You’re busy. There’s no doubt about it. Whether you’re already in business for yourself full time, moonlighting on the side, or still working entirely for somebody else, odds are good that you’ve got a lot on your plate. It’s a hectic world these days for all of us. time is a resource, like money or commodities, whose value is dictated by its relative scarcity – and unlike almost any other category of resource, time is simply irreplaceable. You can never add more time to your day.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to make sure that you’re taking some of that time and setting it aside to plan out your day. Getting a handle on how you’re spending your time can help you to understand where you can trim out waste. Just as importantly, it can give you a sense of control over your life and your time that puts your mind at ease – don’t overlook the importance of feeling comfortable with your schedule. If you don’t have a plan, it’s easy to feel stressed, overly busy, and worried. Those are productivity killers, and can also negatively impact your personal and business relationships. This is especially true when you’ve ceased selling your time to an employer who manages your schedule for you; if the routine of a 9 to 5 job appeals to you, then there is nothing stopping you from recreating that environment through your own time management. After all, your hours are yours. On the other hand, you may prefer a looser, less rigid schedule. That’s fine, too, so long as you’re ensuring you allocate a sufficient portion of your time to achieve your tasks and prevent worry from building up.
One way to do this is to decide how much time you’ll need, on average, to get your work done for each day. Once you have that number – at which you can arrive through a number of different methods, e.g. keeping a log of an average day – you can actively set aside that much time each day to work on productive tasks. Build a schedule which suits your proclivities – if you find you’re most active in the mornings after breakfast and again at about 3 PM, give yourself two blocks of time which peak around those high activity segments and dedicate those as your working hours. The key here is not what specific times you choose; it’s about knowing that you have a set amount of “workday” in which to focus on your tasks, ensuring you have given yourself enough time to get your work done while also giving you the mental freedom to relax once the time has been completed, secure in the knowledge that you met your requirements for the day. It is the precise opposite of feeling busy, even though you’ve gotten just as much (if not more) done. This is a hallmark of the most successful achievers, and for good reason.
If you’ve started looking to escape the regimented work day in pursuit of your own personal, independent earnings, but are finding that you’re stressed, too busy, and beginning to doubt yourself, don’t despair – every single entrepreneur who has attained any level of success, no matter how high, has worked with the exact same 24 hours that you have in each day. Just like any other limited resource, how you manage it can make the difference between success and struggle. It can seem counter-intuitive, but spending more time planning out each day can make you much less busy and more productive.
