10 Reasons You’re Not Managing Your Time Effectively . . . And How To Fix Them

So many coaches and client-based businesses think that the reason they’re stuck and not moving forward in their business is that their content is good enough, their website needs to be reworked, or a host of other things.

While some of those MIGHT be true, typically when we work with people there’s one glaring reason why they aren’t moving forward in their business . . . and that reason is that they’re not using their time efficiently.

This is one of the biggest mistakes we made in the first couple of years of our business.  Even though we were making 6-figures, we eventually plateaued . . . and I couldn’t figure out the reason why.  Until we joined a mastermind and were taught what I’m going to teach you today.

Typically, we identify one (or more) of these 10 time management issues that hold business owners back from scaling their business to that 7-figure level, so let’s dive in!

You Don’t Know How To Prioritize Tasks

The biggest time management issue we see when it comes to client-based business owners and coaches is that they don’t know how to prioritize their time properly.  For example, if you’re struggling to get enough clients for your business, what is the first thing you should be doing every single day?

Prioritizing finding leads and clients for your business.

However, this is either the last thing business owners do or something that they don’t do at all.  They think that by simply writing a blog or posting on social media they can take a passive approach and clients will come rushing to them.

The problem is that there is so much noise and traffic on social media that taking this passive approach is the reason you’re stuck and reading this blog.  Yes, this approach might work for people that have built HUGE followings and are authorities in their industry, but most people don’t fall into that category.

If you’re going to land leads and clients for your business, then you need to take a much more active approach by going and making it happen for yourself.  Schedule the first 1-2 hours of your day to pick up the phone, send DM’s, write emails, and network with other people that all give you a better chance of landing clients.

Nobody is just going to hand you clients . . . you have to go out there and make it happen for yourself.

You Have A Morning Routine

This is where I have to make a confession: I am completely guilty of falling into this trap for years.  Now let me preface this by saying if you need a morning routine for your own mental health and personal growth, then by all means take the time.  I’m more talking about a DIFFERENT morning routine.

It’s a routine where you spend 1-2 hours every single morning getting “ready” to work, only to neglect the most important things you need to do because you’re burnt out from your routine.

This used to be me.  I’d journal, write my gratitude, read, meditate, and a bunch of other things that would take up 1-2 hours of my most productive time when I had the most energy.  I’m not saying these things are bad by any means.  I actually still do a lot of these things . . . at night, after I’ve done the important stuff.

What do I do now when I wake up?  I do a 15-minute workout, have a cup of coffee, and start calling/emailing leads and doing potential client calls.  What changed in our business because of this?  We turned 6-figures into 7-figures in less than a year.

I stopped thinking that I needed to get ready to do the things I know I needed to do in order to move our business forward, and I simply woke up every day and did them.  You have no idea how freeing and liberating it feels to do the most important things when you have the most energy.

Try it for a week and see how much better you feel but more importantly, how much more results you get in your business!

You Still Think Multi-Tasking Is A Good Thing

There are still business owners out there that believe that multi-tasking is a great strategy to get more things done in less amount of time.  The problem is, when you’re devoting your time to more than one thing, you’re actually devoting your time to nothing.

According to Stanford University’s Neuroscience Department, multi-tasking can interfere with your productivity and even lead to long-term memory problems.  Additionally, when you multitask, you actually decrease your overall productivity by up to 30%!

This is why scheduling is so important.  When you have a solid schedule there’s no need to multitask because you’ve laid out exactly what needs to get done and when you’re going to do it.  Typically multi-tasking comes about from poor planning or procrastination (which we’ll talk about later).

Devote your time to one task at a time, and watch how much quicker and more efficiently you get things done.

You Don’t Schedule Breaks

This point seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it?  You’re probably asking yourself, “Why would I schedule breaks if I want to manage my time more efficiently?”

According to a study done by Michigan State University, taking regular breaks during your workday can actually increase productivity, lower stress levels, and boost creativity.  It also reduces the risk of burnout.

As much as we’d all like to believe we can “power through” everything we need to get done or work 15-hour days like hustle culture has tried to teach us, we’re not machines, we’re human beings . . . and human beings need breaks.

