How to turn time wasters into time savers

With the year’s second half well and truly underway, now is a good time to take stock of the past six months and look forward to driving your small business forward for the rest of 2023, writes Elise Balsillie, Head of Thryv Australia.

At this time of year, however, I often find many small business owners feel burnt out and that they never have enough hours in the day.

Small business burnout is real.

Business owners are working longer hours, with the lines between work and personal life well and truly blurring. And while the concept of hard work is admirable, ‘hustle culture’ is highly counterproductive and will impact you, your staff and your business in the long run.

Why are you feeling so overwhelmed?

Taking time to look under the hood for the reasons why you’re feeling burnt out can help you turn your business from burnt out to brilliant.

Your success is determined by more than just your work ethic and productivity, but if you’re not seeing the success you expect from yourself, it could very well be that you’re mismanaging your time.

Now is the time to figure out where you can flex your schedule and get back some personal time. A full reset may sound impossible when you’re working full time on your business but working 24/7 is no benefit to anyone.

What processes can be automated?

So how do you get back your time? When it comes to streamlining your processes, nothing does it better than technology. By identifying the areas of your business that need improvement and selecting the appropriate tools to address those issues, you can optimise your operations and achieve better results.

For example, if you’re spending all your time sifting through invoices to find receipts or chasing payments, you can use an automation tool instead.

If you’re constantly having to think about content to post on your social media or blog post, you can use AI to give you some direction and then use a scheduler tool to post it for you on your designated days.

And if you must constantly communicate instructions, it might be best to set up a collaboration or plan shared space in the cloud so that your team can access instructions remotely.

Steal back your time

When it comes to your business, you know best. Take the time to pinpoint what tasks take most of your time daily. Spend time analysing which tasks do and don’t add value to your business or contribute to your goals. These can be things as simple as excessive paperwork and repetitive administrative duties that could be managed through software.

Once you’ve locked in on those timewasters, develop a plan to eliminate or streamline them. This way, you can improve the productivity and efficiency within your business and feel less strapped for time.

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