A feeling that many entrepreneurs know: You work a great deal, but you still do not achieve the desired results. The reason for this is often these time management mistakes.
With time management John Rampton knows his way around – not only because he has always had a lot to do as a serial founder, investor, speaker, online marketing expert, and start-up mentor. Rampton is also the head behind the time management tool “Calendar”. In the US magazine Entrepreneur.com, Rampton writes about mistakes that ruin time management and points out ways to reach their goal.
1. YOU ARE ARGUING THAT YOU HAVE A TIME MANAGEMENT PROBLEM.
Anyone who complains about having too little time commits the first mistake, according to Rampton. The complaints do not take anyone further and block the view of the underlying causes. His advice: “Admit you need to get better at managing your time and start experimenting with techniques that will help you achieve your goals.”
2. YOU NEGLECT YOUR DAILY SCHEDULE.
Rampton swears to prepare himself for the next working day in the evening. Among other things, he checks the upcoming appointments in the calendar and plans his day. An employee from Rampton’s Calendar Team advises: “You do not have to know exactly what you are doing. But try to set daily goals, including the tasks you want to do and prioritize them according to their importance. “
3. YOU DO THE URGENT, NOT THE IMPORTANT.
Distinguishing the urgent and the important is a challenge for many entrepreneurs,” says Rampton. He himself uses the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize and assign tasks: “Do it first,” “Plan,” “Delegate,” and “Do not do it.”
4. YOU ARE NOT DELEGATING ENOUGH
If you want to do everything yourself, do not be surprised if the time management gets into a jolt. “You do not have to be involved in every single thing in your business,” writes Rampton.
The art is to delegate the right tasks to suitable people. Those who do not have their own employees can outsource tasks to freelancers, such as virtual assistants.
5. YOU TRY TO GET UP EARLY AT ALL COSTS
Being an early bird is in vogue: Numerous successful entrepreneurs are literally outdoing who starts the day first in the morning. It is true that Rampton understands that people want to use the first hours of the day undisturbed in the morning.
Still, he points out, “If you’re a night owl, you’ll feel miserable if you get up incredibly early.” Much more important than the early start is rather to work at its most productive times.
His tip: Instead of fighting against your own internal clock, you should plan your days so that you work on important tasks if you have the most energy and the most focus.
6. YOU ARE INFLEXIBLE
”No matter how well organized you are and how well you plan: they will be interrupted,” writes Rampton. Therefore, it is important not to plan the whole day. For example, he himself, always leave the hour free after the lunch break. On most days, he uses the time to check his emails or confer with his team. But he could sometimes intervene at short notice, a customer or respond to emergencies such as technical problems ad hoc.
7. YOU OVERESTIMATE AND UNDERESTIMATE THE TIME
We tend to misjudge when it comes to how much time we need for a task. In most cases, you need more time than you think. This pre-programs time management issues. Rampton’s suggestion: keep a time record for at least a week. So you can make transparent how you spend your time – the basis for a better gut feeling, which costs how much time.
8. YOU ARE CLEANING UP YOUR WORKPLACE EVERY DAY.
For order fanatics, Rampton has little understanding: constant cleaning up takes up unnecessary time and can thus become an additional stress factor. His conclusion: “It is acceptable to have a little confusion in the workplace.” According to a study, a messy desk could even inspire creativity. Rampton’s tip so that your own work-place does not end in chaos: reserve the last hour on Friday to clean up and organize the workplace.
9. YOU WORK NON-STOP
Many entrepreneurs are proud of the number of hours that they tear down week by week, so Rampton’s experience. He used to work 80 hours a week sometimes – that was just “brutal”. The truth is, no matter how much you have to do, everyone needs breaks to refocus and recharge.
Rampton advises to create small islands of relaxation in everyday working life, walk for about ten minutes, be offline, walk around while on the phone – “everything helps“.
10. YOU CAN NOT FIND A TIME MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THAT WORKS FOR YOU
There are a huge number of time management tricks and strategies. But none of these methods are equally useful to all people, Rampton points out. A mistake should, therefore, be resigned or pursue a strategy that did not prove helpful.
His tip: “Experiment with different techniques until you find the system that works best for you.” You may have to be prepared to try something out.
Recommended Readings: Things That Successful People Do Not Complain About
BOTTOM-LINE
Don’t try to be perfect! Always striving for perfection is unrealistic, and it’s also putting you and others under unnecessary pressure. just try to eliminate these time management mistakes slowly. After all, it takes a lot of time to reach a perfect result – and then it lacks for other tasks.