Do you have a minute?

How about an hour?

Because of the world we live in, and the challenges of being a business owner, distractions are everywhere. Emails flooding in, notifications popping up on the phone, employees, vendors or clients calling to talk with us; all of these things calling out for just a minute of our time. And because it’s in front of our face we give it our attention. We answer the phone, we respond to the email, we allow someone in to ask their question, knowing that it’s pulling us away from the work that we were just doing. But it seems almost impossible to say no, to set aside the distractions, and to maintain the focus required to make an impact on the big projects that require our undivided attention. Every time we allow that “one minute” distraction in we’re losing something. It takes time to get back to the task at hand (one study suggests it takes at least 6 minutes for our brains to fully shift from one task to another) and we’re not fully focused on anything if we’re trying to do multiple things.

The challenge I see most often with my clients is creating the time and space to do business development work. They struggle to put aside the day-to-day activities of their business; the near constant demands of the business keep them thinking like an employee instead of an owner. The work they want to do on their business takes a back seat to the work they choose to do in their business, and because of that the business struggles.

Owners feel overwhelmed, stretched thin, pulled in too many different directions and they’re unable to break the cycle. They feel the pressure to have the business perform a certain way, and the responsibility falls to them to make sure that happens. So they don’t feel as if they can ever disconnect, they don’t feel like they can ever be unavailable, they don’t feel like they can ignore any notification, or email, or phone call. And it keeps them feeling stuck, pulled in countless directions all at once, and trying desperately to find a way forward. They begin to confuse action with activity, convincing themselves that if they are always moving, always responding, always clearing their notifications, then they are being productive and doing the work they should be doing. But that is rarely the case - and it is almost never the work they want or need to be doing. But when we allow the one minute distractions to interrupt we end up spending hours chasing them down every day. That is not a recipe for success.

To change our relationship with time is not an easy thing to do. There are tons of challenges that will come up along the way for everyone, and especially for entrepreneurs. Feeling like we have to do everything, for everyone, and right now, is setting yourself up to fail. The fact of the matter is most things are not a priority, most things that seem urgent only feel that way because we allow them to feel that way. When everything feels like a priority, then we don’t really have any priorities. And trying to decide what our top priorities should be is only the beginning of the challenge. Setting aside the time to do that work is another minefield filled with distractions, with competing priorities, and the ever-present knowledge that there is something else you could be doing.

So how do we start to make the shift? What can you do to cut out the distractions, do more impactful work, and have more time in the day for your life? There are four (and a half) key things I recommend to my clients:

1. Keep a time log - you’ve got to know where you’re starting from if you’re really going to change the way you’re managing your time. Keeping a log of what you’re doing, when, and for how long can be a real wake-up call for a lot of people. If you’re diligent about keeping the logs (or find a program that works well for you) then the simple process of tracking your time will probably be enough to get you thinking about your time differently. And as you’re working to implement the other suggestions below we want to have a record of what is working and what isn’t - don’t just go on your gut feeling here. The time logs will give you real feedback on where you’re making progress and what you can do to improve - that’s priceless.
2. Define what you want your day to look like - If you’re not consciously deciding how you’re going to spend your time, you’re guaranteed to be on the back foot from the start. You have to be conscious and intentional about what you want to do and when you’re going to do it. The rub here is you have to be grounded in your current reality - if you have to pick your kids up at 3:00pm each day, you can’t realistically schedule client meetings all afternoon. You have to design your ideal day, the things you’re going to do and when you’re going to do them.
3. Be intentional - Some people like to set aside certain parts of the day to do certain work. Often they try and tackle their most challenging work first thing in the morning and leave more service-oriented tasks (like responding to emails) for later in the day; you’ll note that this is the opposite of how most people actually spend their time when they come in each day and just wing it. Some people find success by designating particular days (say Tuesday and Thursday) for one type of work and take care of their other responsibilities on the other days each week. You might have a sense of what schedule would work best for you or you might not, either way I’d encourage you to pick something that you think will work, try it for a week, and track it to see how it goes. Don’t give up on it if you’re not perfect off the bat, but look at what got in the way and where you can make adjustments to help you moving forward.
4. Put it on the calendar - If you read my previous post about planning you already have a sense of how we break large goals down into weekly milestones, and that is a requirement here as well. Getting clear on what you need to accomplish each week to move you toward your big picture goals is crucial, because you can put those things on your calendar first and build the rest of your week around them. If you have large projects that are going to require your undivided attention you need to block that time on your calendar and guard it like you would any of your most important appointments or meetings. This time in your schedule should be sacrosanct, untouchable, immovable. Again you need to be realistic with yourself and recognize that as much as you might like to spend 6 hours straight on a particular project that might not be possible. But you might be able to schedule 90 minutes on four straight days, and by breaking up the work you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to get it done.

• 4.5. Leave white space - As much as we’d love each day to feel flawless and totally in the groove that is rarely the case. Leave yourself some buffer times throughout the day so that if something comes up that absolutely requires your attention you have space to deal with it. Leave gaps for transition time between appointments on your calendar. Not every day will be about work from sunup to sundown so don’t hesitate to block out time to deal with whatever personal things might need your attention. If you already have open times on the calendar it’s much easier to deal with those things that might pop up.

Now if better time management was just about having the knowledge we’d all be masters of it by now, because everyone and their brother has time management tips and tricks that they swear will transform your life. The suggestions I included above are hardly rocket science, and probably not anything you haven’t read before. The real key is about implementation, and as unsexy as that may sound it is the truth. The people I’ve seen that have had success in this area reach a point where they know things have to change, they’ve got to do better. And they take the step to begin implementing some of the steps above, and they have the discipline to see it through. No one is perfect, and is doesn’t change overnight, but you can absolutely transform the way you relate to your time and your business by taking on this challenge. When a client makes these changes, everything starts to shift and I know we’re going to find a lot of success in the rest of the work that we do. That’s why I know just how important it is.

Do you have a minute to get started on this now?