Time Management: Productivity and Procrastination

Time management isn’t about filling every hour of each day. It’s about working smarter with your time, not harder and longer.

Running your own millinery business is all about learning to manage yourself and respecting who you are, the best bits and the worst bits. You can’t be good at everything, so for those things that you are not so good at:

• Don’t be too hard on yourself.
• Put strategies in place to ensure you make the most of the best of you.
• Outsource where necessary.

Time management is one of the main areas in business where you may need to find a way of motivating yourself when you lack energy or harnessing your energy when you have extra.

For instance, for me personally, I know if I have a long list of jobs to do and some time off, I’m better of doing my work first and then having my time off. Otherwise, my time off is ruined by the self-imposed guilt that I feel from having downtime but knowing I have a lot of work to do. My thought process goes something like, “It’s a beautiful day today and all I have to do is sew a few small pieces in front of the TV this evening and write this blog post. I want to go for a walk with the dog but I know if I write this now I can relax all afternoon. Then I won’t be under any time pressure to get back until I sink into the sofa for TV and sewing tonight.”

Time management is about knowing yourself and how you work. As a self-employed person, you don’t need to stick to a strict 9:00-5:00 routine. Work when it works for you. Schedule your work around family and other commitments and when it flows best with your energy levels. If you are a night owl, then work in the evenings. If you work better on a deadline, that’s OK. Just own it and don’t beat yourself up about not doing a task 2 weeks ahead of time as long as you know it will be done on time.

To help you get a handle on time management, I’ve compiled my 8 top tips for making the most of your productivity and limiting your procrastination.

1. Procrastination

The word procrastination is often bandied around as a bad thing, but letting your brain rest is really important if you want to produce creative ideas. If you are prone to procrastinate, try to be productive within it. Think about your strategies and future and what you are trying to achieve. Think about designs. Often when your brain is free to think about these things (without the guilt of thinking, “Oh no, I’m procrastinating again.”), motivation will return and new ideas will inspire you to get going again.

2. Social Media and the Internet

Such wonderful tools but also such suckers of time and energy. We’ve all been there. A quick email response ends up becoming a 2-hour exchange or a post on social media leads you to watch dog videos for an hour. There are loads of helpful time management apps, like Off Time or Moment, which limit your screen time and block you from using certain apps during your set work hours. You can even just put your phone on airplane mode so you are not distracted by notifications while you work.

Setting a time to go online and do the jobs that you need to, leaving your phone outside the room while you are working or putting aside an hour for responding to emails and then not looking at them for the rest of the day are all ways to stay in control of the time you spend online.

3. Write a To-Do List

I love a list. Some even say I love a list too much. I’ll put everything on at list, from loading the dishwasher to having a shower and, of course, my work tasks (which often end up as lists of lists). I get an internal reward from ticking things off a list (ticking things off on a handwritten list is much more rewarding than electronic one, by the way). It gives me a sense of achievement, even if it is just managing to get myself up and out that day. The small things are worth celebrating!

To help you with time management, always write a to-do list at night for the following day. That way you can get up in the morning and get straight to work without wasting time or focusing on the wrong things.

4. Time Blocking

Time blocking is a useful tool, too. I use it for all aspects of my day, both personal and work-related, to make sure I’m in control of my time and don’t get swept away with procrastination and low priority tasks. Often, I do this the night before as part of writing my to-do list.

You can time block your day using the following steps:

• Split up tasks into different areas, i.e. client time, studio time, admin time, material ordering time, blog writing time. Bandying around ‘work’ as a general term of what you are doing that day will not focus you on achieving specific tasks or working towards your business goals.
• Allocate a specific time for each task.
• Stick to the timeline you set. Any tasks that are not completed within the timeline can be completed in a free-time block or carried over to the next day.
• Always book in a free-time block so that if tasks take longer than allocated, or something unexpected comes up, you still have time to complete each task.

Below I’ve outlined what one of my days might look like through time blocking. Of course, you would use this time management technique to make a plan that works around your unique commitments.

• 7:30am – Wake up
• 7:30-8:30am – Get ready for work and walk to work
• 8:30-9:00am – Morning meetings with team
• 9:00-10:00am – Emails and admin
• 10:00-10:15am – Tea break
• 10:15-12:00pm – Client consultations/mentoring calls
• 12:00-1:00pm – Lunch
• 1:00-2:00pm – Blog writing
• 2:00-5:00pm – Creative studio time
• 5:00-6:00pm – Time to finish tasks not completed from earlier or free-time
• 7:00-8:00pm – Dinner
• 8:00-9:00pm – Social media scheduling
• 9-10.30pm – Free-time
• 10.30pm – Bed (read for 20 minutes)

By time blocking, you will also start to understand how long things take (as opposed to how long you think they take). This will help you to refine your timings and be more accurate about your working speed and what is realistically achievable in a day.

5. Prioritising

Prioritise the most urgent or the least enjoyable tasks first. Once they are done, you can then move on to something that you enjoy as a reward. That way, you won’t have those ‘dreaded’ tasks hanging over you for the rest of the day or week.

6. The Seven-Minute Rule

When you have a task that you are really not looking forward to or that you keep putting off, one excellent time management technique is to use is the 7-minute rule. Force yourself to start the task and spend 7 minutes of uninterrupted time on it. Within 7 minutes, you will have either got into the task and be in a space where it is easy to carry on and finish or you will still be struggling. If you’re still struggling, put the task aside and try again tomorrow – or outsource it.

7. Outsourcing

Sometimes, when struggling to work on tasks that you don’t enjoy, you may find that it is more valuable to put your efforts into other parts of the business where you can be more efficient and earn more money. In these cases, paying an expert to work on those other areas that do not fulfill you might make sense from a time management perspective. Although it may cost you more in money, it could save you hours of learning the tasks that do not come naturally to you or that you need to teach yourself. Outsourcing or hiring others will also be the key in the long run to being able to grow and expand your business.

8. Be Spontaneous

As much as this is a contradiction to everything I’ve written above, be free enough to recognise the ebbs and flows of your energy levels. Know how you work and how to harness the best of yourself. If you wake up in admin mode, do admin. If you are anything like me, you may have moments where you fancy doing admin but they are fleeting. So if you feel like doing it, you’re better off doing it now than never!

Equally, if you feel low in energy, rest and recuperate and do easier tasks so you can still move forward without guilt. The to-do list can always be rewritten. There is always tomorrow. Just make sure you make a conscious decision to put down your tools for the day. Then you can rest and enjoy the free-time without the guilt of failing to achieve what you set out to do that day.

Allow your work hours to go with the flow. Take an afternoon stroll or some time out. If you’re not being productive, you don’t need to beat yourself up for it. Besides, isn’t this is one of the perks of working for yourself?

Time is a precious commodity so make sure that you use it wisely. Balance time management skills with the natural ebbs and flows of your energy to create the life and business that you desire and to get the most out of each day and week.

Beverley x

About the Author

Beverley Edmondson is a British milliner and business mentor. She works directly with milliners and creatives mentoring them to help them reach their business dreams.

See Beverley’s full bio HERE.