Article written by Anthony Bourbon.
Being an entrepreneur is, above all, a battle against yourself and against time. Building a business project is very time-consuming, and you need to execute quickly to capture the market and prevent competitors from launching or growing faster than you. In this article, I'll share simple and effective ways to optimize your time and focus on your goals.
Being a soldier in your organization.
Managing your time well means mastering the art of planning. Automate your calendar with a dedicated time slot for all daily tasks (e.g., inbox 0 at 8:30 a.m., lunch at 12:30 p.m., workout at 8 p.m., etc.). Every hour of your day should be useful; there should be no downtime.
Then, set time slots based on the days, which will repeat each week (Monday morning full team kick-off, Monday afternoon 1:1 meeting, Tuesday morning 3am where anyone can set up meetings with me with the outside, Tuesday afternoon XX workshop, Wednesday morning personal work to move forward on your projects, Wednesday afternoon dig into KPI/OKR, Thursday morning take care of HR...). This way, your whole team will know when to activate you without having to consult you. Open your Google calendar for them so they can be autonomous without disturbing you.
Use appropriate tools.
There are a multitude of apps and tools to help you manage your time. You just need to choose the ones that suit you and your needs.
The most useful ones in my opinion are:
- Google Suite (calendar, Drive, etc.): The entire team is connected and can organize itself according to each individual's needs. This allows for team coordination without wasting time.
- Slack: Convenient for daily communication, sending files, and calling each other. Slack helps us streamline internal communication, especially during the remote work period.
- Asana: A very useful tool for managing your personal and/or business to-do list. You can see what you've accomplished and how far you still have to go.
- Blinklist/Koober: It's important to stay open to the world to be creative and innovative. These tools summarize thousands of books in 15 minutes. Perfect for focusing only on content that's truly interesting and useful to you.
- OKR: It's a practical and balanced nutrition solution that allows you to achieve your goals, while saving time. :)
Escape distractions.
We can never repeat it enough, without work you can accomplish nothing. Avoid unnecessary and time-consuming distractions (social networks, text messages, lunch with friends, etc.), they prevent you from getting to the essentials. Turn off your personal notifications to focus on professional messages. It is very easy to get caught up in a discussion, so it is best to limit the points of contact, to focus on what is really important. You will manage personal problems during your breaks that you will have previously defined in your shared calendar.
In summary.
In short, to optimize your time and achieve your goals, you need discipline, self-focus, the right tools, and avoid distractions. If you follow all these rules, your days will be much more efficient, and you'll maximize your chances of success.
Anthony Bourbon.
