What Do You Do To Effectively Manage Your Time? Top 7 Tips

As an entrepreneur, I’ve often found myself asking, “What do I do to effectively manage my time?”

Time, after all, is a precious commodity that directly impacts the success of our businesses.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that effective time management isn’t just about ticking off tasks on a to-do list; it’s about identifying the right tasks and executing them efficiently.

In this article, I will share my top 7 tips on how to manage your time effectively, tips that have helped me grow my business and achieve my goals.

UPDATED: JULY 8, 2023

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My 7 Tips For Effective Time Management

This article will lay out several tips on how you can improve your time management more effectively. These tips can help you focus on your most important responsibility: constantly growing your business to the next level. These tips include the following information.

  1. Identify How You Spend Your Time
  2. Setting Time Limits
  3. Use technology to assist with time management
  4. Spend 5-10 minutes planning your day
  5. Start with critical tasks first
  6. Delegate/Outsource your work
  7. You are not perfect: Focus on getting things done
How do you effectively manage your time? This post will go over my top tips for time management.

What Do You Do To Effectively Manage Your Time?

To manage my time effectively, I prioritize tasks based on their impact on my business growth, set time limits to stay focused, and delegate tasks when possible. Additionally, I use technology to assist with time management and spend a few minutes each day planning my tasks.

Identify how you spend your time

When figuring out how to spend your time wisely, you want to know what type of tasks you’re doing. Are those tasks helping you grow your business? Or are they meaningless tasks that get you nowhere?

What do you do to effectively manage your time?- A time vase on a table, with a newspaper below it.

There are two types of tasks I like to categorize when it comes to time management. They include the following:

Creative tasks

These are tasks that help you focus on building your business. If you’re at a point where your business is doing well, you need to shift to more creative work. For example, meeting prospective clients that might want to conduct business with you is meaningful. 

Especially if you have long-term relationships with these clients, you want to do the best you can to present yourself professionally. As an entrepreneur, how do you communicate effectively with new customers? Why should they do business with you? Those are the things you would want to focus on in growing your business.

Tedious tasks (aka boring stuff or grunt work)

These are meaningless tasks that don’t get your business to the next level. We’re talking about administrative, repetitive work that’s best left for other people to do instead of business owners. 

If you manage a team, assign that type of grunt work to them. You may have team members who are reliable and always on top of those tasks. You’ll do yourself a huge favor in the long run.

Some typical examples include bookkeeping and essential customer support. Customer support work can eat up a lot of your time.

If you have a dedicated team to handle customer support, leave that work up to them. It’s much more efficient to have your team solve situations in a more straightforward approach than doing it yourself.

What Are Three Effective Time Management Skills?

The three most effective time management skills, in my experience, are Prioritization, Planning, and Delegation. Remember, the goal is not to fill every minute with tasks but to spend your time on tasks that move you closer to your goals.

Setting time limits

It may be challenging for some people, but setting time limits on your work can hold you accountable. Maybe not for all tasks, but likely setting a limit on tasks that take more time to complete. We’re talking about functions that may take more than an hour to do.

Set aside a timer for around 30-45 minutes. Put away any clutter and minimize distractions so that way you can work on the task at hand. 

What do you do to effectively manage your time?- Man looking at time vase. The man looks concentrated.

For example, if you’re working on a report that needs much focus, you want to utilize that time wisely. If it’s something you have to get done, make that a priority.

So these types of tasks certainly should have reasonable time limits, and it’ll help you with time management. One standard method people use is the Pomodoro technique.

The basis of this technique is that you work in 25-minute intervals, followed by brief breaks in between. Doing that a few times during the day helps keep your mind refreshed and less likely to get distracted during that time randomly. 

Many people have mentioned it’s benefited them by following this technique and making their days more productive.

Use technology to assist with time management

As more people work remotely, using technology is more common in the workplace. Specific tools can help people be a little more efficient and organized while staying focused at the same time.

When we talk about technology, we’re looking at communication and project management tools. Common ones include Skype, Slack, and other alternatives. These are similar tools that I will do separate reviews on in future posts.

Keep in mind: You want to make sure you’re using these tools to assist with your work. Frequently, using technology can be distracting and it can take over our lives.

So if you’re using a tool for meaningless work (or if it’s wasting your time), make sure to make adjustments, so it’s not interfering with your schedule.

It’s best to work on tasks that require focus and being “in the zone”. So if you’re a morning person, prioritize your most important work done before moving to simpler work. More so, simple work that doesn’t require much effort. That way, you’ll feel like you accomplished more while feeling less frustrated.

