As small business owners, youâre always looking for ways to save time. If youâre reading this, youâre likely a busy retailer with a mile-long to-do list. Here are my favorite 3 time management tips for small business owners (plus a bonus tip đ ). Iâll keep this short and honest. Nothing Iâm going to share is groundbreaking. But itâs true. And it works.Â
đ Write it down.
Seriously, just make a to-do list and watch your life change. I actually wrote a blog about this one tip in 2019, One Easy Tip to Getting Organized. I share the project management tool we use and the fact that youâre 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Thatâs the added bonus to saving time. Writing things down works two-fold: Youâre not wasting time trying to remember that great idea or thing you needed to do, AND youâre organizing your thoughts. Organizing leads to planning. Planning saves time.Â
đĄ Plan ahead and be realistic.
Fail to plan. Plan to fail. I warned you, itâs not groundbreaking information here. Failing is fine, I have no issue with it. Itâs wasting time because of failing to plan that I canât get behind. Planning ahead and being realistic will save you time. At Crystal Media we recently started creating project briefs to help us plan. A project brief is an overview of a new project and a condensed version of the plan. Itâs usually during this phase that we start to see holes or extra âthingsâ weâll need. Learning these things at this stage allows us to make realistic plans, in turn saving us time working on something that isn’t right or goal-oriented.Â
đ¤đź Touch things once.
If it will take you less than 2 minutes to finish something, do it right away. Contrary to the first tip, donât write it down. Do it and move on with your life. Touch it once. Along the same vein, donât open or read an email if you donât have time to respond to it. Touch the email once, when you have time. I understand if youâre on your sales floor and a customer walks in that you have to stop what youâre working on. This tip would not apply then.Â
đ Bonus tip. Become an Insider today and save time marketing your store.
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Time is our most valuable resource and I want to encourage you to work hard to protect yours. If youâre not worried about this, try to remember to take time to just think. And making time to think allows for endless possibilities. â¨
Do you have any time management tips for small business owners? Please share them in the comments below.
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