6 ways to maximise your time as an entrepreneur

Stefano Virgilli -

stefano@virgilli.com -

I Bkeep repeating that the plague of the new generation is “obsessive compulsive browsing”. Recently a study showed that all of the USA citizens together look at their mobile phone 8 billion times in a day! It has now reached 46 times per day per citizen, up from 33 times only 3 years ago.

On top of that, 1 in 4 among the youth says that checking their phone’s notification is the first thing they do after waking up every day.

Another study shows that 72 per cent of the interviewed people do not feel bad about checking their phone so frequently.

“Browsing”, and looking for nothing specifically is the Number 1 cause of procrastination for other important tasks. There are too many distractions out there and it is so easy to fall into them.

2. Technology

Number 2 in my list is lack of tech savvy attitude. Too many people I have dealt with find excuses in the fact that they do not use technology on a day to day basis besides to what their cellphone offers. The truth is that plenty of CRM, ERP, bookkeeping, scheduling and project management apps/software offer opportunities to save time and be more efficient. With such an enormous offer on the market, when anyone cut himself or herself out from such technology it is equivalent to a self inflicted wound.

3. Planning

Ideally plan more and react less. Reacting means to impromptu move-on when an action triggers a reaction. Without plan nothing happens. It is like getting into a car, turning it on and start driving it without a specific direction. Surely enough no destination will ever be reached. This applies to meeting as well. The purpose of every meeting should be to provide all parties with follow up tasks. If a meeting ends with one or more parties not having a follow up task, such meeting should be called a failure.

4. Rejection

I have worked with many wonderful people all around the world. The best people to work with are those who never say NO. But sure enough, are also those who often fall short on their own goals. Simply because it is impossible to say YES to everyone. Hence, learning how to kindly refuse to take some actions is one of the most efficient ways to gain more time during the day.

5. Focus

We don’t have too many hours of work on a daily basis, therefore keeping focus and sticking to the original plan is crucial. In my work environment I have seen too many instances of people getting distracted from the main task because the mechanics from the car workshop called in to report on the service card or the wife called to called laundry. One should be able to completely isolate during the allocated productivity hours. It is challenging, I know. Especially for those who have a family and they want to make everyone happy.

This point goes along with point 1 and 4 listed above. For instance, a friend sending us a message on Facebook while we are focusing on a task due in 2 hours, should not distract us from the main goal. Similarly, an incoming phone call, for as important as it can be, shall be assessed against urgency, rather than against importance.

Important things can wait while we are focused. Urgent things cannot. Hence the simple effort of classifying distractions according to an importance vs urgency matrix can help us to save time and be more productive during the day.

6. Expectations

Lastly, do not expect perfection. I have recently worked with some very talented individual who would not accept anything, but perfection as an outcome. I found the process quite frustrating, as virtually nobody can deliver perfection. Not even them. However they are expecting perfection from others and they would stick to insignificant details until everything fits within their vision before moving on. In a recent instance I was asked to work on a photo shooting for a few hours, including photo editing, until all pictures were perfect for publishing.

Incidentally, the project didn’t fly, hence all the work was wasted. If we only worked to average, rather than perfection, we could have saved a few hours of precious time. Big lesson learned: Settle for average from time to time. Perfection is overrated.