Is saving time actually what my biz needs?
As an entrepreneur, time is something I often feel like I’m fighting.
I have so many projects on the go and so many things I want to accomplish, and it regularly feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
If I could just save some time, be more efficient, and get more projects off my plate, I can finally get ahead.
But it’s all my perception of my time and progress. But when I actually look at the hours I put in every week, the things I accomplish, and the projects I finish, the reality is way different from my perception.
If you also feel like you never have enough time and you’re never getting enough done, keep reading. This one is for you!
Listen to the audio:
Do you need to save time?
Is saving time actually what you need right now?
I get so many business owners who come to me telling me that one of the main issues in their business is not having enough time to get everything done or to do the things that they really want to do. However, I find that often time is not actually the main issue going on.
So today we're going to dive into some other things that might be happening and what you can do about it.
If not having enough time is not actually the issue that's going on in your business, what is?
Let me ask you a few questions:
Are you being productive in your business?
Are you being efficient with your time?
Do you feel like you waste a lot of time in your business or are you making good use of the time that you have?
There's a difference between procrastinating and scrolling on social media and getting things done, just never getting through your to-do list every day.
Think about which one you actually are.
What I'd like you to consider is that if you are making good use of your time - if you're not getting bogged down by distractions, if you are actually being productive and efficient in the work that you are doing - then saving time is not your problem.
Is there too much on your plate?
Here's the big question for you to consider: do you have too much on your plate right now?
If you are being productive with your time and you still have a never-ending to-do list and you are never able to get through all the things that you want to accomplish in one day, there is a possibility that you are trying to cram too many things into that one day.
And the problem is not the number of hours in a day, the problem is the length of that to-do list.
It's also possible that you are focusing on the wrong things. Maybe you are trying to do a bunch of tasks that are not actually moving you forward towards your goals.
And I suspect this might be the case, because this is the case with a lot of people that I know, and it is definitely regularly the case for me: you might be trying to make too many things happen all at once.
If this is sounding familiar, then it's time for us to do a little audit of how you're spending your time in your business.
Do a time audit
The first thing that I invite you to do is to make a list of the main goals or priorities, or the main things that you are trying to accomplish in your business right now.
Then I want you to take that list and we're going to do two things with it. The first thing is I'd like you to look at that list and be honest with yourself: are there too many things on that list right now? You don't have to start taking things away, but just kind of take stock of how big that list might be at the moment.
The next thing that I ask you to consider when you're looking at that list is think about the tasks that you are doing on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Are the majority of those tasks focused on making those goals or those priorities a reality? If your tasks are not in alignment with where you want to go in your business, then you are probably putting too much attention on the wrong things. That's somewhere that you can maybe take some things away or at least assess where your business is actually going.
Then really dig deep into that list and, again, be honest: is there anything that doesn't actually have to happen anymore? Maybe it's something that was a goal or a priority a month ago, or 3 months ago, or 6 months ago, but it's actually not as relevant anymore. Or is there anything on there that can go on to the back burner? Again, maybe it's not as much of a priority anymore. Or maybe you've realized that you don't actually want to focus on it until 3 months from now or 6 months from now. Anything that you can take off that list is going to earn you more of that time freedom that you're looking for.
Is your business too complicated?
Another thing that I've observed with business owners who feel overwhelmed and like they have no time is that they might be making their businesses too complicated.
This often goes hand in hand with focusing on too many things at once. Think about your own business. How many offers, services, digital products, etc. do you have available that people can buy from you? Ideally you should be focusing on one, maybe two main offers that are the main thing that you are promoting regularly and that is the main thing that people are coming to you to do.
This could be a course, a group coaching program, a one-on-one coaching system, a digital product, a done-for-you service - there are so many different options. But you really should have one main one that you're focusing on and that your leads and clients are focusing on.
You may have other things that are available, but this is the main thing that you're focused on and that you're promoting. Then one you have your main offer, you should have a way that you're promoting it and a way that you are nurturing your audience of people.
