Having coached lots of small business owners and leaders, a common challenge I’ve found is not having enough time in the day.
There are lots of time management books out there yet this common problem still prevails. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is because this problem is fairly complex. There is no one solution.
Often people think their problem is lack of time but it is often so much more than that. Digging a little bit deeper a person is often feeling stressed, frustrated and overwhelmed. Although it may seem like the problem is ‘not enough time’, in fact when you dig a little deeper we realise the problem is multi-faceted. For example this person maybe:
- feeling resentful because they are spending time on aspects of work that don’t match their strengths or what they enjoy;
- feeling frustrated that they said yes to a new client that they shouldn’t have. This client has now become demanding and ungrateful, taking the owner away from what is most important;
- feeling stressed because the numbers are not where they need to be;
- feeling tired because they were up most of the night with the kids;
- feeling annoyed due to continual IT issues; or
- feeling overwhelmed because they are responsible for everything.
There are so many more possibilities the list could go on.
In the majority of cases I’ve found that the problem is not lack of time or time management but something else.
Only when you truly know what that ‘something else’ is can you begin the process of resolving it. Otherwise you will be stuck in groundhog day, experiencing the same problem over and over again.
To get the right answers you need to ask the right questions. So ask yourself this week – what is really robbing you of your time and what is one thing you need to do to change it?
