“There just isn’t enough time in one day.” Listen, we all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce, so there is enough time for everything! As a business owner or entrepreneur, time is a valuable asset! You make time for customers and clients, meetings, new sales, phone calls, employees and everything else in one day.

However, could better time management be a new goal to set for 2019?

The valuable time you might be spending on something that matters, could actually be wasting your time. A study from the Harvard Business Review states that leaders spend about nine percent of their time with interacting with employees and customers. So, where is the rest of the time being spent?

Where the time is being spent.

As a business owner, entrepreneur, CEO, CFO or other professionals you know exactly where your time is being spent, or at least you thought you thought you did! With having a larger scope of responsibilities, duties and tasks it can seem to be a race against the clock. Proposals need to be finished, client meetings, stakeholder meetings, family time, events and so much more doesn’t allow for wiggle room or crisis to happen.

The average CEO works about 9.7 hours per day every week with an additional four hours on the weekend. This is over 62 hours a week spent working which is more than a traditional 40 hour work week. Any management level person in a company will tell you these are accurate numbers.

Most of these professionals only spend about nine percent of their time with their employees. This means the company culture is oftentimes skewed and misunderstood. An even more shocking statistic, only three percent of their time is spent with customers on most days. The challenges are set here with customers because there isn’t a clear perception of the wants and needs.

The importance of time management shows that time  is being spent working outside of the office, working alone, having face-to-face meetings and expanding the business. So, those employee complaints, concerns and questions might not be taking as much time as one thought!

The areas to manage

How can one become better at time management and understanding the importance of time management in the new year? It’s important to manage the following areas:

• Create a task list: Stop being overwhelmed because you don’t know where to start. What’s the hardest thing you’ll do today? Finish it first and move on. Crush your list of five, 10, 15 items or more today.

• Plan ahead, stop procrastinating: Stop waiting until the day before to start a proposal, schedule that important meeting or other tasks. Plan ahead and plan SMART.

• Learn to ask for help: It can seem like no one can help you with your day-to-day tasks and schedule. Have someone help you. Even if it’s something simple like printing out brochures, hiring a secretary or other tasks.

• Learn to outsource and delegate when need be: Once the step above is complete, be realistic with yourself. Could another company handle the marketing better? Could someone else oversee these tasks and other things?

• Eliminate those distractions: Put the phone down for even 15 minutes. You’ll see how much more work you’ll accomplish.

• Stop overloading your schedule: Give yourself a schedule that allows some flex room. Don’t book a meeting back, to back, to back with no breaks in between.

• SAY NO: It is okay to say no. This goes with the suggestion above, give yourself some breathing room.

• Follow the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of the effort you put in. 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of clients. Put in 80 percent of awesome, dedicated work to bring that 20 percent to the forefront.  

Time management is not an easy skill for anyone, especially those running and managing a business. However, with the right steps set in motion, the importance of time management could be the best new year goal one will set this year.