 How to manage your time as an entrepreneur? Miles Davis, an American jazz trumpeter and band leader once said, time isn't the main thing, it's the only thing. The big dream is to become a successful entrepreneur, but we fail to realize that with success comes bigger responsibilities. Like everyone else, we have 24 hours a day to do all that is required of us. But how can we even know how best to manage our time when we are in doing a good job managing it now? You see, as a business owner, you've got to understand that time is just as valuable as money, which is why not only should you be concerned with learning how to manage resources, but how to effectively manage time as well. In dealing with time, always remember the words of Austrian-born American management consultant, educator and author Peter Drucker. What gets measured gets managed. In this video, I'll share with you how to manage your time as an entrepreneur. This, I believe, will help you become a successful person. If you're new here, consider subscribing so that you won't miss other interesting videos like this. Alan Lachian, the author of How to Control Your Time and Your Life, said time equals life. Therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life. Have you ever taken the time to find out what is possible for bad time management in the first place? Here's the thing, to effectively manage one's time, it's best to first find out what might be responsible for poor time management and then deal with it from the root cause. Reasons for poor time management. 1. No to-do list or endless to-do list A to-do list is the planner that helps you settle your various activities for the day to achieve a set goal. For instance, if you hope to sell 10 items by the end of the day, your to-do list should itemize possible ways to do that, such as make 24 calls to prospective clients, run ads on channels with a large percentage of your target audience, get packaging bags from the store, visit at least 10 companies that might be interested in buying your product, read a book on how to make sales as an entrepreneur, and so on. The most important thing is that your to-do list is working towards a set goal, outlining only the important things you need to achieve for the day. When you do not have a to-do list, you end up doing whatever you like because you cannot track what needs to be done with what has been done. Likewise, if you have an endless to-do list, you just might end up being frustrated by your inability to cover or perform it all. 2. Distractions Distractions come in various forms, such as not having a workspace, which means putting up with noises from your environment, trying to respond to emails, text messages, and the likes, or it could be checking through social media, perhaps to find out what's the latest in your industry. However, before you realize it, the day is over and you have to postpone today's work till tomorrow and the cycle continues. 3. Multitasking Yes, multitasking is a strength but can also be a weakness. According to Dave Mayer, a cognitive scientist, when you perform multiple tasks that each require some of the same channel of processing, conflicts will arise between the tasks and you are going to have to pick and choose which task you are going to focus on and devote a channel of processing to it. So, attempt each task one at a time instead of trying to juggle everything up at once. 4. Procrastination Procrastination is a time-thief. It is intentionally delaying to start or finish a task despite knowing that it might have a negative outcome. We all procrastinate doing one thing or the other, sometimes, but when it becomes habitual, achieving success becomes difficult. Whether as an entrepreneur or not, according to Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, a man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life. Now that we know the causes of poor time management, how can we change that to become effective managers of time? 1. Set priorities Remember what a to-do list is. It is outlining every task that you ought to or hope to accomplish by the end of the day. Setting priorities, on the other hand, means placing importance on each of these listed items on the list. When you set priorities, you know what must be done and what would be done and what should be done and what could be done by the end of the day. It helps you to say no to the things that need your attention and to unnecessary distractions as well. Victor Hugo, a French poet and novelist said and I quote, He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the busiest life. Most successful interpreters understand the importance of setting priorities as it helps them achieve their goals at the end of the day. Hence, they set targets and KPIs, keep performing index, for both themselves and those that work with them. After making your to-do list, you must understand that the goal is to list out your priorities nor prioritize what you decide to list out all in the name of making a list. Stephen Covey once said, the key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to shadow your priorities. Two, complete the most difficult task first. Once you are done prioritizing, the next step is to figure out the toughest task on the list which in most cases takes priority. Check in through your mail, responding to messages, fixing meetings, checking through social media to find out the latest news in town and the likes shouldn't be the first thing to do when you start your day. Instead, start by identifying the most difficult tasks such as writing a blog post and then go further to accomplish it or accomplish them before moving on to the simpler tasks. When you take down the difficult task or task first, you'll feel good and less likely to procrastinate what's left since they are easier. But when you start with the simpler task, at the time you're ready to take down the complex task, you are exhausted already and all you want to do is postpone the task to the next day. Three, concentrate selectively. As an entrepreneur, you'll always have so much to do that you'll begin to convince yourself that the best way to achieve your goals is to take up so many things at once. The truth is, however, is that you might end up ruining everything that way. So why not focus on achieving one good thing at a time? Ryder Karol said, inevitably, we find ourselves tackling too many things at the same time, spreading our focus so thin that nothing gets the attention it deserves. This is commonly referred to as being busy. Being busy, however, is not the same as being productive. Four, delegate. Delegating duties means transferring those non-priority things to the more appropriate individuals. The truth is that, as an entrepreneur, you'll always have so much to do. So to avoid multitasking, you should consider delegating. For instance, you can get a personal assistant to delegate your scheduling and other administrative tasks and routines that eat up most of your time and prevent you from focusing on the most important aspect of your business. Five, schedule time for interruptions. Of course, certain interruptions are bound to surface during the day. You can set aside one or two hours when you plan to return phone calls, respond to emails, and even deal with colleagues and employees without being dragged away from something important. When it comes to time management, always remember that what gets measured gets managed. Thank you very much for watching our videos. We'd like to give you another interesting video for you to enjoy next, but before then, our team will be very happy if you can like this video and share it with your friends on social media. If you're new here, don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss other interesting videos like this. 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