And that's the basics!
So if you are focusing on trying to:
Be on all of the social media platforms at once, or
Do a podcast and a blog and a YouTube channel, or
Be in all the places, or
Have so many services and digital products
Are you over complicating your business?
Are you creating more work for yourself than you need to?
Are all of these things actually necessary and successful, or can you streamline it down to the tasks and services and items that are actually essential to your business?
Now, I know this can be hard. Having this conversation with ourselves and really acknowledging what is and isn't necessary to your business.
Let me remind you, there might be things that you are doing right now that you could postpone and come back to in the future. I'm not saying that they are never going to be necessary to your business, but what are the key things that have to happen for you to have clients, and have an audience, and market enough to have sufficient clients?
Do you actually want to work fewer hours?
The other thing that I see with people who want to save time in their business or create more time in their business is that what they actually want is to work fewer hours.
Honestly, same girl! There is nothing whatsoever wrong with that. I think we all want to work fewer hours but not have to sacrifice any income or anything like that.
But let's think about it - you are not going to magically wake up one day and have a business that makes more money with fewer hours. Without having to work for it. So if working fewer hours in your business is a goal for you, then you have to actively work to make that happen.
For example, one of the things that I've been working on is creating a schedule that actually works for me, instead of trying to fit my life around a traditional schedule.
One of the things that I have done to make that happen is to block off certain days in my calendar when I'm not available for calls, because I find that I am able to get different types of work done on days when I have no meetings, because I can focus and I don't have to get out of that work and power through mindset.
I am an introvert, so when I have a day where I have a lot of meetings, I find it really tiring and it's hard for me to do intense tasks on those days. Designating days when I'm not taking any meetings has made a big difference for my efficiency and productivity.
Having days blocked for meetings in my calendar means I could also potentially be out of the office if I want to be.
It has been an ongoing mindset journey really helping myself to remember that I do not have to work a traditional 40-hour work week if I don't want to. That is a capitalist myth that our society has created. The hours I work are not an indication of my productivity or my worth.
If I have a week where I have only worked 25 hours, that does not make me a bad person and it doesn't mean that I failed in my work.
It has been very challenging for me to accept that and work through it. But I've also realized that I do not want my work to be my life, as much as I love my work. So I am trying more and more to take public holidays away from the office, to take actual vacations instead of days when I am out of the office but still checking my emails and doing work. It's a process. It's still ongoing.
Another thing that can help you create a schedule where you're working fewer hours is to plan ahead. Instead of looking out a day at a time or a week at a time, start planning your month at a time or your quarter.
Really start allocating things according to a distribution that makes sense for your schedule and the projects that you have coming up. So if you only have X number of hours that you want to work in a week, and you have this list of things to get done, think about what is reasonable and what is possible with that time available.
As I mentioned, reducing your business down just to your key offer or your key offers also really makes a difference, because everything is streamlined and focused on that offer. So you should have fewer tasks related to marketing, onboarding, and client care, because a lot of it should be the same process for every lead and client coming in.
It's going to result in less work for you, because you're not doing a bunch of different things or customizing a bunch of things for each person that you're dealing with. It's going to really reduce the number of tasks that you have to do on the back end.
Don’t do it all alone
The final thing - and this goes with wanting to work fewer hours and wanting to save or create time in your business in general - if you find that you can only reduce the amount of work that you are doing so much, and you've really pared down your task list, your to-do list, your goal list and it is still more than you are able or want to do yourself, then that is the time to consider bringing someone in to help.
Outsourcing is your best bet. Find somebody to take some of those tasks off your plate and support you, and then you will be able to do more in your business or you will be able to take more time away.
I hope that this has helped you really understand time in your business, how you are using that time, and whether or not you're using that time effectively.
If you want to chat more about your specific business and what your use of time looks like, let me know down in the comments or feel free to reach out.