As women and moms, time management is second nature to us. Due to the burden of responsibilities on our shoulders, we usually have a strong work ethic. However, the rise in female entrepreneurs has taken the importance of time management to a whole new level. Women, including moms, now have to take their natural persona a step forward and implement their time management skills in their entrepreneurial experience.
Now, this isn’t an easy transition. Working around the clock without taking a break is not a sign of effective time management. Instead, it is a slow recipe to disaster and mentally fatiguing yourself. If your plans for success in life depend on overexerting yourself beyond measure and leaving no time out for your body to rest, then you need to step back and reconsider these priorities.
Time management has never been about the number of hours you work. Instead, time management is about how effective you are in getting work done during these hours. As a female entrepreneur, there will be a lot on your plate, and effective time management is an ability you have to ace.
In this article, we take the concept of time management forward and help women entrepreneurs develop the attribute. Keep reading if you’re ready to work smarter and incorporate these effective tips into your routine.
Have Multiple Plans for the Day
Entrepreneurs cannot plan for the week or the day without factoring in for natural diversions and inconsistencies. But that shouldn’t stop you from having a basic idea of how you want your week to go in mind.
Start by creating a plan A, which should include all priorities you’d want to get done with during the week. List down all of your preferences and create a calendar to keep everything in sight. Secondly, plan everything you want to get done during the week. Emphasize each task and prioritize the schedule through color-coding.
However, things barely go as per plan, which is why you should have a less strenuous plan B and even a plan C available to you. These plans should give you the room to pivot from your original plan without feeling guilty. Expect that there will be diversions and plan for them accordingly. The inability to do so puts you up for disappointment.
Multitasking isn’t the solution.
Yeah, we see that look of confusion and suspicion on your face. For years, time management theories have focused on multitasking as the very colossal of time management. You might wonder why we’re advising you against it, but let us explain first.
Multitasking often makes you spend a lot of your time doing very little. And even the very little you do lacks authenticity. You’re bound to make mistakes when you juggle your attention between multiple tasks. Eventually, you spend more time amending those mistakes, making the entire purpose of multitasking lose value.
Ditch the time management theories that you currently looked up to and develop the Pomodoro Technique, including time blocking. Prioritize tasks within your schedule, break them down into different time slots and try to get them done individually within that time slot. Take short breaks in between to remain focused and minimize diversions.
Work-Life Balance
Women entrepreneurs are often juggling multiple roles. They have to act as mothers, sisters, partners, and even friends while simultaneously working on the dream they’ve set for themselves. The most popular school of thought from the days gone by might push you into putting work first and waiting for the other things to fall into place. But this is toxic behavior, and we won’t recommend that.
The industrial revolution and the resulting waves of sub-human efficiency that developed led humans into believing that they could function as machines. We, unfortunately, can’t, and as much as we wish to extend our working capabilities, we need to feed our social existence to remain happy and satisfied.
Maintain a family and social calendar where you give time to people around you. Make sure your weekly work plans coordinate with these social gatherings. Make self-care and social commitments a non-negotiable part of your personal life.
Take Breaks
So, you started watching this new entrepreneurial podcast and are astounded by the number of entrepreneurs who say they have lunch at their desk or work excessively for 10 hours or more without a break. This might sound impressive, but it is a recipe for disaster in the grand scheme of things.
Don’t look down on yourself for taking a short break away from work. Your brain and body need an outlet, and while working for excessive hours and challenging your capabilities might produce decent results in the short term, it isn’t a long-term strategy for the future.
The breaks you use can also be taken to reflect and plan. Check up on your work. Find irregularities and plan improvements over time. Do this, or you may end up screwing your mental health.
Ask for Help
Women can often be a bit hard on themselves. The Wonder Woman cape sure looks good on you, but there are times you need to take it off and ask someone else for help. Learn to delegate tasks, especially when you know someone else with more time on their hands may be able to do it better.
If you run a business from home, make sure that your family helps you with chores inside the house and business responsibilities. If you need expert help, make sure to pay someone with relevant experience. Delegating work improves efficiency and allows you to take some burden off your shoulders.
For much of human existence, we have misconstrued the concept of time. It is on our side. It is something that we own. We’re not slaves to time; instead, we get to decide how we spend it. Running your own business may be challenging, but with practical time management skills, you will be able to power through your multiple responsibilities.
