How to nail time management

Keep that 'new week' enthusiasm going until Friday - with help from Gwen Stefani

Morning, colleague!

Welcome to part two of my four-week Get Focused plan.

It’s not the sexiest subject, but getting a handle on time management (aka how you divvy up your working hours) is possibly the most important thing you can do for your business.

I’m personally guilty of establishing BIG PLANS on a Monday, and dissolving into a muddle of scrappy paper lists by Friday. (Currently editing this on Friday and my desk looks like a hamster has gone to town on it).

So how can you keep these good intentions up all week, and what happens if you’ve got a great plan but life keeps getting in the way?

I spoke to time management expert Clare Evans to get her tips – and in case you’re wondering, yes, she was prompt.

Why and how to make a business plan

On a road trip, you’re unlikely to get where you want to go without working out your route. It’s the difference between reaching Vegas in time to see Gwen Stefani’s live show, or ending up in a Schitt’s Creek motel with a flat tyre.

Similarly, phase one of any robust business is coming up with a plan (and this includes you, freelancers). A business plan can look however you like – whether it’s a spreadsheet or a single page word doc, or the back of a beer mat. It just needs:

1. Where you want to go. Probably best to imagine where you’re aiming for 3 – 5 years’ time (in terms of money made, but also how much time you want to be working by then, eg full time? Two days a week? An hour per week from the deck of your luxury yacht?)

2. What you need to do to get to that point. “Some clients say they want to be a millionaire in three years time, which isn’t necessarily unrealistic – I just ask them how many clients they would need, and at what price, to get them there,” says Clare. “It’s generally at that point they realise they have quite a lot of work to do!” While numbers can be scary for those of us who were mathematically-challenged at school (I feel you) there are certain figures that you’ll need – what you’d like to earn, how many clients/customers/commissioned pieces of work you require to get there, and at what price/fee.

3. You can then break up your time in a more detailed way, eg. In the first six months, I need to have reached X number of new customers, or secured X new commissions, to be en route to Gwen (who is now my favourite metaphor for a successful business).

Coming up with these numbers can feel a bit ‘pie in the sky’ – certainly my targets for this newsletter were fairly arbitrary to start with. But it’s just about putting something down, that you can then keep refining as you do more research/ speak to customers or clients/ look at the what your competitors are up to, etc.

“People sometimes worry about putting down these goals and figures ‘in stone’ in a business plan, but the whole point of a plan is that you go back on a regular basis and tweak it,” says Clare.

OK, but what about time management?

Once you have your business plan in place, time management gets a lot simpler. If you know that by the end of the year you need to have made a certain amount of money, or gained a particular number of clients, then you can divide that by 12 to find your monthly targets (and by four to find your weekly ones, etc).

Another benefit of a business plan, is that it helps to nip procrastination in the bud. “When we put off certain jobs, it’s generally because we feel overwhelmed or fearful. But seeing how it will help you reach your wider goals – that it’s a small part of a bigger plan – can help motivate you,” says Clare.

How to plan for the day-to-day stuff

There’s no right way to do this – planning is a personal business, and can involve lists written the night before or first thing, on paper, online, or via an app like Trello, Todoist or Asana.

If you’re panicking about how much you need to pack into a day, you can even try ‘microscheduling’, which accounts for every single minute (including toilet breaks, tooth brushing, getting dressed, etc) on a big list. I have been known to do this on incredibly busy weeks and can confirm that a) it works and b) it leaves me feeling as jittery as five coffees. It’s definitely not right for me every day, but for a manic Monday it works a treat.

Don’t freak out if your plan is derailed

With all the planning in the world, sometimes you simply can’t fit in a full working day. Whether illness, childcare issues, family emergencies, or you’re just not feeling it – or maybe your daily plan was too optimistic in the first place.

The trick is, to do the best with what you can. “Studies show we’re actually only productive 60% of the time anyway,” says Clare. “Sometimes the less time you have available, the more productive you’ll actually be.”

4 fast time management fixes to try this week

Here are some of my favourite quick-wins for getting shit done.

1. Do a ‘time audit’. Time getting away from you and not much to show for it? Spend today keeping track of everything you’re doing. And be honest. Write down the number of minutes checking Twitter (yeah, I see you), faffing in the kitchen, or scrolling through news pages, as well as actual productive minutes. You can sign up for a free trial of Rescue Time to help with this. Just having an idea of where those precious minutes are disappearing to will help keep you accountable in future.

2. Set a time limit for tasks. You know that thing about goldfish growing to fill the size of their bowl? Work is similar. “We tend to use the amount of time available to complete a job,’ says Clare. “So if we only have one thing to do today, we’ll spend the entire day getting it finished, even if we could have done it in an hour.” Be strict with yourself – if you know you could get something done by 10am, then get it done. Perhaps plan something nice as a reward – a coffee break, yoga Zoom class, or episode of a show – before you get back into working.

3. Schedule time to reply to emails…at the end of the day. I am SO bad at this, but it’s such a smart move. Don’t let a constant stream of emails distract you from the job in hand throughout your day. Each time you pause to answer one, it’s that much harder to return to whatever you were doing. It’s rare that something is so urgent it can’t wait a few hours. If the end of the day feels too far away, then check them before breaking for lunch instead.

4. Speaking of which… plan in some downtime. “If you need to be more productive, you probably need more breaks,” says Clare. It sounds counterintuitive, but there’s lots of evidence to suggest that we can only really focus for 90 minutes at a stretch. Press the reset button with a few minutes away from your desk.

In line with this… don’t miss next week’s issue, where I’ll explain how to do less and achieve more!

• Do you have any handy hacks for time management? Let me know on the OOO Facebook page, or hit reply!