Do you find yourself overworked day after day? Without the normalcy of a traditional career, many entrepreneurs are packing more hours into their workday, but this doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, overworking is a symptom of inefficient entrepreneurs.
When I started my business, I was a college student who had to fight for enough time to do everything. There were classes, friends, and extracurricular activities – oh, did I mention that I was in the middle of launching an international company? The process of launching PictureBoothCo defined a large part of my college career, and I had to find the perfect time management balance to get everything done.
For entrepreneurs struggling with time management and that feeling of being overworked, I encourage:
1. Scheduling time for interruptions.
If you’ve been planning or running your business for some time, you know that hardly anything goes according to plan. This was particularly true for me as a college student, when my schedule could change with just a simple text message. It’s important to keep your schedule flexible so that you can adjust for unexpected (and sometimes important) moments.
2. Accepting that everything won’t get done.
No matter how hard you try or work, not everything on your to-do list is going to get done – ever. Why? Because there’s always more for an entrepreneur to do! In the midst of launching PictureBoothCo, there was always a little detail here and another project there that had to be done. It wasn’t until I came to terms with the never-ending workload that I could actually focus on the task at hand. The same is probably true for you!
3. Understanding when something isn’t working.
In entrepreneurship, there’s a time to persevere, then there’s a time you need to change course. Knowing what to do can be tricky. When something isn’t working, sometimes you need to wait longer for your efforts to come to fruition. But there are also times when things clearly aren’t working. Continuing to pursue those things only wastes your valuable time.
4. Just do it.
You have to learn to be accountable to your own business. When you’re passionate about your business, it’s easy to just do it. Seriously. I can’t imagine putting all the work I’ve done into PictureBoothCo if I didn’t absolutely love the idea.
5. “Working.”
Not all the work you do as an entrepreneur will feel like work. Allow your time to think and brainstorm new ideas. In fact, these moments that you use to plan your days and the future of your start-up are some of the most fruitful times your company will have.
Ross Hill is a Belmont University Graduate and an event industry entrepreneur. He has been in the event industry for five years and has participated in hundreds of events. His company Picturebooth.co is seeking to transform the way companies interact with fans at events.
