Assign each task to one of the four boxes. Tackle box 1 first. These are your top priority tasks. Tasks in box 2 must be done and often these are the ones that never quite make it to the top of the list and prevent you from achieving your goals. Make sure you plan them in so that they get sufficient focus. Box 3 tasks can be delegated to an efficient Virtual assistant to free up more of your time. Finally, you should aim to eliminate box 4 tasks so that they don’t clutter your brain or workspace.

3. Set yourself 3 tasks to complete each day Creating good time management habits can be hard. Keep motivated by writing a list of three tasks you WILL complete by the end of each day. Of course, if you get through those tasks before the end of the day, you can work on the next thing but having a very long to-do list can be off-putting and demotivating. By keeping your daily to-do list to just three items, you can increase your productivity and hence improve your time management.

4. Minimise interruptions It’s so easy to allow yourself to be interrupted, especially if you are tackling a task that you don’t enjoy very much. Whether you are working in an office and are interrupted by colleagues or distracted by lots of noise or working at home and the kids or chores drag you away from your desk, lots of time can be wasted simply by not being able to focus and concentrate on your work. Ask others in your working environment to respect your head-down time – close the door if you can – and set aside other non-work-related tasks until you have completed your three tasks for the day (see item 3).  

5. Avoid procrastination Procrastination is the biggest time waster of all. It is a common productivity killer and many people suffer from procrastination at some point in their working life. Getting started on a task can be hard if you aren’t sure what you are doing, find the task dull, feel that you don’t have sufficient time to do a good job or many other reasons which prevent you from diving into the activity. Try to work out what your main triggers are for procrastination so you can create a plan to overcome them. Perhaps you don’t feel that there’s any accountability – if you are a sole trader, you are accountable only to yourself, so why not consider getting an accountability buddy to help you stay on track.  Maybe you are procrastinating because you aren’t confident that you know how to complete a task correctly – perhaps it’s time to hire in some help?

6. Set a time-limit for tasks that often eat up a lot of time Some tasks can inadvertently suck up a lot of your time if you let them. Social media is the most common example of where you can lose precious hours not really achieving very much. To avoid making this time management mistake, set a timer for your social media efforts each day and stick to it. Mindlessly scrolling after you’ve done your posting and engagement is a sure way to waste precious time that could be used more productively on other tasks that help your business reach its targets.

7. Create a personal contract (boundaries) and stick to them The last of these top tips for time management is all about creating a personal contract. If you are a business owner, this one is easy to overlook – you love your business, so you work longer and longer hours to make it a success. However, this approach is likely to reduce your productivity over time. Set realistic working hours and make sure you stick to them as much as possible. Knowing that you will finish work at 6pm can help focus the mind to get your tasks done within the working day and create good time management habits.  

Time management and productivity go hand in hand so you might find my previous blog 26 Productivity Tips and Tricks for Busy Entrepreneurs useful as well. I’d love to hear any of your top tips for time management, so please comment below.  

So what can a Virtual Assistant do for me to help me improve my time management? There are many tasks that you can delegate to your VA to free up time – why not check out my post ‘What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? and see if there are things you are currently doing that you could hand off to me and my team.  

If you’d like to get more top tips for time management , please get in touch on   You can connect with me on Linkedin and Facebook – please pop by to say hello.