Episode #34: Kirstin O’Donovan | Time Management Tips, Tricks & Secrets for Business Owners
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Productivity Coach Shares Time Management Tips, Tricks & Secrets for Business Owners Why is time management such a challenge for most business owners? What are the common time-thieves and how do we avoid these? Multinational productivity coach and expert, Kirstin O’Donovan reveal what it takes to truly manage your time and increase productivity and create life and results every business owner desires.

Questions Asked:

How did Kirstin branch out to do her own coaching business? How did she get her first client? What are some of the critical skills that entrepreneurs need to have in order to succeed? Why there are so many people who struggle with time management? What could have Kirsten wished that somebody shared with her about time management when she was starting out? Why is it so valuable to personalize time management? What is the best way for business owners to put this particular tip into action? What are the time thieves? What is the secret to avoiding time wasters? How much influence does time management have on the results of running a business?

Highlights of the Lessons Learned:

Time management is one of the key skills in order to succeed because what you do every single day is the result you are going to get. Basically time is money and if business owners are not managing their time effectively, they are not managing their business as effectively as they could. So when running a business, it is so important that you have to look at what you are actually doing with your time every single day. In order to succeed, the business owner needs to gain clarity and sound judgment on:

What are the tasks to be done When to allocate certain tasks Which tasks to take and to focus on by themselves Why do people procrastinate How to drive yourself forward towards your goals How to stay focused, how to be in the right frame of mind to get things done, within the time limitations. How to be be best productive

Some reasons why there are so many people struggle to manage their time:

Lack of personalization – A lot of people adopt some techniques that don’t work on them. What applies to you may not be applicable to somebody else. Being oblivious to the value of spending their time and the impact of improving their work-life balance. Allowing excuses like, “there’s no time” or “when I have time”. Complimentary skill – Due to growing demands where people are juggling so many things at once, while time management is something not learned in school; rather, it is an acquired skill through experience and time personalization; Resistance when failure is experienced.

Personalization of Time Management

The “trick” when it comes to time management is not creating a to-do list or ‘let’s do this together.’ It is about why you are doing this; what it will do to you when you do that, etc. – meaning, the whole “rationale”of doing things and prioritizing over others. So, you need to find a system that works for you.

The best way to initiate personalization of time management is to start creating vision and clarity of where everything starts; being realistic about where your time is going and what you are doing with your time so you will know how much time is being wasted and what your time thieves are.

According to Kirstin, a 10% improvement in your time usage could free 6 minutes in every hour…45 minutes a day and therefore, 3.75 hours or half a day per week.

If you lack time, learning how to manage it can make huge difference to your stress level and help you identify other important things that you can get done. You also improve your quality of life.

The common time thieves for business owners are:

Procrastination – and not even knowing you are doing it. Being Disorganized – jumping from one task to another aimlessly. Not planning the tasks and not prioritizing properly.