Time Management Tips for Small Business Owners | EP: 350 Leslie Shreve

Leslie Shreve, Founder of Productive Day® and creator of Taskology®, enhances workload management and productivity for C-level leaders and professionals. With over 20 years of experience, she helps clients regain hours in their workday and reduce email time significantly.

What problem do we solve?

Leslie Shreve addresses key productivity challenges for small business owners. She highlights the issues of inefficient task management and the drawbacks of using outdated paper systems. Shreve advocates for centralizing tasks in a digital system, prioritizing important activities, and breaking tasks into smaller, manageable steps. Her advice includes setting clear action dates and protecting time blocks to enhance productivity and reduce stress. She aims to help business owners become more organized and efficient.

Small Business Answer Man Show Notes:

• With so many responsibilities and deadlines, entrepreneurship may be stressful, especially around the end of the year. Effective time management is essential to juggling work and personal obligations.

• Leslie Shreve, the developer of Taskology and the founder of Productive Day, wants to lower stress levels and help people discover hidden time to boost productivity.

• Managing chores across several platforms, such as paper, planners, emails, phone calls, texts, and social media, is a common time waster that can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

• Instead of utilizing paper, centralize tasks into a single digital system to get around this. Microsoft, Google, Asana, Trello, and Todoist are a few of the well-known programs.

• Create a thorough list of all the assignments, initiatives, and concepts in the digital system. Divide work into manageable, smaller steps to prevent feeling overburdened.

• Pay particular attention to what has to be done and when. This method aids in making wise choices regarding how to use one's time.

• Prioritizing tasks that affect the bottom line is crucial for small business owners to avoid becoming bogged down in less crucial duties like managing emails excessively.

• Leslie highlights the inefficiency of managing tasks with outdated paper systems.

• She advocates for centralizing tasks in a single digital system and emphasizes prioritizing important activities to focus on high-impact tasks.

• Leslie suggests breaking tasks into smaller, manageable steps and setting clear action dates and recommends protecting time blocks to enhance productivity and reduce stress.

• Her aim is to help business owners become more organized and efficient.

Leslie Shreve's Advice for Leaders:

• Don't just put chores on your calendar. Manage tasks independently instead to keep an accurate picture of your actual time obligations and accessible windows of time.

• Set up specified time slots for finishing assignments and answering emails. This aids in workload management and keeps work from interfering with personal time.

• Establish a time-blocking strategy to protect your calendar. Establish precise rules for how often you should complete things each day and how to handle unforeseen problems.

• Establish dependable routines and habits to boost output. Wholesome systems that incorporate every facet of the workday are more efficient than piecemeal ones.

• Schedule some wiggle room so you can deal with unforeseen circumstances and rearrange priorities as necessary.

• Avoid working long hours on the weekends and at night. Make sure the way you organize your workday promotes productivity without taking away from personal time.

• Long-term success depends on your ability to sustain your productivity strategy with dis