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What Is Best Time Management Skill For Solopreneurs

This article is more than 4 years old.

You, me, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, President Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and every solopreneur are all equal in one respect: we all get 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week. Ah, but how do you spend those hours to get the most done?

American founding father Benjamin Franklin was described as a polymath, a person of wide-ranging knowledge and interests. He was a solopreneur before the invention of the word.

Franklin famously said: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

One anti-time-squandering secret that successful solopreneurs love is time blocking.

The late productivity expert Michael Valentine, an ex-IBMer who later taught at places like the University of Toyota, educated me on the value of time blocking. I helped him and Lynn Coffman edit their book, Slay the E-Mail Monster. They taught me that more important than a deadline is an appointment in your calendar of when you are going to start a project.

President George W. Bush once said in a speech, “an entrepreneur is someone who would rather work 80 hours a week for themselves rather than work 40 hours a week for someone else.” Because of that independent streak, many will resist the practice of time blocking. But that is a miscalculation in thinking.

Time blocking gives you more freedom, not more restrictions. There is a truism that work will expand to fill available space. So, if you do not set boundaries, ones that you impose, you will find activities you want to do crowded out by activities you feel you must do.

“So many solopreneurs are trying to build million-dollar businesses using hundred-dollar habits,” says author and professional speaker Sue Styles.

In her book, The Little Red Stick: What Gets Measured Gets Done, a good habit she recommends is time blocking.

“Time blocking is an absolute must,” says Styles.

For example, a solopreneur must block time in their schedule for networking.

“Once the business owner realizes they need to get to know more people to create more sales, then they can create a schedule that enforces regular networking,” advises Styles.

I met Styles when I was asked to speak to professional authors and speakers in Calgary. She sought out editing help for her book. During the process I learned many valuable insights from Styles.

“When solopreneurs have a steady stream of clients, then it is imperative to treat them right,” says Styles. “How many troubles arise just because of things slipping through the cracks and balls getting dropped?”

All those little slips and dropped balls add up to a diminished reputation in the marketplace.

Styles works with some of the most successful real estate offices throughout Canada. Founder of Maximized Results Consulting, Styles has led many sales agents to million-dollar results. She is an expert when it comes to best practices, systems, processes, client care, lead generation and time blocking.

“If the first thing new solopreneurs would do is create a simple and solid foundation consisting of some sort of system and process checklist, then they would easily be able to scale when the time is right,” says Styles.

Styles says one of the biggest downfalls of solopreneurs is that they keep everything in their head instead of implementing tangible checklists that they can follow.

“If more owners would simply do the basic things right and with excellence, this would solve 80% of the problems that I get hired to fix,” says Styles.

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