Business owners often struggle with time management. When you spend your day working on tasks that aren’t part of your job description, you lose time better spent on the big-picture projects that you need for your business to succeed.

Learning how to maximize your time at work will allow you to finish the important tasks during the day, then enjoy some rest at home so you can start fresh tomorrow. Unfortunately, too many leaders don’t realize that poor time management is the source of their problems until it’s been going on for too long.

What are the biggest challenges employees face in managing their time?

Business owners have a serious plateful. It’s not unusual for many business owners to work all day without crossing a task off their to-do list. This is because they get bogged down doing other, smaller tasks that are unimportant or could easily be delegated.

Before diving into potential solutions, it’s worth recognizing the reasons why most people struggle with time management strategies at work. A few of the most common reasons are:

• Interruptions from colleagues
• Endless email notifications that serve as distractions
• Waiting on other people for information
• Poorly run meetings that take way too long
• Perfectionism, causing tasks to take longer than expected
• Reacting to unexpected tasks or delays
• Procrastination delays the start of a task

All of these factors can derail your plans and put your schedule seriously off-track.

Time Management Tips for Work

If you’re confused about how to manage your time wisely at work, the attached time impact matrix can help. After using this matrix tool with my clients for years, I’ve found a clear pattern: business owners spend too much time on administrative tasks that can, and should, be delegated.

The matrix helps you optimize time by breaking down your daily tasks into four quadrants:

1. Tasks you love, but you don’t add value
2. Tasks you love, and you add value
3. Tasks you hate, and you don’t add value
4. Tasks you hate, but you add value.

Try to write at least 10 tasks in each box when filling out the matrix. Think this through carefully. The idea is to spend most of your workday on the upper-right quadrant tasks and avoid or delegate those in the lower left quadrant.

You might notice that it’s easier to write down the tasks you hate and those that don’t add value. This is because learning time management strategies for work requires you to consciously spend time on the tasks you enjoy that add value to your company.

However, nothing will change unless you look at your completed chart and take action. Do the tasks that only you can do and delegate the rest.

Other Time Management Techniques

As a leader, you must manage your time at work to do the job your company requires. If you spend all your time on the $15-per-hour menial tasks that are important but can be done by someone else, the $200+-per-hour tasks that only you can do fall by the wayside.

To get yourself back on track, here are 9 great time management strategies to help you manage your time at work.

1. The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro method involves working in a single, focused 25-minute interval, followed by a 5-minute break. Repeat four cycles, then take a longer 15-30 minute break. This approach prevents burnout while maintaining high levels of concentration throughout the day.

2. The “Eat That Frog” Method

This technique is named after a Mark Twain quote: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.” It encourages you to do your most difficult or unpleasant task first thing each day. By getting it out of the way early, you can build momentum and eliminate the stress of dreading it all day.

3. The Two-Minute Rule

One of the most powerful time management techniques that you can implement right now is the two-minute rule. If a task takes less than two minutes to complete, do it immediately rather than adding it to your list. This prevents small tasks from accumulating and becoming overwhelming.

4. Prioritize Tasks

Not all tasks deserve equal attention. Use frameworks like the time impact matrix mentioned above to distinguish between urgent and important work. Focus your energy where it matters most rather than reacting to whatever seems pressing in the moment.

5. Break Down Goals into Steps

Large projects can feel intimidating, leading to procrastination. Dividing them into smaller, concrete actions you can accomplish in a single sitting creates clear starting points and makes progress measurable. You’ll feel like you’re getting much more done when you can cross off more tasks on your to-do list, even if they’re small.

6. Set Time Limits

As many business owners know, the amount of work you have to do tends to expand to fill the time available. By assigning deadlines to individual activities, you can create healthy pressure that keeps you moving forward and prevents perfectionism from sabotaging productivity.

7. Learn to Say No

Every yes to a new commitment means saying no to something else. Protect your calendar by declining requests that don’t align with your priorities. When possible, delegate responsibilities to team members who can handle them effectively.

8. Use Technology

Digital time management tools and apps can help to streamline your workflows. Calendar apps, project trackers, interactive timers, and automation tools eliminate manual work when possible and keep everyone on the same page with deadlines.

9. Review and Adjust Your Plan

What works for you today may not work for you next month. Schedule regular check-ins to evaluate your systems, identify process bottlenecks, and refine your time management approach in the workplace. Continuous improvement ensures that your strategies evolve as your responsibilities change.

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

Successful time management techniques are important to cultivate for any business leader, and yet it’s an area that nearly everyone struggles with.

According to author and speaker Laura Vanderkam, we all have 168 hours a week, which should be enough time for anyone to fit in work, exercise, hobbies, family, and sleep. The key is to be honest about how we spend that time.

Throughout Vanderkam’s career, she has discovered that successful people have a unique mindset that helps them fit everything they value into their week. By learning to hack your schedule as they do, you can free yourself from the daily grind and embrace successful time management strategies. She discusses this strategy in her book 168 Hours.

First, she recommends auditing as one of the best ways to manage time. Create a spreadsheet and track how you spend an entire 168-hour week. That means accounting not only for the 40+ hours you might spend at work but also the time you sleep, the time you spend with your family, and the hours you have to yourself.

It’s important to be brutally honest here if you genuinely want to organize your time. We feel so busy because we often lie to ourselves about how long our tasks should take. We aren’t robots, so building in time for distractions or sluggishness is essential. But we also need to take note of areas for improvement.

With your entire week on paper, it should be easy to identify time blocks you could manage more effectively. You’re unlikely to stick with an extreme schedule shift simultaneously, so try to make incremental changes. Cut back on unnecessary meetings, phone calls, and other tasks that are not important or urgent. Delegate what you can.

Next, see what activities you can batch. Vanderkam suggests dedicating certain days to specific tasks instead of doing a little of everything throughout the day. If you need to spend time every day doing something, like responding to emails, you can still batch them by setting aside a specific block of time to accomplish the task and sticking to it.

Vanderkam also suggests scheduling time for the unexpected. Even if you plan out your week as best as possible, there are bound to be surprises. You can accommodate these surprises by incorporating flexibility in your schedule without taking time from other tasks.

Finally, Vanderkam recommends leveraging technology to achieve successful time management, as I mentioned above. Consider which apps and software can help you get more done each day. This might be a project management program like Asana or Trello, a to-do list app, or a Pomodoro timer to keep you on track.

Vanderkam insists that the key to developing successful time management strategies is believing that we have enough time in our week and then making it true. Then, with some planning and the right attitude, you can make the most of your 168 hours.

Want to learn more about making these successful time management tips work for you? A business coach can help. If you need help learning to manage tasks effectively, click here to schedule a free video meeting with Coach Dave, and we’ll discuss time management strategies for your business.

Coach Dave