Small Business: Prioritize to avoid time crunch

Never seem to be enough hours in your day?

Well, part of it is that you're busy, and the other part is just poor time management, say experts.

Though running a business is hectic, entrepreneurs can alleviate their time crunch if they learn to prioritize their time better and weed out some of the less meaningful tasks.

"Very often we fritter our time away on things that really don't matter, and then we no longer have time for the things that do matter," says Karin Stewart, president of Daily Mastery in Hoboken, N.J., which specializes in time management, productivity and work-life balance.

Focus on what's important

Entrepreneurs need to get a handle on where their time is being allocated and how they're managing it if they're looking to maximize the precious few hours they do have.

Too often, entrepreneurs fail to recognize which tasks are truly important and spend the majority of time on tasks they deem urgent or time-sensitive, says Stewart.

"We just keep feeding the squeaky wheel, and that comes at the expense of what is important," she notes.

To help prioritize, she suggests entrepreneurs organize their tasks within a grid labeled important and urgent; important not urgent; urgent not important; and non-urgent and non-important.

Focus on the important tasks first, and tackle the urgent/non-important ones only after those are done. Most people do the opposite, says Stewart.

In fact, you may find you're avoiding some of the more important tasks because you're doing what feels comfortable, rather than what will have the most impact, says Doug Sundheim, co-author of "The 25 Best Time Management Tools and Techniques" (Peak Performance Press; $21.95) and a principal at Clarity Consulting, a New York City executive coaching and organizational consulting firm.

For instance, you might spend two hours rearranging your books, when instead you should be working on product development, he explains.

Take small risks

Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone, says Sundheim. "Take small risks every day," he says. For instance, if you're putting off prospecting for new clients, make a couple of calls each day so it doesn't later become overwhelming.

To get a handle on where your time is going, says Jeanne Townsend, a principal instructor with ExecuTrain of Long Island in Farmingdale, create a time audit and document for a few days everything you do on a typical day. Start to see where you're being interrupted.

"You can't fix what you don't know," says Townsend.

Figure out when you're most productive and schedule your most difficult tasks for those times, she notes.

Don't be afraid to delegate tasks that don't necessarily need your personal attention, says Ed Scheine, a Hauppauge attorney and a business coach with Scheine Organizational Services.

He has a form in his law office called "The Next Step," where after speaking with a client he jots down whatever is needed going ahead.

"I break it down to a small simple identifiable, actionable item," says Scheine, which makes it easier to delegate rather then having to give each staffer a complicated verbal explanation.

As much as you can, document and standardize forms, procedures, systems and processes so employees can have easy access to them, which will make delegating easier, says Scheine.

"Anytime you feel like you don't have enough time, it's usually because you're not focusing on the right tasks," says Sundheim of Clarity Consulting.

Hold the phone

Constantly picking up your voicemail or e-mail can be a big time-waster considering it takes anywhere from five minutes to a half-hour to recover your focus after an interruption. The majority of people don't have to check their phone or e-mail more than once an hour.

So says Karin Stewart of Daily Mastery, a time management, productivity and work/life balance company in Hoboken.