Article written by Anthony Bourbon.
Being an entrepreneur is above all a fight against yourself and against time. Building an entrepreneurial project is very time-consuming and you have to execute quickly to capture the market and avoid competitors launching or growing faster than you. In this article I will share with you simple and effective ways to optimize your time and focus on your goals.
Be a soldier in your organization.
Managing your time well means mastering the art of planning. Automate your calendar with a dedicated time slot for all daily tasks (e.g. inbox 0 at 8:30 a.m., lunch at 12:30 p.m., sport at 8 p.m. etc.). Every hour of your day should be useful, there is no downtime.
Then, set time slots based on the days, which will repeat each week (Monday morning full team kick-off, Monday afternoon 1:1 meeting, Tuesday morning 3 a.m. where anyone can set up appointments with the outside, Tuesday afternoon workshop XX, Wednesday morning personal work to move forward on your projects, Wednesday afternoon digging into the KPI/OKRs, Thursday morning taking care of HR….). This way, your entire team will know when to activate you without having to consult you. Open your Google calendar for them so that they can be independent without disturbing you.
Use appropriate tools.
There are tons of apps and tools to help you manage your time. You just need to choose the ones that suit you and meet your needs.
The most useful in my opinion are the following:
- The Google suite (calendar, drive etc.): the whole team is connected and can organize themselves according to everyone's requirements. This allows team coordination without wasting time.
- Slack: practical for daily exchanges, sending files, calling each other. Slack helps us streamline internal communication, especially during teleworking periods.
- Asana: a very useful tool for managing your personal and/or business To Do list. You can see what has been accomplished and how far you still have to go.
- Blinklist/Koober: it is important to remain open to the world to be creative and innovative. These tools summarize thousands of books for you in 15 minutes. Perfect for focusing only on content that is really interesting and useful to you.
- Feed. : it is a practical and balanced nutrition solution that allows you to achieve your goals, while saving time. :)
Avoid distractions.
We can never repeat it enough, without work we cannot accomplish anything. Avoid unnecessary and time-consuming distractions (social networks, text messages, lunch with friends, etc.), they prevent you from getting to the essentials. Mute your personal notifications to focus on work messages. It's very easy to get caught up in a discussion, so it's best to limit the points of contact, to focus on what's really important. You will manage personal problems during your breaks that you have previously defined in your shared calendar.
In summary.
In summary, to optimize your time and achieve your goals you need rigor, focus on yourself, use the right tools and not get distracted. If you follow all these rules your days will be much more efficient and you will optimize your chances of success.
Anthony Bourbon.
