Do you have time to be the leader you want to be?

As business and community leaders, it’s so important to have dedicated time set aside to doing the work of developing your craft and building your legacy. Having no time is a common reason people give for not going into business.

Given the many, varied responsibilities of taking care of:

• home
• family
• self
• current work
• hobbies
• community service
• all of the THINGS

it’s not a wonder why business and community leaders especially believe they don’t have enough time.

Leaders must CHOOSE time to work on their most impactful activities. Click To Tweet

Deciding to choose time for developing and growing your ideas can make a world of difference in the amount of time you have for the meaningful activities that create impact.

For instance, in the case of entrepreneurs, product development, marketing, servicing your product and customers, administrative tasks, more marketing, accounting, strategic planning, and much much more, finding the time to get it all done just for the business alone can be a challenge.

So, out of the 168 hours we all have each week, how much time can you dedicate to your business?

Here’s a table to consider what that time looks like percentage-wise:

With that, do you still believe you don’t have time? Full-time work is only 25% of your time each week.

10% of your total time is less than two and a half hours each day.

What do you typically accomplish in this amount of time each day?

What can you sacrifice?

Here are a few ideas to find time:

• watch less TV
• peruse social media (for non-business use) less
• cut some phone calls short
• eliminate inefficiencies in your daily life (unplanned shopping trips and meals,
• cook meals for the week at one time and use the same ingredients for some meals (i.e. chicken and rice, chicken noodle soup, chicken pot pie, fried chicken… you get the point)
• DELEGATE tasks you don’t really have to do (even if that means your kids get extra chores – they need more responsibility anyway, right?)
• wake up an hour earlier
• go to bed an hour later
• step down from your leadership role in that one club you’ve wanted to step back from anyway
• temporarily miss your Friday night out routine… only for a moment while you build
• so. much. more.

You don’t have to drop all of these activities completely, but reducing the time you dedicate towards each of them will give you an extra two, three or even four hours in a day => a worthy sacrifice while you build your business to a point you can hire people in roles to help you and earn some of the more fun activities back (if you want them).

That said, I’m one who does not believe there’s only one way to do something. Options are an exciting part of my life so I advocate for them in everyone else’s lives too.

Other ways to find more time include:

Pomodoro Technique: dedicate 20-30 minutes to concentrate on completing one task, then take a short break. Repeat this as a cycle for as long as you want to work on your business. This system creates more efficiency in your process because it discourages multi-tasking, a known issue for prolonging the COMPLETION of one task. This is especially helpful for writers and other creatives!

Eliminate Distractions: There are many people, places and things that are distractions for us. Now is the time to rid yourself of those so you can do something greater than you. This could be simply de-cluttering your space or spending less time with certain friends.

Just Say No: saying no to people has been a game-changer for me. I was once a person that said yes whenever I was asked to join a new committee, take on a new project, meet with another friend about a new business project, etc., etc., etc. As long as the world is turning, there will be shiny new objects that will attempt to enter your life. If you haven’t already, now is the time to hone down on what your priorities are and stay true to those. I can help you with that if you have not committed to your own priorities already.

Work Schedule: Assign your days and time to specific tasks just like you would in regular work. You can simply assign a theme for the day or dedicate specific hours in the day to specific tasks for your business. Sometimes getting into too much detail for how you spend your time can be too rigid. You can incorporate flexibility by simply noting the tasks you want to complete that day within a set of hours and crossing them off as you complete them.

Read how different successful entrepreneurs create the best routines for their lifestyles as company owners.

My gift to you –

Template: Leader Work Schedule

While developing a business challenge, I had to cut some material to make the challenge manageable. In doing that, I decided to give you a sample of what you could expect with a template for you to adopt. Introducing the Leader Work Schedule…

This blank template can be used to create your own schedule for working on your most impactful tasks. This is a fillable PDF so you can complete it using your laptop or smart device and conveniently refer to it while you’re in work mode. You can even convert your completed schedule into a jpg (or with a screenshot) and make it your desktop or smartphone wallpaper. And of course, if you’re old school like me, you are welcome to print it out ?

With a hybrid of the techniques mentioned above, you can be well on your way to having time for meaningful work AND joy in your personal life.

You can download this template and access more resources to support the pursuit of your goals by joining my community.

Get the Leader Work Schedule to CHOOSE time for making an impact! Click To Tweet

Share how you plan to find more time to create meaningful outcomes in the comments below. Also let me know if you will be adopting the schedule.