Eric T. Seil (Site Owner of notimekillers.com)

Spend 5-10 minutes planning your day

It may not matter much, but planning can save you time and frustration. Planning your day can help you avoid going down a rabbit hole.

By that, I mean falling into getting easily distracted, checking your email too often, or getting caught up with the news all of a sudden. If you plan your day out, you’ll be less likely to fall into doing things you didn’t expect.

For the most part, the best entrepreneurs will spend time planning out their day. Before doing any actual work, they may do exercise, meditation, or journal.

Journaling is a common way for someone to plan their day. On a typical day, they’ll start their morning doing these tasks before moving to their critical work. They’ll be better equipped to make the most out of their day, compared to not doing any planning at all.

Start with critical tasks first

On the same note, it’s best to work on tasks that require focus, and being “in the zone” is your priority. So if you’re a morning person, get your most important work done first before moving to simpler work. That way, you’ll feel like you accomplished more while feeling less frustrated.

Going back to journaling, one of the best approaches I do is to write down three priorities I need to get done on a given day. You can do so many things in one day, so it’s always best to limit it to three things. 

Anything else that’s not a priority can wait until later or save for another day. That’s what I mean by separating your critical tasks versus ones that are quicker to do and not as important.

Delegate/Outsource Your Work

There will be a time when you’ll need help in your business. As your business grows, you’ll find yourself with more work and responsibilities piling up. However, you may not have enough time to get all of it done promptly.

What do you do to effectively manage your time?- Group of people working together.

When you can get help (i.e., hire people to assist with your business), it’ll save you lots of time in the long run. Moreover, it’ll give you more time to focus on what matters the most: growing and scaling your business to the next level.

That is where outsourcing comes in or delegating work to others. Bringing people to do tasks that take away your time is what you need to pay attention to. If it’s doing small jobs (administrative work, bookkeeping, customer support), those tasks can eat up your time. 

As an entrepreneur, your main priority is to focus on growing your business. Outsourcing is a topic that new companies struggle with in the beginning. But it’s vital that you consider it as your business grows, and something I will discuss more in the future.

You are not perfect: Focus on getting things done

It’s a reminder to be said over and over again: No single individual is perfect. It’s impossible to be perfect at all, as you will make mistakes here and there. That’s something to keep in mind as you build your business and applies to everyone running a business (online or offline).

What do you do to effectively manage your time?- Bullseye perfect mark that looks absolutely perfect.

When push comes to shove, it’s best to focus on getting things done. So when you need to get your most important work out of the way, make those tasks your top priority. If you work on getting things done, it’ll be much easier to move forward with growing your business. 

Final Words

These are some of the best tips that entrepreneurs can use to help with time management. So if you’re applying one of these tips, make sure you take action and follow through properly. If you make it a regular habit, you might notice a difference if you’re saving more time. 

As I’ve mentioned earlier, time is significant for people running their businesses. How you use it can make a difference in whether your business becomes successful down the road. I will continue to write helpful articles on how entrepreneurs can make the most out of their time.

Your Turn: Which ones are useful to you?

Do you currently run a business (whether offline or online)? If so, which of the tips mentioned earlier did you find helpful? Do you already apply these tips to help scale your business further? 

I would love to read your thoughts and feedback! Please share by leaving a comment below. I’m more than happy to help you out, and I’ll respond back promptly.

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Eric is the owner and chief editor of notimekillers.com. 

He takes great pride in helping people manage their time and grow their businesses. 

Eric is a firm believer in financial and time freedom, as he believes in financial independence and taking ownership of your time. 

“Time is your most important asset. It can be your best friend or worst enemy. How you use your time can shape the future you desire to have.” 

In his leisure time, Eric loves to write and read whenever possible. He enjoys going for long walks outdoors while doing in-home workout videos every week. 

You can also connect with Eric via LinkedIn.

Self Photo 2019: Here's a picture at a building in downtown Chicago.

10 thoughts on “What Do You Do To Effectively Manage Your Time? Top 7 Tips”

  1. It is true that time management should be and is one of the most important aspects of running a business. You seem to be focusing on using technology (zoom, skype, slack etc) to help businesses manage their time effectively.

    Is your website mainly focused on just reviewing technology available to save time?

    Perhaps you could also consider factors like how to help businesses influence positive behaviours and attitudes of their workforce, so they work effectively and efficiently.

    I found your website very user friendly. All the content is easy to read.

    Reply
    • Thank you very much for your comment.

      You’re partially correct- the site does focus on reviewing software tools. But it also has articles in regards to time management in general. Particularly for business owners, time is important when running their businesses. The software and communication tools we use today help make running a business more efficient.

