In this episode, we are going to be talking about time management. My mastermind got together this week and time management seemed to be the theme of our meeting. And so I'm going to share with you the things that everybody was sharing with each other that really helps them. And if you're feeling stretched way too thin and overwhelmed, you're definitely going to want to listen.
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Welcome to the Breakthrough Mastermind Show. I'm your host, Jen Argue, and I facilitate masterminds for women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses to help others and create financial independence.
Five steps to effective time management. Time management happened to be the theme of my entrepreneur mastermind today. In the mastermind, there were confessions off, I am struggling to do it all and feelings of barely keeping up.
The big question was how do we have the time to cultivate a long range vision for our business and keep up with email and everything going on from week to week. Usually when people are overwhelmed, they say things like I'm so tired at night. I don't even have the energy to wash my face, or I want to hire help, but I don't have the time.
And I can usually do things faster myself. Or I start the day ready, but I feel so overwhelmed that I get nothing done. If you've been there or you are there right now, you are not alone. The funny thing was. Everybody had tips that worked for each other. It's just that sometimes we forget those tips for ourselves and taking the time to remember energizes us, to put those best practices into practice.
So here are the five steps that works for my group members that they all shared with each other. Step one only prioritize one item per day. So I gifted a beautiful annual planner to my mastermind group members this year. And at the top of every page, there are three lines for the top goals of the day. However, the group consensus is that one top goal per day is so much better and achievable.
And if it's not, then probably that top goal needs to be broken down into smaller chunks. When your focus is on one thing, one top goal of the day, it's like gathering all the sun's energy with a magnifying glass to catch a piece of paper on fire versus putting a piece of paper out on a sunny day and expecting anything to happen.
The energy is to disperse to make a difference. One top goal per day will keep your energy laser-focused, which will help you make progress faster and keep your mood up from the daily win. Step two only check email twice a day. Checking your email twice a day was a huge one. My mastermind members are in demand.
They have teams, they have customers and being available throughout the day is something their heart is telling them they should be doing. But in actuality, the less available they are as in twice a day email, check-ins the more resourceful their team and customers will get because they're not getting dependent on them answering other problems.
And if there's a reason that you need to be available to manually do something, whenever a sale is made, then that's telling you that... you probably need to hire someone else to do that. And setting up a system is probably a good answer too. And any system that you set up, typically you can have somebody else do.
Also every time we check email, we are context switching. Every time we check our email, we lose focus and research says it can take an average of 15 minutes to get our focus back. Think of the time lost. If you're checking email once an hour or more pick the times that work for you. Many people like to check their emails mid morning, like 9:00 AM and again, an hour before work.
And so around 4:30pm or 4:00pm o'clock getting your email checking habit down to twice a day will help you focus on the more important needs. Step three is breakdown tasks by importance. Another suggestion that was given was to take all the tasks you feel are weighing you down and put them into one of four categories.
The first category is very important and most urgent. This second category is very important and least urgent. The third category is least important, but most urgent and the fourth category is you guessed it, least important and least urgent. Once you define which task belongs in which category you'll know what level of energy and attention to give to it.
When it comes to our to do list, it is all about prioritization. Obviously the category that's very important and most urgent needs to be prioritize. For the rest of them, I would decide the best course of action that I'm going to be outlining in the next step. Step four, DAD, DAD stands for delegate, automate or delete when it comes to our to-do list and things that aren't urgent or extremely important.
We can consider options for getting them done that don't include us. We can DAD, we can delegate, automate or delete. First, many of these things can be delegated. One objection, I hear a lot is that people don't have the time to teach someone how to do something when they can do it themselves faster. And my response is always "it'll cost you time now to save time later."
So yes, you can do it faster right now, but in the long run, your teammate will learn how to do it. And probably over time, get much better and much faster than you at it. So delegating is an investment with an upfront cost that pays dividends over time. Second, you can implement a system for these things.
Anything that you can develop a system for can usually be delegated. And third, you can probably delete a lot of those items and now some of you might be freaking out like, well, this is a great idea. I don't want to delete this. It doesn't always have to be forever. So that's always a good feeling for people who don't like to get rid of good ideas.
It can just be for now. So if you're afraid to delete an item or afraid that you'll forget about it, make a "parking lot" section where you park ideas and tasks for now, knowing you'll revisit it later to re-evaluate. And oftentimes when you do go back later, you'll find it really wasn't that important after all.
Many people use a section on their productivity tool like Asana or Trello. Um, some people simply use their notes or a Google doc for their parking lots. So, uh, you can, you can be creative and keep that parking lot wherever is easiest for you. Step five is a balanced mindset. This fifth step includes the hardest skill to master, and that's having a balanced mindset that includes giving yourself grace, when you're feeling stretched to past your limit and remembering to keep the most important things in your life first.
I always say your mental health, your body, and your key relationships all come before business. Why? Well, other than the reason that if you don't have a well-functioning team and a way to scale that doesn't include you. If you fall back, your business will fall back. So taking care of your body and your mental health will ensure your best ability that your business will stay functioning.
And keep your key relationships alive and intact because that's what really matters in life, right? At the end of our days, if we're so lucky to live to an old age, we'll never forget the time we spent with those we love. Also, research does show that having meaningful social connections is the best stress buffering system.
So we need to be there for each other. And there you have it, the five steps to getting the most important things done in the best way. I do have a bonus tip for you. One mastermind members suggested taking regular CEO days. A day where you are unreachable. If you could plot out the vision of your company.
That includes no emails, no meetings, just you and whatever you need to sketch out your dreams. And if you're able to do all six of those things, I'd say your winning and they're all completely do-able. So let me know which you would love to implement or which one caught you by surprise or what you want to do more frequently.
If you're looking for more support, challenge and inspiration and running your online business, I would love to have you apply to my mastermind.
Check it out @jenargue.com
