5 Time Management Mistakes That Will Make You Crazy

Every once in a while, I’ll find that I’m making myself nuts over everything there is to get done in a day. Ever feel that way?

As entrepreneurs, there’s a lot to do, and once you pile family, friends and community on top, it’s easy to feel like the to do list is going to smother you.

Before you go crazy, are you making any of these common time management mistakes?

1. Doing All Things at Once

If you’re bouncing from task to task with 14 tabs open in your browser, 3 documents you’re working on at one time, notifications popping up for new emails or messages, and a couple of people knocking on your door with questions, you’re not getting it all done. You’re driving yourself crazy.

You accomplish less when you try to multi-task than when you focus on one thing, investing all of your energy into it and finishing it.

2. Only Stopping Once It’s Perfect

Listen, I get it. I’m a perfectionist too. But perfection isn’t helping your business as much as you might think. In fact, it’s stopping you from putting products, packages, and services out into the world because they aren’t 100%, A+, nothing-to-change versions of themselves.

Seeking perfection slows you down from achieving the more important goal of getting things out there. Once you’re selling, you can get feedback from clients or customers and make tweaks as needed. And those tweaks will most likely be better than if you had tried to do them in the vacuum of your desk.

3. Meeting Your Way To Madness

Yes, meetings are important. In fact, they can be vital for your company’s success. But there are companies that are addicted to meeting to the point that the real work never gets done.

The solution is to have a quick check in and then go back to work! Create an agenda and give each person 5 minutes or less to talk. Follow up with emails or messages.

4. Letting Email Run Your Life

It’s really easy to fall into the habit of using your inbox as your to do list or – even worse – your priority list. If you find yourself coming back to your inbox 50 times a day, you’re probably driving yourself nuts and squandering your valuable time.

Just think about this: do billionaires let their email inboxes run their days?

Try keeping a “for later” folder you can file emails into automatically. Schedule email time on your calendar and move on once that time is over. Or send yourself emails with the important stuff so that doesn’t fall by the wayside every time something new pops up.

5. Trying to Do It All Yourself

If you’re trying to save money by doing it all, you’re actually preventing yourself from being able to do the important stuff that only you can do well. And keep in mind, you’re probably not doing the techie stuff, graphic design, or even copywriting as well as an expert who specializes in that would do.

Why not let others do the $10 to $20 per hour work for you and focus on doing the $100, $200 or $500 per hour work?