96: Stop Wasting Time On This Whether You Are Starting A Business, Self-Employed, A Solopreneur

96: Stop Wasting Time On This Whether You Are Starting A Business, Self-Employed, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Business Owner, Side Hustler, Freelancer, Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant, Or VA

We are all given the same amount of time each and every day, and what you do with it is ultimately your decision, but if you are wasting your time on something that isn’t helping you reach your goals or the level of success you are looking for in your business, it’s time to really take a look at where your time is being spent and make some changes. In today’s podcast episode, I will not only point out some of the biggest things that cause us to waste time in businesses but also how you can quickly fix these issues if you find that you are guilty of these in your business. Identifying and being aware of any of these issues is the first step to overcoming the time you may be wasting. Whether you are a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper, or a virtual assistant or VA, and you feel like time slips away from you each day, listen in and start making a change. You might be surprised to find where you are wasting time in your business. Most business owners feel that the tasks they are doing are necessary, but this episode will have you taking steps to make sure if the task is indeed necessary, you are performing at your highest potential. These tips are essential whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances; or doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document…

Schedule a free consultation, and we’ll work together to dive into where you’d like to see yourself and your business in the future. We’ll create a laser-focused plan including which action steps you need to take to get you started on the path to success:

https://www.financialadventure.com/contact-us

The Strategic Bookkeeping Academy, including Bookkeeping Basics, is open for registration! You can learn more and sign up here:

https://www.financialadventure.com/sba

Grab Your FREE guide: 5 Essential Strategies For Stress-Free Bookkeeping:

https://www.financialadventure.com/5essentials

Your FREE Online Virtual Bookkeeping Business Starter Guide & Success Path is waiting for you:

https://www.financialadventure.com/starterguide

Apply to join the Mastering Your Small Business Finances CEO Mastermind or the Elevate Your Bookkeeping Business GROW Mastermind group:

https://www.financialadventure.com/mastermind

Looking for a payroll solution for your business? You can get an exclusive 15% discount on your payroll services when you sign up here:

https://www.financialadventure.com/adp

Looking for an extremely beneficial online bookkeeping resource? Join us in our Mastering Your Small Business Finances Membership, where you can ask questions and get answers regarding your specific business. We dive deeper into the topics on this podcast and provide additional resources and accountability:

https://www.financialadventure.com/mysbf

Sign up for a virtual coffee chat to see if starting a Bookkeeping Business is right for you:

https://www.financialadventure.com/discovery

Join Our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenbusinessownersultimatediybookkeepingboutique

Are you a bookkeeper looking to start, grow or scale your bookkeeping business? Join our FREE bookkeeper community here:

https://www.financialadventure.com/bookkeepercommunity

QuickBooks Online - Save 30% Your First 6 Months:

https://www.financialadventure.com/quickbooks

Show Notes:

Welcome Back…When you are wasting your time, you are throwing away a valuable resource that you could be allocating to a task that could potentially bring additional profit to your business. As business owners, we are always looking for ways to increase our profits, and time is money, so essentially wasting time in your business is truly wasting money. The first thing you should do in your business is to identify any time wasters that may be happening and do whatever you can to avoid them or transition them so that you are more productive if it is truly something you cannot simply avoid.

As I talk about some of the biggest time wasters in business, I want you to think about your business and how you utilize your time. If you feel you could improve your efficiencies and increase your productivity by making a few slight changes, please listen to the solutions I give for each one and try to incorporate them into your business.

We’ll start off with one of the biggest time wasters that I hear my clients talk about all the time, and it isn’t something we can just do away with, unfortunately. I’m talking about email. Every day we all get plenty of emails in our inbox to keep us busy, but we all know that every email isn’t as important as the next. When you are bombarded with spam or junk emails, and you have to sift through them to find the emails that actually need your attention, this takes time, but I want you to start setting up an email system so that you don’t find yourself stopping the task you are currently working on to tackle each email as it comes into your inbox. This is for sure a productivity killer. Ultimately you will want to set up a few times during the day when you will focus on your emails and work through each one so that you are on top of them all and don’t find that you are letting them pile up and become an even bigger mess to clean up. One suggestion that I have for you if you find you are consistently checking and responding to your emails as each one comes in, is to set aside a few minutes each hour to check on your emails. At this time, you’ll get rid of the junk and spam emails, file your informational only emails and rank the others by importance and priority and take care of them right away. When you feel like you have a good handle on doing this once an hour, try expanding the time to once every two hours and so on until you feel you have reached a suitable time and you are in control of your email rather than it controlling your time.

Organization or lack of it is the next time waster I’d like to talk about. Lack of organization in your processes, workflows or filing systems can all cause you to waste your precious time. Tell me, how many times have you found yourself frantically searching for an important document that you know you just saw in your office? Maybe you find yourself sifting through that stack of paperwork on your desk two, three, or maybe even four times a day, looking for a missing invoice, bill, or contract. Maybe you have a paperless office, but you still are searching through files on your computer looking for documents. Spending some time to ensure your processes, workflows, and filing systems are organized, and you are able to find what you are looking for will help you immensely. By decluttering your office, you will not only save the time you are currently spending searching for these lost items, but your stress level will also decrease. Just think how much more enjoyable it would be to come to work with an organized desk. Whenever you have clutter in your office, it is more than likely coming from an unfinished project or process. Make sure that everything you are working on gets finished and avoid clutter in your office.

Next, I am going to talk about multitasking. I know I personally thought I would be much more efficient when multitasking in the past, but the truth was that I was usually doing two things at a level that wasn’t my best work. It’s a fact that most people who multitask have higher mistake rates, and their quality of work is much less than if they didn’t multitask. You can never do a task 100% when you are multitasking. If you currently think you are able to get more work done by multitasking, take a good look at the work you are doing, and be honest with yourself…could you have done a better job if you devoted all of your attention and focus to just one thing? Could you have finished each project in less time? If you are currently multitasking, it may take a bit to train yourself to just work on one thing at a time, but you’ll soon see how much more you can get done in a day and feel much better about the output you have as well.

Another big time waster is interruptions you get throughout the day. Similar to multitasking, if you are able to keep your focus on your tasks and not get interrupted, your productivity level will be increased as well. Think about how you get interrupted throughout the day. Do you have phone calls, texts, or employees that are breaking your focus? Do you check your phone a hundred times a day? Do you find yourself lost in internet searches, or even worse, scrolling through social media? These are all distractions that interrupt our day. When you take control of how you manage these interru