For businesses to thrive, effective time management is key to succeeding in the long run. So why is time management important in business?
Managing your time can help solve bigger problems, while at the same time, it makes you more efficient as well. It gives you more time to do things that will help grow your business.
In this article, I will discuss five reasons why that’s the case. Along with that, I’ll go over what you can do starting today if you want to see meaningful results.
- Five Reasons Why Time Management Is Important
- Make Better Decisions
- Maintain Focus On Your Priorities
- Bring More Efficiency
- Helps Meet Deadlines
- Allows More Time To Grow Your Business
- What Can You Do Today?
Five reasons why time management is important
Time management can help with planning ahead of time. As business owners, you have to be proactive in using your time.
By planning, you have a better understanding of which activities need to get done on specific days. It also helps with planning for any unexpected events that may come up.
Let’s dive into some reasons for the importance of time management.
Why is time management important in business?
Managing your time can help with solving problems much quicker, while also being more efficient. Also, it allows you more time to do tasks that grow your business. Let’s go over five reasons for the best time management at work.
Make better decisions
If you scramble at work or have a lot of tasks to do, it might lead to making poor decisions. For instance, you may have a lot of tasks in front of you to work on, and you tend to make quick decisions.
That may lead to not-so-good results if you’re going to make decisions on the spot. If you struggle with that, you may want to consider cutting down on your workload.
When running a business, definitely consider outsourcing or delegating tasks to others. Breaking it down can help with making better (and sound) decisions.
Maintain focus on your priorities
Going back earlier on what needs to get done, any priorities you have should come first and foremost. I refer to them as my most important tasks (MITS)- these are the tasks that need to get done as soon as possible.
Some examples of MITS may include the following:
- Writing a report that you’re going to be presenting at work
- Doing research for your next article or video
- Writing an article or recording a video
- Video editing (if they’re long-form videos)
Other tasks such as administrative work do not fall under that category. So checking email can be one of those tasks, and it can wait if you need to work on your MITS.
The method I do for taking on priorities
When I need to work on my MITS during a given day, I’ll make a list of my top priorities I need to do. It’s more than a regular to-do list because I’m narrowing it down to a few tasks to focus on.
When I make my priority list, I’ll limit it to one-three things that need to get done that day. I get in the habit of writing it down so that way I’m clear on what I need to do.
Once I get those few tasks done, then I can do any other things that were not priorities. That’s if I have time left in my day to do anything else.
What does time management mean in business?
Managing time in business maximizes an individual’s efforts in completing tasks. Whether that’s one person or a dedicated team of individuals, coordinating specific activities and tasks plays a role in building a successful business.
Brings more efficiency
There are tasks that may take longer to complete, but where you can find shortcuts if possible. If you take advantage of those quick ways, you can finish tasks sooner than later.
Oftentimes, people will end up doing tasks for as long as 10-12 hours a day. Instead, those tasks can easily be done within 3-4 hours.
So there are tasks that you can do in shorter periods of time. For example, if you’re researching or writing a report, is that considered an all-day thing?
In that case, it’s definitely not. This complex task can be broken down into a few hours if done correctly.
Helps meet deadlines
When work needs to get done, it’s time to buckle down and focus on your MITS. Having deadlines helps create expectations, along with keeping things moving along.
If deadlines were not a thing, what would happen? Most likely, you’ll end up procrastinating and not getting much done.
In my work experience, deadlines were a critical part of doing business. One place I worked at (operations) always had deadlines in place to get work out on time.
Where I worked, we had something called service level agreements (SLAs). Basically, it’s an agreement set in place between a company and a client on when the work needed to get out.
So if we had mail delivered on a Monday, we had to process it accordingly and get it out within 72 hours. There were times when it got tight to meet deadlines, but we managed to meet those SLAs.
What is effective time management?
Managing your time effectively involves working on your most important tasks (MITS). If you focus on what needs to get done first (with a sense of urgency), you’ll have more time to complete work that moves the needle in your business.
Allows more time to grow your business
While being a business owner, you have complete ownership of the business. You’re either the sole person (or one of a few people) who take full accountability for what takes place.
With that, there are more responsibilities to take on. But also, the focus should working “on” the business, instead of being “in” the business.
People end up finding themselves working “in” the business, which means working on tasks that don’t grow the business further.
When moving to work “on” the business, you want to work on things that will help move the needle forward. If you can get back more control of your time, it’ll allow you to work on things that matter the most.
What can you do today?
One thing you can get started with right now is to work on your MITS. Get those done first thing whenever possible.
In my experience, I find that it’s much better to do those tasks first, so that way you can get the out of the way. Also, set aside at least one hour to do some focused work.
I prefer to conduct deep work for 3-5 hours a day. But if you’re short on time, I’d do at least one hour of focus work at best.
Doing that every single day can make a big difference over time. If you do that long enough, you’ll get to a point where your business is doing very well.
A relevant article from notimekillers.com
Read next on “Why Is Time Management Important For Business? 11 Reasons” to learn more about the importance of time management.
Final Words
Time management in business can pay off down the road. Starting today can help your business build effective practices; moreover, you can get the most out of your time back.
These reasons listed earlier can help with growing your business. Without proper time management, it becomes more challenging to get things.
The sooner you start implementing, the better it can help with long-term business growth.
Your Turn: Do you find time management key to business success?
I would like to get your thoughts on this topic. Do you believe time management is crucial to growing a business?
Do you believe it can help make better decisions for your business? Are deadlines something you struggle to meet?
Do you think managing your time can help get away from the daily operations of a business? Do you want to spend more time working “on” your business, rather than being “in” it?
Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I look forward to reading your responses, and I’ll gladly respond promptly.
If you got value from this article, please bookmark this website to visit later for new posts every week. Spread the word to others. Sharing is caring! To get more of this type of content, you won't want to miss out my daily email letters. These are worth some golden nuggets and best tips to help you in your business. Sign up today! Count me in on the daily letters via email! For the latest videos that come out every week, subscribe to the YouTube channel. Also, be sure to check out our new space on Twitter X! YouTube Twitter (X) Medium Profile
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.
This is a very informative article and a good reminder for me. I have retired.
When working full-time, I was aware of the need for time management and developed many techniques to track good time management.
I let all that slip once I retired because I seem to have all the time in the world. But, time management is still important just not for the same reasons.
I want to walk every day and do yard work and other things. Often at the end of the day, I find that I have done nothing because I have just frittered away my time.
Relaxation is good, but I am realizing that there must always be some form of time management because there is always something that must be done. Thanks for this article and for the reminder.
Hi Anastazja,
Yes, time management is important, especially if you’re retired. Finding the time to do stuff may not always be easy, but there are ways to do it.
It sounds like you understand that time is important to use. Once you’re retired, there are a lot of things that can fill up your time.
But I guess it’s a matter of prioritizing what’s more important. Utilizing your time and prioritizing can come in handy.
How you use your time is what matters the most.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts- I greatly appreciate it.
What a great article on time management! I agree time management is essential not only for a successful business but essential for life as well.
I think this article does an amazing job of laying out the 5 reasons why time management is so important. I also like how you ask the reader a question about how they can begin to better their time management TODAY.
There is no better time than now! Thanks for the content!
Hi,
Yes, time management is important in business. No matter what you’re trying to improve in life, managing your time well can pay off.
The purpose of asking these questions is to get readers thinking about what they can start doing today. The earlier they can start, the better off they will be later down the road.
You’re right, there’s no better time than now. The time to do it is today- right now.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts- they’re greatly appreciated.