      Your suggestions are worthwhile to look into. I never thought of that, but those are ideas worth writing about. I’ll see what I can do for future content.

      Thanks again for your comment. I’m glad you found this website friendly. I plan on making it even better going forward.

      Reply
  2. These are some great tips and I have been using many of them all of my life but I appreciated the reminder. I always plan my next day’s tasks at night and put the most important and difficult at the beginning of my day. I’ve actually been using the Pomodoro system all my life and never realized that it had a name. I get so much done if I take a mini-break to make a coffee or have a chat every half hour. I achieve so much more in a short time and don’t find my mind drifting or getting distracted by email. I’m still in the early stages of starting my online business and only employ a copywriter but I will definitely be getting someone to do my social media promotion in the future.

    Terrific advice Eric, thanks.

    Reply
    • Hi Lily! Thank you very much for your insightful comment.

      I’m glad you enjoyed reading this post, and that you found the tips to be useful. It’s great to know you’re using them each day. As entrepreneurs, we need to be mindful of how use our time. Keeping these practices in mind helps us stay focused. Especially in the long run, it’ll pay off for sure.

      I wish you all the best as you continue to grow your business. Keep up the hard work! Thanks again for sharing your comment- much appreciated.

      -Eric

      Reply
  3. Hello there! It’s kind of strange that when we were busy before COVID-19, we wished we had more time to be at home and if we had that, we feel we would be more productive. Since the pandemic hit, we actually receive that request to be at home with plenty of time now to do things. 

    Unfortunately for me, I feel like I am less efficient with my time. Reading through your post, there were definitely a lot of tips that I needed reminding of. Definitely setting time limits was a big one for me. I have a tendency to go longer than my allotted time when I finally find that motivation to do something. Although I get more done at that moment, I also find myself taking much longer breaks afterward. I am going to have to set more alarms on my iPhone even if it feels like a tedious, extra task. Thanks for all these tips.

    Reply
    • Hello Mike, thank you very much for your thoughtful comment.

      You make some excellent points about typical behavior before and during COVID-19. That is very true, yet some people feel less productive and efficient with their time (being at home). I understand how you feel, and it’s something that a lot of people had to adjust to.

      With more people working remotely, they’ve changed the way they structure their routines. For the better or worse, it’s a great learning experience, for sure. 

      I hope these tips helped you out, and that you’ll improve on them moving forward.

      Thanks again for your comment- very much appreciated! 

      Reply
  4. This post is a very powerful article any business owner has to read and apply. Time is money as it is usually said in Business. 

    As you rightly mentioned, proper planning is very important. But have you ever heard of plan A and plan B? What are your thoughts, with respect to time management and attending one’s goal unfailingly and on point?

    Reply
    • Hi Dr. Mau,

      Thank you very much for your comment. 

      You’re absolutely right- time is money and that’s something a lot of people don’t keep in mind. But if you’re in business, you know that may be something you think about every single day.

      Planning is very important. I get what you’re saying about plans A/B. Business owners need backup plans in case things don’t work out well. As one myself, I sure have a backup plan just in case I fail miserably at something.

      When I think about time management, I always evaluate my time spent on certain tasks. For example, did I spend too much time doing one task? Did I not set a timer so I could move on to another important task?

      Those are some questions I ask myself in my evaluations. If I’m not using my time properly, then I’m not going to accomplish my goals. Or even worse, not getting to where I want in my business. So that’s something I always keep in mind.

      But those are some of my thoughts. You asked some great questions regarding this topic, which I greatly appreciate. These are things we need to be discussing about, and you rightly did so.

      Thanks again for your comment- it was well worth reading for sure.

      Reply
  5. I am always looking for ways to efficiently use my time and maximize my production. There are tasks I have each and every day I have to complete, some may just be from my OCD, but nevertheless, I have to get them done. I have to wake up at a certain time every day or something will be neglected that day. I do find the Pomodoro Technique interesting and will be giving it a try.

    Reply
    • Hi,

      Continuing to look for ways to be the most efficient (and productive) is key to long-term success. Effectively managing time wisely does pay off if you constantly work at it.

      It sounds like you have things set up to help you stay on track. Even if you have OCD, it’s fine to a certain extent. If you have something that works well, stick with it. 

      Yes, the Pomodoro technique works well with managing your time. I’ve tried it before and it works well. 

      If you want to learn more about in detail, check out a recent post I did on it.

      Thank you for sharing your thoughts- they’re very much appreciated.

      Reply

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