Running a small business making over half a million in revenue with more than one employee is not an easy job! Being the CEO of a company comes with non-stop requests and consistent stressful immediate tasks that need to be dealt with.
After managing a team of over 100 different people, I learned first hand that keeps up with tasks and meeting deadlines is never easy, but by using time management tips and tools it can feel a lot less stressful. Here are just a few tips I’ve learned along the way!
1. My first tip may seem like common sense but so many small business owners forget to follow it, use a calendar and a to-do list! Be strict to your schedule and use a task or to-do list to stay on top of things that are put on your plate at a moment’s notice. By using these two things, you won’t feel like you are constantly forgetting to take care of things and can take off your mind immediately. Google and Outlook both offer great tools to help manage yourself in these two areas.
2. Employ the 5min rule, if you can get something done in 5 mins or less, don’t even put it on your to-do list, just do it! We can spend the same amount of time putting something on our to-do list and organizing it that it would take to just get the task done itself. By asking your self every time you write down a to-do, will this take me more than 5mins to do, you will save yourself the stress of coming home at the end of the day and feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list? So next time you’re in the moment of writing down a to-do, ask yourself “If I can do it in 5, let’s do it now!”
3. Use a system for setting daily goals from your task lists. Putting aside a set number of tasks from your to-do list that you plan to get done that day and make it a requirement that you won’t finish the day without doing them. By having a separate list for each day that is mandatory, you’ll slowly break down the larger list and won’t feel as overwhelmed when looking at the full list. You can take what you wrote in google tasks and jot it down briefly on a sticky note of what you’re doing that day. Any way to make the bigger list look less stressful the better!
By putting these tips into your daily and weekly routine, you’ll see a drastic change in your stress level and performance. If you can’t do it on your own, let us know and Equiturn can help coach you through the process. Every business owner is stressed out though or overwhelmed by the work they have each day, avoid this by being on top of what you have on a daily basis and using these tools to manage it!
