Business owners should be able to dedicate a good portion of their days to their work. Around 8 hours is the industry standard, and the more successful you become, the more you can cut this back (if you want to). Now wouldn’t that be the dream?!
But in the early days when you’ve got so much more to lose, you can easily end up giving upwards of 12 hours to your work – that’s just not healthy! You’ve got a life outside of your job, even when it’s something you’ve made yourself, and cutting back where you can is essential. As such, here are some time saving tips you might want to try using.
Split Up Your Breaks
If you like to take hour-long breaks away from your desk, we don’t blame you! You need time to recharge, eat something, and simply focus your mind on something else for a bit. But these breaks might be of a time length you can’t quite afford right now.
Instead, you should try splitting them up into smaller blocks, like 10 or 20 minutes at a time and have a few more per day, rather than all at once. You can get a bit more done in between, and this’ll give you a lot more breaks to look forward to!
Make a Weekly Plan
Sometimes planning each day out can be a little too constricting, but you still need a general schedule to follow to ensure you know what you’re doing. So, plan your week out instead and set it up into time blocks.
What could you do on Monday to get you started? What only needs tying up by the end of the week? When can you take breaks and/or be flexible during the midweek? Plan ahead with this sense of freedom and your work days will soon become shorter.
Let Payments Handle Themselves
If you’re used to a customer contacting you to ask to buy something, or to book in a session with you, it’s time to automate! You shouldn’t be on call 24/7 whenever someone thinks to send a message, and having an automatic email reply or some kind of notice on your website about response times will save you hours throughout the week.
If people know when you’re available, they’re much more likely to communicate within those times. And as for payments, if you get yourself a hosted payment form downloaded to your website, people can just buy outright from whatever you’ve got listed on your page.
Pick Better Working Hours
If you’re finding your current work hours to be too much, try switching them around. Working first thing in the morning just isn’t right for some people! Likewise, working evenings and into the early night is unthinkable for others. We’re simply not all productive at the same time!
If your business is dominating your hours, shove it back a bit! Use tips like these to cut back on the worst side of work.