Task Management Skills Improve Business and Personal Life
Many small business owners get into self-employment because they’re very good at what they do and want to work for themselves instead of doing that job for someone else. This is an admirable goal and being your own boss can be liberating, but many self-employed people find themselves struggling with the admin and time management sides of managing a business. According to a poll by Gallup and Wells Fargo, 57% of small business owners work at least six days a week, while 20% of those work every day.
It’s understandable that a small business owner might need to put in more time than an entry-level office worker, but work-life balance is essential for good mental health, and it’s important to find the balance between the business being a labor of love and something that takes over your life. Dr. Lunide can help rewire your habits to better lead your employees and take your business to the next level.
Task Management: There’s an App for That
Keeping track of the seemingly never-ending list of jobs a small business owner has to do and the billable hours for those jobs can be tricky. Fortunately, there are many digital tools that can help with this. Time tracking apps combine habit-forming, game-like features with practical tools to help people stay on top of the jobs they need to get done.
Many traditional business apps now include time tracking features. There are dedicated time tracking tools, too, such as Time Doctor and HumanForce, that offer cross-platform time tracking, billing, and invoicing. When you can see at a glance how much time you’re putting into various projects and how many of those hours are billable vs. non-billable, you’ll have a clearer picture of how effectively you’re using your time and how much money you’re really making from each client.
In some businesses, working long hours is seen as a badge of honor, but it’s rarely as productive as it first seems. In one study conducted by Professor Reid at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, managers were unable to tell the difference between employees who were working 80-hour weeks and those who merely pretended to. Time tracking tools can show you how much time you’re committing—or wasting—on specific tasks.
Learning to Delegate Is Key to Success
One of the hardest parts of growing as a leader is learning to communicate effectively and trust others to do their jobs well. A small business owner who tries to do everything themselves will find they’re limited by their own knowledge and expertise, as well as by the finite number of hours in a day.
Delegating tasks that are outside of your expertise allows you to use your time more effectively and grow your business. Some things you may wish to delegate include:
Designing marketing materials
Day-to-day accounting
Legal tasks such as forming a California LLC
Replying to general customer inquiries
Your business is successful because of your abilities and knowledge, and every time you go outside your specialist areas, you waste time and energy. Why waste hours researching how to form an LLC, for example, when you could use a formation company to do that for you? And why waste energy answering simple inquiries when you could have a personal assistant do that?
Take a moment to review how you spend your time, delegate the jobs that aren’t a good use of your skills, and help your business thrive. Let Dr. Lunide work with you to develop healthy habits that will help yourself and your business thrive. Start with this 5-day challenge.
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