Learning how to prioritize your time is a game changer. Time in the workplace or business world is considered gold. It is a commodity that we have no control of stopping.
Businesses grow based on the productive hours that their employees do for them, while at the same time, it is also a possibility to lose valuable resources due to unproductive man hours.
The number of things that you can do in one day can significantly affect the overall performance of your business. Unfortunately, most businesses only have approximately 8 -12 productive working hours a day to make the most of what they are trying to do.
On the other hand, in any given day, week or month, there are an unlimited number of things on your “to do list” that need to get done.
Now, just how do you become more productive in your line of work? Learning how to prioritize your time is easier said than done today. Given the number of distractions that we have today, how do you become more efficient on how you conduct business? Here are some tips on how you could ensure that you make use of your time efficiently.
In this video blog, I share more about how to prioritize your time in your business and how to be more productive.
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Learning how to prioritize your time.
In order to be efficient and productive in your business, you need to learn how to prioritize your time. But of course, this would take a lot of work. Most often, working hard doesn’t always equate to working smart.
It is imperative to make a list of things that you should do for the entire day. From brushing your teeth to fixing your bed, to the daily routines that you have to cover in the workplace. Once you made a list, you will have to learn on how to prioritize the work that has to be done.
How exactly should you prioritize the work? It’s impossible to get EVERYTHING done, as there’s likely more and more action items always being added to your list. But which task should be crossed out first?
There are many considerations which task to take out first. For instance, you need to consider the deadline. Is the deadline within a few hours to get things done? If there’s an urgency towards a certain task, then perhaps, you should keep it on top of your list.
List your goals and your abilities
Another crucial element on how to prioritize your time is by having a list of goals. It gives you an idea where you want your company, or yourself to be after a specific period of time. It also gives you the focus that you need in order to perform the tasks that needs to be accomplished.
You need to compartmentalize the short term from the long term goals. Determine which goals require more time, and which goals require a shorter amount of time. Also, it is a good idea to determine any specialized skill needed in accomplishing the goals.
Next, you will need to assess your abilities. What are the things that you can do to achieve this list of goals? This is where you will have a reality check regarding the extent of the work that you can expect from yourself.
Determine the worth of your time
A lot of people undervalue the worth of their time. It is a common problem among small business owners to think that they are saving time by performing different tasks at the same time, all on their own. For instance, instead of focusing on the managerial aspect of their business, they instead do the small tasks on their own.
Why not hire people who could do these things for you? If you run a blog that requires WordPress management, why not invest on freelancers who could get these things done for a small amount of money?
Now if you don’t have the budget to hire full time employees, you don’t have to give up on your goals. Given the presence of outsourcing, there are freelancers willing to perform a job for such a smaller size. In fact, there are a lot of benefits that you can get from hiring freelancers.
So where can you get experienced freelancers?
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- Elance
- Toptal
Which task generates the most impact
You need to be able to identify the MOST IMPORTANT tasks that generate the most results in your business. For instance, let’s say that your business is struggling to generate customers, why not focus on a marketing strategy that you can initiate for weeks or months instead of focusing on the less important aspects of your business?
Focus on things that create the most impact in your business. Once you’ve determined which tasks can make the most difference, focus on crossing these tasks first. You can also make use of people you hired whether they are your full time employees or freelancers.
Train people to perform the work according to your plan
Another thing that can increase productivity is by training people to perform the job according to your expectations. Providing freelancers and employees with sufficient training materials can make a huge difference how productive your businesses gets.
Productivity will not only be measured by how much work you’ve done, but also by the amount of work covered by people working for you. Micromanagement isn’t always a smart approach in business. Micromanagement takes a lot of time, leaving you working on things that can be assigned to other individuals.
Conclusion
Achieving your goals requires both hard work and a smart approach. Time is a common hurdle for a lot of businesses, given the fact that goals usually have deadlines that you need to meet. Given this problem, you need to maximize your productivity in order to get to your goal sooner than your competition. This becomes possible when you know how to prioritize your time. Crossing tasks across your list may be overwhelming, but being efficient on completing the tasks makes a huge difference.
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Do you have any other strategy that you find useful how to prioritize your time in the office or in your business? Please leave a comment below or let me know any questions you have. I'd love to hear what you think!