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Time management isn’t actually about managing time; the purpose of it is to actually manage tasks. It’s about making the time to get the things done that need to happen so that you can get to the things your business needs from you. Most good-hearted business owners misuse their time, they see not spending time on tasks as not being personal, not being friendly, or being too limited.

But, as an owner and leader, time management is in your jurisdiction; it’s a backbone to you being a good leader. Managing your time is you being responsible to your sub-contractors and to your employees. Because it is essential that you give them feedback, and that you delegate, managing your time allows you to do that.

Each work day, as entrepreneurs, we get up in the morning with a plan for our day. Every day that plan and list of things to do gets hijacked and before we know it out of our eight things to do only four get done and that repeats every day. The urgency of your client isn’t always your urgency.

When you get a phone call from an upset client figure out when you can respond; don’t respond out of panic or when you only have a few minutes. Their urgency should not automatically become your urgency; keep your cool. When the emergency comes up, consider how important the client and the issue is to your business. If it’s not really important to your business, put it off for a few hours and focus on the things that actually are urgent and important for your business right now.

It happens every week-- you’re at your desk, or walking down the hallway at work and suddenly you’re stopped. Your time and work has been hijacked by someone else and now you will spend anywhere from the next 15 mins to 2 hours putting out a client or employee’s urgent fire.

Urgent is in the moment, it’s the thing that is up in front of you that you respond to because it has an immediate time pressure or the person presenting it to you needs a response right away. Things that are important have to be done, they just don’t have to be done right now, like going through your inventory, going to a networking event, and bookkeeping so that you can get paid.

Time management is the process of putting things into your calendar and getting them done in a timely fashion. Time management is also about file and task management. Do you ever feel overworked or that your to-do list is longer than the amount of time in which you have to get it all done? I am one of those people who has too many things sitting unfiled on my desk and that adds to my feeling of overwhelm.

This week on my radio show I will be using David Allen Coe's time management system to talk about the managing of your tasks and files. I will also get into how to delegate projects as well as what on your list of to-do's should and shouldn't be assigned due dates.

Tune in today, Thursday, May 23, 2019, at 8 AM and 2 PM PST on www.awoptalk247.com to listen to the Ask Christina First Radio Show.

There comes a point in the business life of a successful small business when it requires more time and energy than you, as the owner have, and when the business can no longer be considered a small business. You have 16 waking hours and 7 days per week in which to get things done. When your business gets so busy or big that it requires more time and days than you have, you may experience overwhelm.

What do you do with stress? Do you feel anxiety and overwhelm because your business has moved beyond what can be considered a small business? Does your business now require more time and energy than you have?

Tune in today, May 16, 2019, at 8 AM and 2 PM PST to listen to the Ask Christina First Radio Show on www.awoptalk247.com.

My editor and I work on creating and marketing my FIBI (For Investor By Investor) meetings--that's a shared system. She and I have committed to assigned tasks and dates of completion. The shared system is an agreement-- you create it, you send it to them for approval or clarity, they send it back for your final approval and you put it where you can both see it. 

This week on the radio show I will be finishing up the series on implementing a time management system. I will be discussing monthly tasks, delegation, and shared systems.

Tune in today, May 9, 2019, at 8 AM and 2 PM PST to the Ask Christina First Radio Show on www.awoptalk247.com to listen.

So far I've discussed the time management strategy of dividing your to-do list into tasks and projects. Your list of tasks gets checked off one-by-one and your projects' subset of tasks-- the same. One thing I want to emphasize is, not to use due dates on your tasks. Trust that you know what's next, what's best for you and when it needs to happen. When your tasks are context appropriately broken down, you know which ones you should do first, which ones you can do quickly, and what you need available in order to complete each.