When thinking about time management the theme song to “RENT” comes to mind: Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year? In daylights? In sunsets? In midnights? In cups of coffee? In inches? In miles? In laughter? In strife? How do you measure a year in the life?
How do you measure a year in the life of your small business? Maybe you’re just trying to keep up with the day to day tasks and feel like it’s a vicious cycle. You live a busy life.
In the midst of planning, scheduling, meetings, budgeting, and learning for your business – as well as family time, grocery shopping, exercising, cleaning, socializing, sleeping, hobbies, and whatever else you do outside of work – there never seems to be enough time in the day to get it all done, let alone focus on having a successful small business full of passion & provision. But good time management is important because it affects how you relate to others and the culture of your business.
For instance, time management challenges might mean you can’t make your recurring deadlines each week, but you don’t want to disappoint anyone by not following through. You can’t get those new client proposals sent in a timely manner, but you need new business and don’t want the relationship to get off to a rocky start. You need to finalize the marketing budget, but you just hate numbers even though you know they’re important.
All of these things create your own personal stress that makes you function at less than your potential, and affects how smoothly your business is functioning. It creates anxiety that spills over into your company culture. You have high expectations for yourself that just can’t be achieved, and you feel guilty about that. You can’t continue to run your business this way. You can have a company that people look forward to coming to each day and that provides for their needs, and your own.
As the leader of a small business, how do you make sure you are providing for the needs of your company and making your company culture a positive place? Put yourself and your needs first. Does this feel selfish or counterintuitive to you? It may be your nature to put others first and live with a “leaders eat last” kind of mentality, but if you’re not okay, how can anyone else you are responsible for be okay? If you’re feeling like you don’t have enough time, give yourself permission to take time for you and get things in order, then prioritize where you’re needed the most and decide what you can delegate. This will overflow in all areas of your life, including your small business.
Confucius said, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s something we like to call Passion & Provision. It means you’re providing a profitable business where people feel safe and experience a level of trust. You’re engaged and enjoy what you do and so do your employees.
We all have 1,440 minutes in a day and five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in a year. Taking the time to look at the sunrises, sunsets, enjoy good cups of coffee, laugh and cry with others, learn through the hard times, and focus on you will help you decide where to focus your attention. In turn, you will begin to create a successful small business that offers Passion & Provision.
Zig Ziglar believed that a “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.”
If you need some direction to help manage your time better and create a Passion & Provision company, we would love to help!
