One of the struggles business owners battle on a daily basis is that of time. There never feels like enough hours in the day, and time often slips away from us.
Often you are juggling bringing up a family with running a home and serving clients whilst simultaneously handling all tasks involved with scaling your business.
When I work with clients who are scaling one of the first things we look at is TIME, and specifically how they are spending their time. Scaling and up-leveling is not about giving clients MORE work to do, its about using the time they have more EFFICIENTLY. What tasks will move them forward in business? Bringing them closer to their goals?
I guide them away from being busy and instead into being productive. Once we have analyzed their customer journey, time and systems we create a time management process that suits them.
Yes thatโs right. Not one size fits all! So what do you use in your business right now?
Time Blocking
Youโve probably heard of this before. Time blocking is whereby you plan your day in advance and allocate specific time blocks for certain tasks. So answering emails could be between 9-9:30 am , client work could be 10-12pm and so on. This helps stop procrastination and more importantly keeps you focused on completing a task in a set time block, and not spending all day on it!
The key is to include both personal and work within the schedule as this is often where people slip up, they concentrate only on their “to do” list and forget everything else that fills their day.
- Morning routine
- Journaling
- Exercise
- Lunch / break
- Collecting children from nursery / school
As well as including your tasks and personal activities it is important to allocate time for self development and tasks pertaining to working ON the business not just IN it. This ensures you keep scaling towards your big goals and remain focussed and driven.
Did you know that focussing on one task at a time it helps us remain 80% more productive? Yes all those interruptions and going from task to task is a killer to your productivity, its no wonder you find yourself procrastinating! So turn off those notifications and follow your mapped out day instead.
Tip: As you end one scheduled task take a couple of mins to refocus before moving onto the next task. Make yourself a drink, stretch your legs, listen to a song.
Theme Days
Before I explain theme days let me reiterate again that switching from one task to the next and multitasking uses more energy than concentrating on one task at a time. Each time you switch a task you have to refocus, your brain has to switch gears if you will onto the new task at hand.
Which is why theme days can be an incredibly productive use of your time. You cluster tasks together and create a topic for the day, you are setting the intention of what you will do that day. Many of my clients adopt this model and indeed so do I as it can be easier to stay in the flow and smash your goals.
For example you could be in content mode on a Monday, client calls Tuesday, Marketing on a Wednesday etc. Did you know Elon Musk uses a simplified version of theme days? He works at SpaceX on Monday and Tuesday, then at Tesla on Wednesday and Thursday returning to SpaceX on Friday. I do something similar albeit I’m no Elon Musk! I work on UKAWP on a Monday and Tuesday, BCC on a Wednesday and Thursday (which is when client calls are scheduled) and Friday is my self development day plus my catch up day.
Some people find time blocking too regimented whereas there is more flexibility with theme days. So decide a theme for the day then split this into tasks , just imagine how productive you could be with one whole day focussed on PR as an example. Now your themes may change from week to week, especially if working on a specific project, or it could be fairly consistent like for me.
Benefits of using time blocking or theme days
Choosing either one of these methods will help you be more productive with your tasks, no more losing focus when you switch task to task or allow interruptions to disrupt your day. But more importantly it will ensure you are spending time on the tasks that will help you scale. Every task serves a purpose towards your goals. You will no longer be busy for the sake of being busy.
Often a benefit is โknowing your scheduleโ, no longer do you sit there thinking what shall I do today. Your week is already structured meaning all you have to do is follow that structure and implement the plan. You are holding yourself accountable to complete the tasks you have set yourself.
How to start using time blocking or theme days
Start by tracking your time for 1 week. Note the start and end time of every single task. At the end of the week review this and start compiling a list of tasks:
Daily (answering emails, social media engagement)
Weekly: (blog posts, newsletters, client calls)
Monthly: (accounts)
Once you have done this allocate a parent category, a theme. Possible ones include:
Client calls / Meetings
Client work
Marketing
Content creation
Allocate a day to a theme then break this down further into tasks , for example content creation could involve: blog posts, email series, social media scheduling, recording reels / tiktoks.
Let me know how you get on, are you more connected to time blocking or theme days?
Further reading
Splitting your goals into 90 day chunks
Up-level your business in 5 steps
Work with me: explore my services HERE