What we do is schedule our breaks at the same time every day.  We’ll schedule little 15-minute breaks a couple of times a day then an hour for lunch.  This allows us to eat, stretch our legs, and recharge our batteries.

Find what works best for you and your schedule but make sure you’re giving yourself those much-needed breaks every day.

You’re Still Procrastinating

Procrastination is typically a byproduct of fear.  You know what you need to be doing for your business, but for some reason, you either put it off till the last minute, or you don’t do it at all.

When it comes to procrastination, business owners usually do it because of one or more reasons.  These reasons are:

• Unsure of what to do
• Not sure how to get started
• Feeling overwhelmed

Do you know the thing that beats procrastination?  A great plan.  If you have a great plan, then it takes care of all three of these.  You won’t be unsure of what to do because your plan lays everything out.  You know how to start because you’ve broken down each task based on what needs to be done.  Finally, having a great plan prepares you and takes away the feeling of being overwhelmed.

The better the plan you have when it comes to your time, the less likely you are to procrastinate and find yourself struggling to do the things you know you need to do.

You Don’t Know How To Say “No”

A lot of business owners still think that saying “yes” to everyone and everything opens more possibilities for you and your business . . . but it’s not about saying “yes” to everything, it’s about saying “yes” to the right things.

This means that it’s actually a better option to say “no” to most things.

Your time is limited as a business owner, and when you’re building your business to multiple 6-figures, you need to stay focused on the 1-3 things that grow your business and say yes to those opportunities.

If there is something that you really want to do but you know it’s not the right time, add it to a list, then prioritize everything on that list in order according to which one you’d like to do first when you have the time.

This is exactly what we did with our business.  There are things that we wanted to do from the very beginning, but we knew that building our business and creating revenue was more important at the time.  Things like:

• Speaking on stages (which we just started doing)
• Writing a book (still on our list)
• Creating a mastermind (still on our list)

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do big things, but you have to take a look at your business right now and be honest about where you’re at.  If you’re not making the money you want to be making right now, it’s much better to spend your time scaling your business, figuring out what those 1-2 activities you SHOULD be doing, then create a list and come back to those things.

You Have A Lack Of Clarity (Priorities, Goals, Objectives)

When you’re not utilizing your time correctly in your business, it’s typically because you’re not clear about one or more of these areas.

When you set a goal, you’re typically setting a long-term target that you would like to achieve.  This can be six months from now, a year from now, or even five years into the future.

The reason you ultimately want to have this goal is that it sets into motion everything else that you’re doing in your business.  Ideally, you should be setting multiple goals for your business.

Things like revenue targets and business accomplishments are examples of goals that you can be setting for your business.

Now that you have goals in place, you need something that will help you judge in the short term whether or not you’re setting yourself up to hit those goals.  That is where objectives come in.

Say you create a goal of making 6-figures in your business this year.  That means that on average, you would need to make $8,333 a month in your business to hit that goal.  So your goal is 100K while your objective is $8,333.

This allows you to do a monthly audit of your business and see if you’re hitting that target.  If you make more or less, you can then adjust the rest of the months of the year so that you’re still aiming your sights at your ultimate goal, which is 6-figures.

Now that you have your goals and objectives in place, you figure out what your priorities are and the tasks you should be undertaking that give you the best chance at hitting your monthly objectives and ultimately, your goal.

Since your goal is one pertaining to revenue and how much money you want to make in a year, the question then becomes this: what are the 1-3 activities I should prioritize every single day in order to ensure I give myself the best chance at hitting those goals?

You might answer any of the following:

• Call people you know who are interested in your products/services
• Follow up with leads
• Send out cold emails
• Go to networking events

These are all examples of actions you can take that will help you gain leads and ultimately clients for your business.  If it’s not something that gives you the best chance of gaining revenue for your business, then don’t make it the first thing you do every day.

Business owners get so caught doing things like posting on social media, writing blogs, and doing lives that they then wonder why they’re not making any money.  There’s nothing wrong with those things and they are important, it’s just they’re not the MOST important things you can be doing based on this goal.

