Entrepreneurship is a state of mind that entails many personal and professional traits. Being able to launch, execute, grow and scale a business is an intellectual exercise involving a lot of research, networking, planning, business strategy, marketing, sales, and a number of related activity.

As a result, entrepreneurs have to jump between tasks, hop on calls, network, interact with people, attend events, and be extra careful with each and every decision for their business endeavor. Managing their time properly is an invaluable skill, and extremely rewarding in the long run.

Start With a Simple Task          

Failing to complete a broad and complex task over the course of the day will demotivate you, and prevent you from seeing progress with your weekly planning.

An excellent way to break the ice is starting with a trivial and quick task which would give you a head start. This will put your productivity mode and hustle in motion, and let you focus on more complex assignments later on.

Create a Long-Term Roadmap          

One of the repetitive tasks that may drag you from your day-to-day activities is planning. While it’s okay to have individual tasks emerging from your interactions during the business week, creating a long-term plan would let you focus better, and decide whether your new tasks are in line with your goals.

Revise your business plan and assign some milestones to them, add them to your calendar – with goals every month or quarter, for a period of 1-3 years. List down your repetitive activities (content production, social media engagements, partners meetings) in each slot, and take it from there.

By defining the well known duties that are crucial for your success further down the road, you can determine the expected outcome and measure it once or twice a month. You will also get a clearer picture of your weekly availability and stop overusing your buffers by putting too much on your plate.

Reality Check

Dealing with several priorities simultaneously may be overwhelming, and block your train of thought for weeks, preparing your brain for a burnout. The core of the problem is often related to a detachment from reality, and a diversion from the business goals.

When you struggle with your typical workflow, take a step back and revise your roadmap again. See what you’ve started with, where you are at that point of time, and how is your progress going. If everything seems to be on track, just proceed with a focus on results and discard distractions from your list. Otherwise, realign your schedule and free up more time which is more likely to hit your indicators by the end of the quarter.

Take Regular Breaks for Brainstorming

Successful entrepreneurs work mainly “on” the business and less “in” the business. When you are knee-deep in your overlapping tasks, you often lose perspective on the purpose of these.

Take regular breaks between activities and align your progress with your targets. Go out and take a walk, get some fresh air and relax for a moment – this would also bring some creative ideas which you can implement in your work.

Always Improve Your Strategy

No matter how efficient your strategy is, there’s always room for improvement. For an entrepreneur, learning never ends – be it with regards to your professional capacity, or regarding business and personal development, time management, and living a better life. Always keep an eye on tasks that take you too long, or require your attention far too often, and try to optimize or simplify them.