As you start to build your business, things can get to a point where they move pretty quickly. All of a sudden you’ve got content to prepare and email campaigns to draft and offerings to promote. You’ve gotta have your organization and time management skills primed and ready. Here are a few strategies that you can use to find and create time to commit to building your business and being efficient.
Time Management Tip #1: Be Realistic
How much time per week can you commit to your business? Schedule this into your weekly calendar and commit to it. I personally use iCal to schedule everything, from my workouts to my working time to my downtime. Now, I also have a toddler, so things can come up and flip the entire schedule upside down, But, because I’m realistic in how much time I can spend per week in my business, I can either make up the time somewhere else or decide if I can decrease it due to life circumstances.
Time Management Tip #2: Identify Your “Power Hour”
This is the chunk of time during your day where you feel the most focused and productive. Schedule your top growth tasks within that time. For me, I like to really get into my work during the middle of the day, so generally from 11:00am to 3:00pm. By nature I’m already inclined to be focused and productive when I need to be, but for you, this might look like a few hours in the evening or a few hours in the morning.
Time Management Tip #3: Plan for Tomorrow
Every evening, outline the 3 most important tasks for the next day. Like I said earlier, I personally have all of my daily activities (both personal and professional) within my iCal, and it really helps me stay productive. I know what’s coming up throughout the week and so I never feel scattered or surprised.
Time Management Tip #4: Don’t Try to Do Everything
Take it from me – being the “go-to” person in your business isn’t that fun. It’s tempting to solve everyone’s problems, but knowing what is out of scope for the work you want to do is super important. The benefit of this is that the more focused you are, the more your ideal audience grows.
Time Management Tip #5: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
This is something I really struggled with when I was trying to make my offerings more unique. I tried to reinvent marketing basically. But then I got honest with myself. I realized that I’m teaching pretty much the same marketing standards, but in a slightly different way from a slightly different perspective than other marketing consultants.
Time Management Tip #6: Batch Your Content
If you follow me on social media, you might think that I work 24/7. But I don’t! I actually create lots of pieces of content (like recordings and videos and infographics) within a single timeframe, particularly when I’m feeling inspired and creative. And it’s usually at the beginning of the week or at the beginning of a new cycle, so it’s super intentional. And the best part? It’s usually repurposed content, which leads me to my next point.
Time Management Tip #7: Repurpose Your Content
So what I’m sharing with you now, was actually also included in my May webinar. I can repurpose that entire webinar in tons of ways. I’m thinking mini infographics, a few blog posts, a video recording, an audio recording, consulting scripts, and loads of talking points for all of my social media accounts. I could probably split that content up so much that I have enough pieces of content to last me the rest of the year. So, what do you have on hand that you can parse up and piece together in different ways?
Time Management Tip #8: Sync with Your Cycle
This is my favorite because I’ve seen so much benefit from this not only in my business but in my life in general. Sync your daily life with your cycles. This is called cycle syncing or cyclical living, and you can read more about it in a book called Woman Code. It’s fascinating. But essentially, you optimize your life in accordance with your cycle. As a quick example, I do most of my planning and creating during the follicular phase, promoting and speaking during the ovulatory phase, execution and clean up during the luteal phase, and I prioritize rest and self-reflection during the menstrual phase.
And there you go, 8 time management tips that will hopefully keep you on track to reaching your goals!
Need more help? Check out my 1:1, group and self-study offerings: https://christinagiordano.com/offerings/