5 Ways to Free Up Your Time

As an entrepreneur, do you ever wish you had another 24 hours in a day to get more done? Seems that our most valued resource is our time — and yet its the one thing we have the least of and can’t get back once its gone.

Here’s five ways to free up your time for what’s really important:

1  Say No

Sometimes saying YES just gets you in trouble. Even if you can do it, if you make a habit of saying yes you can end up drowning in over-commitment. If you want to reclaim your time for what’s important, say no to everything that isn’t 100% aligned with your priorities.

2  Delegate

Its easy to slip into “I can do it better myself” but if you are a high-achiever with a big mission, you can’t afford to do it all yourself. Figure out what someone can do faster, better or cheaper than you and delegate it — now.

3  Leverage

I know you don’t want to say no to money making opportunities — but what if you can’t actually work more to make more money? That’s when its time to leverage your time more effectively. Figure out how you can transform your offerings so you are serving more than one person and scaling your income.

4  Time Block

Maybe its not about more time, but using the time you have more effectively. Try setting up blocks of time to do similar activities. This technique will help you expand time by allowing you to stay in your groove longer. When you bunch like activity together your mind can focus for longer periods of time without getting distracted by “switch-tasking.”

5  Eliminate Bandits

Often our precious time is stolen by distractions and time bandits. Pay attention to the little disruptions (like a client who always has an emergency or a team member who instant messages you for a quick question) that end up derailing hours in your day. Create uninterrupted time by turning off your phone, email or other technology that beeps and pings you.

You don’t have to do all of these at once — but try at least one new strategy this week and see how much time you can free up to do the things that ONLY you can do to grow your business.