First set your goal.  Then identify your objective.  Finally, figure out what tasks you should prioritize in order to hit your objectives and ultimately, your goal.

You Don’t Know How To Plan Properly

Most business owners have no problem setting goals for themselves and dreaming big.  The problem typically occurs when they have to figure out a plan that gets them from where they are (point A) to their goal (point B).

This is where I believe that coaching and/or some sort of mentorship can have a huge role to play in a person’s business.  You can have a goal of hitting 6-figures (like we talked about above) but if you’re never done it before, it’s going to be hard to create a plan that works.

Yes, you could trial and error your way to making it (like we did), but I wouldn’t recommend it.  We made a lot of mistakes and experienced a lot of stress that could have been avoided had we found someone that had been there and done that so to speak.

Most business owners thought process is that when they make enough money, THEN they’ll invest in their business.  So they continue to struggle, trying to do it themselves, only to never get there, when all they had to do was have someone else teach them.

If you’re not where you want to be in your business right now, I can safely say it’s because you’re not sure what you should be doing in order to achieve your goals.  If that’s the case and you’re reading this, don’t let another day go by where you don’t receive the help that you need.

Find someone who’s done what you’re looking to do, and have them teach you how they did it.  Yes, you might have to invest money, but think about how much more you’ll make over the lifetime of your business because you chose to invest.

You Don’t Know How/When To Delegate

As we touched on before, it’s important to know the tasks you should be focusing on in order to hit the goals you have for your business.  Which means that other tasks should be delegated to someone else.

There’s no excuse now for you to be doing it all in your business.  With the ability to hire a VA in the Philippines, for example, for $3-5/hour, you can now have someone handle the tasks that still need to be done, but aren’t a priority to you.

Things like posting on social media, creating graphics, and writing emails are all examples of things that you can pass on to a VA.  Too many business owners try to do everything and in turn, end up neglecting those crucial tasks that make the needle move in their business.

The easiest way to do this is to write down all the tasks you do every single week/month for your business.  Then ask yourself: which of these tasks are the most important (make me money) and which ones could ideally be handled by someone else?

The rule of thumb is that if another person can do it 80% as well as you can, and it’s not a high-priority task, you should be passing it off eventually to someone else.  $100/month gets you a VA for 10-20 hours a month that can take some of those tasks off your plate, leaving you valuable time to focus on what matters most.

You Have Poor Self-Discipline

Being your own business owner is one of the greatest tests of self-discipline you could probably ever have.  When you work a job/career, you have someone telling you when to show up, when to take breaks, what tasks to do, and how to progress forward.

When you own your own business, you have to figure all of that out on your own.  This means that the only person making sure that you’re doing the things you need to be doing every single day is YOU.

While for some people that’s liberating . . . other people really struggle in this area.

If you’re someone that struggles with self-discipline, then here are some ways that you can start to build up that muscle:

• Identify your strengths and your weaknesses
• Set clear goals and have an execution plan
• Remove distractions from your workday
• Take it day by day and make sure you win each day
• Create new habits and routines

This is where you have to be really honest with yourself.  No one knows whether or not you struggle with self-discipline except for you.  If you do, there’s no shame in that.  It just means that it’s something that you need to work on.

Self-awareness is the first step toward being able to create change.

If you realize that you’re struggling to stay consistent in your business, do things like create a daily schedule the night before.  That way, you’ll know exactly what you should be doing.  Eliminate anything that might distract you, and focus on getting the most important things done as early as you possibly can.

Some ways that you can learn to be more self-disciplined are:

• Books
• YouTube videos
• Podcasts
• Courses
• Mentors

The key is to figure out if this is a problem for you, figure out where you’re at, then figure out some steps you can take to fix the problem.  If you don’t, it will always be the reason that you continue to struggle.

Conclusion

Being able to manage your time efficiently is one of the key aspects of creating success in your business.  If you don’t know how to be disciplined, prioritize the right tasks, and create a plan that works, your business will always struggle to gain any sort of traction.

Over the years, we’ve been able to implement a great system for how we manage our time and make sure we’re using it as efficiently as possible.  If you need help in this area, click HERE, book a free call with us, and we’ll help you implement our time efficiency system into your business!