inspiration, I might sit outside. Sometimes all you need to be able to focus, is a workspace conducive to how you are feeling at that exact moment in time. Allow yourself different options.

Same goes for your dress code. You can only get so creative when you feel restricted in your office attire. Conversely, you may be too comfortable to knuckle down at your laptop when in your yoga pants.

Delegate your tasks

The quickest way to get something off your to-do list is to give it to someone else. So why do we still struggle to delegate? Let’s tackle some of the objections.

• It’s easier to do it myself. The time it takes to brief someone (and train them) can be time-consuming. However, if it’s something that needs to be done over and over again, like preparing invoices, the upfront time investment will be insignificant to the longer-term time savings. Plus, now you have all the time management techniques up your sleeve, the more organised your work is, the clearer your instructions can be.
• No one on the team is qualified to do it properly. You might find, for those more strategic or specialist tasks, you end up having to redo the work anyway. Sure, as a small business, you may not have many, if any, senior team members (yet). Even if you could pull together a pristine brief, it’s not fair to expect anyone else to deliver on this task. Well, in this instance, you can outsource it to a specialist. They will have the experience you need, without the cost commitment of a full time hire. There are many outsourcing options available such as VA’s, freelancing sites like UpWork, or fractional COO’s or CMO’s like Runway operators.
• It costs money. It’s not ‘free’ if you do it yourself. Consider your hourly rate as a senior executive – how much could you be making in the same amount of time? Is it more or less than the cost of assigning this task to someone else? What about the trade-offs – what other, more valuable tasks could you be doing with your time that you are sacrificing to do this task? You may find it no longer makes financial sense.

Any other objections?

Time to put these time management tips into action

Time management is an art form. It won’t feel natural when you start. And, you will not master it in a day, a week, or even a month. It needs to be practiced daily until it becomes habit. Despite all the well-intended advice and best practices, you need to find a system that works for you. One you can keep up (and refine regularly).

To help you transition, start small. For example, make a promise to yourself to note all your tasks in only one place. The key is consistency. Just like a diet; you can have a cheat moment, but once you break your routine, you pretty much need to start from scratch again. And, no, do not make it your PA’s responsibility to manage your time. They definitely can help keep you accountable. But time management is a personal commitment.

Finally, get rid of any task that is not important to achieving your goals. Bin it or delegate it. Because, if you overwork yourself, you’ll burn out. Fatigue will cause you to make rash decisions. The most reckless would be to abandon your entire business altogether. So, set a pace that you can sustain indefinitely, and stay focused on the tasks that have the most valuable impact on your business goals. Next, world domination.