Better Young Entrepreneur

If you take a comprehensive study of a group of successful entrepreneurs and try to analyze the common practices that they all are diligent about, you’ll find that one of those practices is effective time management.

We’ve heard it a million times, “time is your most valuable asset.” And it’s good to hear it that much, it’s completely true! With focused desire, knowledge, hard work and time I truly believe that you can amass any amount of riches that you desire.

The problem is that even though time is so obviously precious, people tend to waste it.

People have their planners, their long list of to-do’s and a timer on their desk. But, for some reason, they still end the day without doing anything that really moves their business forward.

Ever feel like that? Why?

I’m here to assert, that you’re having you’re time sucked away from you by a few seemingly innocent activities, that disguise themselves as actual work. See, when you think that something is work, you won’t question it, and it goes by undetected.

But, no longer! Let’s identifie the leader of these time-suckers and talk about how to deal with him.

Then we’ll discuss a practical technique you can use everyday to make sure that you’re doing what is most important for your business first instead of last.

E-mail: the big daddy time sucker

E-mail is the most heinous time sucker in existence.  Now, I’m not saying that e-mail isn’t necessary. In fact, without it, my business would be significantly hampered.

But, just as with money, or cars, or people, there’s a proper way to handle e-mail and an improper way.

The bad news is that 99% of people don’t handle e-mail properly and have their time sucked from them in the process.

The first mistake that people make in dealing with e-mail is they leave their mail client or e-mail tab open all of the time.

People have this feeling that they are being productive if they answer every e-mail that they receive with 30 seconds or less. Honestly my friends, there is probably not a single e-mail that you’ve ever received that was urgent enough for you to reply to it within 5 minutes.

I mean, when was the last time that you e-mailed someone in an emergency? That’s what phones are for!

All that you get out of leaving your e-mail open is tons of opportunities to get distracted from what is actually important for you to accomplish.

What’s the solution?

Schedule 2-4 times per day that you spend strictly on your e-mail. In my case, I check my e-mail at 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. everyday and handle everything in those time periods.

“But, why don’t you check it first thing in the morning to see what you need to do?” Good question. That leads me to my next point.

Complete one important task/project everyday, before you check your e-mail.

If you check your e-mail first thing in the morning, what’s the behavior there? You’re looking for somebody or something else to tell you what needs to be done before you consult yourself.

I guarantee that you can be clear about one important thing that you can get done everyday, without checking your e-mail.

I’m assuming you’re an entrepreneur and if you are, you sure as heck better be able to judge your own activities and choose what is most important for you to be doing on a day-to-day (if not an hour-to-hour) basis. If not, you’re headed down a long path of disappointment.

Now that we’ve killed the biggest time sucker of all, let’s replace him with a good guy.

Must-Do-List and Would-Like-To-Do-List

I suggest that you split your to-do-list into at least two categories.

First, the must-do-list and second, the would-like-to-do-list.

The names say it all. The must-do-list is the list of activities or projects that you are completely committed to accomplishing in a given time period.

The would-like-to-do-list is the list activities that are important to you, but take the back seat to the tasks on your must-do-list.

It’s essential to make a clear distinction between the two kinds of activities because, if they’re not separated, you’ll most likely do the less important activities first. This plays on the natural human tendency to take the path of least resistance.

If both lists are merged together so that you have “take out the trash” and “follow-up with Joe Schmoe (he’s our biggest client)” on the same to-do-list, there is a tendency to give them more of an equal weight of importance, even if there is a drastic difference in importance.

But, when you write your must-do-list and your would-like-to-do-list and don’t even look at the latter until you’ve finished the former, there’s practically no chance of getting your priorities mixed up.

You’ll find yourself feeling much more productive by doing the things that are most crucial in the growth and development of your business.

Sound off!

These specific practices have been invaluable to me in creating the best use of my time. But, of course, there are others.

What are some time management practices that work for you?

I’ll look forward to the comments…

Abhay Khurana

P.S. If you liked this post and think that others could benefit from it, why not give a retweet? Just look to the top of this post and click the green “retweet” button.

P.P.S New here? Get on our notification list to make sure that you don’t miss any new training (and to get some exclusive bonus content). It’s easy, just enter your real name and e-mail in the forms below.