As a small business owner, you need to treat your time as if it was your most important resource. Finding strategies to use your time efficiently and accomplish as much as you can within fixed time frames will help ensure that you are getting the most from the time that you put into your work.

Start Your Day with the Tough Stuff

One common trait of highly productive people is that they tend to kick off their days with the hardest agenda items that they have to take care of. Starting your day with the least challenging tasks on your to-do list does not lend itself to maximum productivity. You will probably wind up burning too much of your physical and mental energy on tasks that are not challenging and run out of steam by the time you get to the tough stuff. Finishing the hardest thing that you need to do throughout a workday enables you to expend your best effort on it. Also, knocking hard tasks off of your list in the first half of the day is empowering and motivates you to keep getting more done.

Set Your Own Pace

Try to avoid rushing to finish things. When you work at your own pace, you can focus better and hit a type of flow state. The concept of achieving a flow state is important for entrepreneurs who are looking to boost their productivity. Being fully present and immersed in whatever task you are working on optimizes the quality of the work you do. Doing things right the first time is better than missing things that will eventually put you in the position of having to turn back around and take a second look at what you had already written off as done.

Do a Time Management Self-Audit

You may already be in the practice of writing out your schedule, but have you compared how you spent your time with how you planned to spend it? Looking at the discrepancies between your budgeted time and the time that you spent will help you identify areas for improvement. 

Ultimately, using your time well will help you raise the quantity and quality of your work.  Just as you work diligently to make the most of your available capital, you need to be conscientious about making the most of your time. Maximizing your time is extremely important because it is not a renewable resource.