You start the day with a plan, and by mid-afternoon you have answered forty emails, sorted out two staff problems and dealt with a customer who "just needed a minute". The work that would move the business forward is still waiting. Good time management for business owners is not about squeezing more into the day. There are 24 hours in it, and nothing will change that.
What you can change is what you spend those hours on, and how well you protect your focus once you have chosen. The ten steps below are about doing what matters and staying on it until it is done.
Because we don't know what is really important to us, everything seems important. Because everything seems important, we have to do everything. Other people see us doing everything, so they expect us to do everything. Doing everything keeps us so busy we don't have time to think about what is really important to us.
Anonymous
1. Sort tasks by what is urgent and what is important
Start with a simple grid, first developed by Alec Mackenzie in The Time Trap and later refined by Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It gives four sectors:
- A – Essential: urgent and important. Do these now, and do them yourself.
- B – Efficiency & Stability: important but not urgent. Leaving them has consequences, just not straight away.
- C – Trickery: tasks that feel urgent and important but are not, often because you want to please a customer. Delegate these.
- D – Over-indulgence: neither. Some downtime is healthy; hours of it every day is not.
The trap is putting nearly everything in A. Be honest about where each task belongs, and aim to spend your time in A and B, mostly B.
2. Set goals so you know what "important" means
Covey's advice, "Begin with the end in mind", applies here. Once you know what you need to achieve by the end of the day, week or month, you can see which requests deserve your time. Without goals, it is easy to sit in Sector C feeling busy and effective when you are neither.
Take a jewellery shop. "Increase my sales" is too vague. Using the Boston Matrix, some lines will be rising stars, some cash cows, some dogs, and pushing the dogs wastes time and money. "Increase sales of ladies' designer watches by 100%" is specific and measurable, but test it: if you already hold around 35% of the local market and a deep recession is coming, it may be unrealistic. Give every goal a deadline and make sure it leads towards your Compelling Vision.
Do stretch yourself. Long-lasting successful companies have often set BHAGs, Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Just do not set so many that one of the plates falls.
3. Plan your week, not just your day
Planning only day by day keeps you staring at what is in front of you, and people who do it relentlessly often end up stuck in Sector A, stressed and burnt out. A weekly plan links your goals to your daily work.
Remember the 80/20 rule: a small share of your effort produces most of your results. Each Monday, ask "What chance of success do I currently have of achieving my goal?" If it is well short of 100%, ask "What else do I need to do?" Ask others for ideas, choose the options that deliver most with the resources you have, and think about what could get in the way.
A "model week" helps: the same activity at the same time on the same day each week, such as planning on Monday morning and admin on Friday. Your team know when they can find you, which cuts interruptions.
4. Prioritise your to-do list every day
Review today's appointments and cancel any that will not add enough value. Then mark each task A, B or C and number them 1, 2, 3 within each letter. Do it quickly. Do not leave personal relationships off the list; under pressure they are the easiest thing to neglect.
Most people underestimate how long jobs take. Keep a time log for a while, noting what you have done every 15 minutes, then see who or what interrupted you and how much you achieved against your plan. Group related tasks, play to your strengths, delegate your weaknesses and set realistic timescales.
5. Delegate effectively and keep the monkeys off your back
Delegate as much of Sector C as you can, as fast as you can. It frees you for A and B work and develops your people. The usual excuses are not wanting to let go, enjoying the pressure, believing nobody will do it as well, or "I could do it quicker myself". For it to work, the person must be capable, know what you want and by when, and have the authority to act. Then follow up, coach and give credit.
Watch for "monkeys": problems your team bring you, hoping to move them onto your shoulders. Acknowledge the monkey but keep it with them:
- deal with monkeys only at agreed meetings, never in the corridor, and for no more than 15 minutes;
- use the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) so they find their own way forward;
- give them the power to decide, and set the next follow-up before you finish;
- never end with "let me think about it and come back to you".
6. Stick with a task until it is done
The guide notes that people spend, on average, 45 minutes a day looking for lost papers or documents. Finishing jobs in one go, with a filing system that works, wins most of that back.
Every half-finished task costs time and energy to pick up again. Spend five minutes deciding what result you want, so you know what finished looks like, then work through it without being pulled away.
7. Minimise interruptions
You cannot ignore staff and customers, but you can limit what interruptions cost you:
- decide whether the interruption or your current work matters more;
- keep your to-do list current so you can refocus quickly;
- keep it short; stand up, gather your papers, check your watch;
- go to them, so you can leave when you choose;
- log interruptions, learn to say "no", and work elsewhere for part of the week.
Email is the big one. People want an appropriate response, not an immediate one. If they know when to expect a reply and how to reach you in an emergency, you can deal with most email a few times a day.
8. Make decisions instead of putting them off
The most common reason people cannot decide is fear of getting it wrong. In truth, the only wrong decision is to make no decision. Unless lives are at stake, decide on the best information you have and move on. If you are dithering, picture ticking the task off, or promise yourself a small reward.
9. Book regular "me time" to think
Many owners only take stock over the Christmas break. Make it a habit:
- Book an appointment with yourself and treat it as a Sector A task that nothing moves, not even a new customer.
- Go somewhere free of distractions; a walk in the countryside may suit you better than the office.
- Ask open questions that start "How can I…", not "Why…", which only produces explanations.
- Be honest with yourself and consider every option, however impractical at first.
- Make a decision and turn it into an action plan.
10. Review how your time management is working
Time is fixed; how you manage it should not be. Review your approach regularly so you can spot opportunities and change tactics when something is not working. Celebrate progress, which lifts your team too, and when things go wrong, understand why. Do not let fear of mistakes stop you taking calculated risks.
Where to start
This week, keep a 15-minute time log for two or three working days, then mark each entry A, B, C or D. Most owners are surprised by how much of their day sits in C and D, and by who is taking it.
Then hand the three biggest Sector C items to someone in your team, with clear instructions and a follow-up date, and put the time you win back into one Sector B task that moves you towards your most important goal.