You’ve heard of the saying ‘time is money.’ Actually, to be more precise it’s actually loss time is loss money. That’s because when it comes to business time is a finite resource. It’s fixed and you know you only get a certain amount of it per day – 24 hours’ worth.

Not only that, it’s not like you can do use up those 24 hours just to do business. If you are a big transnational corporation maybe but if you’re a small or medium-sized business you’re probably just open 12 hours per day tops.

This means that in order to make any money you need to make good use of the time you have. That said, many businesses often have problems with seeing the importance of maximizing time usage. Often, it is because they don’t realize that time is finite. They think that all jobs have to be given the same level of importance.

This is the wrong outlook to have. If your business is doing this then you’re probably losing money and you don’t even realize it. That’s why it is important for you to know about time management and use it to its fullest.

5 Great reasons why time management is so important.

Time management is not just about managing time and the use of tools and practices to achieve this. It’s also a discipline to managing yourself. It’s how you manage your use of time that makes time management so effective.

If you’re not using it for your business you’re losing a lot more than the opportunity. Here’s good reasons why you should use time management.

1. Time is limited. There’s no escaping this fact. There’s only so many hours in a day that if you lose even just a minute of it, you won’t be able to bring it back so you can use it again.

It’s not like you can store it in your store room and use it whenever you need more time. Wouldn’t that be great? Unfortunately, real life isn’t that great and as you have probably experienced by now, once those seconds and minutes tick by there’s no going back.

Before you know it the day is over and you’re stuck with not having done anything. With time management you will be able to make maximum use of the time so that even if you do lose a couple here and there it won’t really affect the accomplishment of your goals.

2. You get more hours to be productive. It’s not like extra hours will be added in the day. What it means is that you will be able to do more during the work hours than you normally would.

It’s pretty simple really. Imagine that for a certain project it takes you 5 hours to work on it. With time management you are able to cut it down to 4 hours. This means that you have an extra hour that you would normally use up freed.

You can then use this extra hour to do other things and it can add up during the week. The result is that you will be able to do a lot more because of that extra hour gained or rather saved because you were able to manage your time.

Not only do you get more productive hours; you also become more efficient thereby increasing your overall productivity. That’s because you are able to do more work in less time than you normally would before time management.

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Because you get more work done you also get more experience under your belt. This results in you learning more ways to streamline your work thereby increasing your efficiency. This means you are able to lower the time it takes to finish the same work thereby giving you more freed time which you can then apply to more work and so on.

3. You are able to prioritize work. Not all work is created equal. This means that some things require more priority than others. With time management you are able to give each work the attention that it needs.

If it needs to be done first because it is time sensitive then it will be given top priority. This also allows you deliver on your promises. If you say you will get the work done on such and such a date, with time management you will be able to accomplish that.

That’s because time management gives you the guidance to stay on track of things. Because you’re not wasting time you are able to focus more on what needs to be done so you can get it done within the time constraints if there’s any.

4. You get things done – even the work you didn’t want to do. Many of us have things at work that we rather wouldn’t do. It could be doing the books or doing inventory or things of that nature. The thing is, you need to get these things done if you want your business to move on in a more efficient manner.

With time management you have no choice but to just do it even if you don’t like it. That’s because the work is lined up based on priority so if the work you hate doing is first up you have no choice but to do it so you can get it done and out of your hair.

This will actually work wonders for your self-satisfaction. That’s because by simply doing the work as you cross it out of your to-do list you will just get it done whether you like them or not. This will give you a sense of achievement especially when you are finished with the list.

5. You get to learn self-discipline. In the end it all comes down to how well you discipline yourself to follow the time table set up by your time management. By learning how to manage a finite resource that is time you also get the foundation to manage other resources in your business.

Because of this you are able to motivate yourself to do more. At the same time you actually relieve stress since by doing time management you no longer need to always go chasing after time that’s already gone. With time management you are able to make full use of the time you have so you minimize the loss and maximize the gain.

Minimize these time wasters

Even if you have time management you can still waste time. That’s because there are many time wasters around your place of business. If you don’t do anything to control them, they can still sap the time saved from your time management program.

• Multi-tasking. While it sounds like a good idea – being able to do many things at the same time, it doesn’t mean you are able to finish many things at the same time. Often, multi-tasking simply prolongs everything since you’re constantly jumping from one work to another. The result is you end up doing a little on each but nothing substantial to even finish them all, let alone finish one.
• Refusing to delegate. Delegation is important if you want to effectively manage time in your business. Taking all major jobs yourself is a fast track to getting nowhere. It’s like you’re multi-tasking and the result will be things getting done in a haphazard way. This is because you are not able to focus your attention on one task. Because time is limited you won’t be able to finish everything so you get nothing done.
• The email trap. Answering emails is always good. After all, effective communication is the key to an effective workplace. That said, emails can often overwhelm people such that they spend a lot more of their time on it. This results in less time for work which lowers productivity.
• An open-door policy. Interacting with fellow co-workers is always a good thing. It builds camaraderie and cohesion so that the work gets done faster. That said people popping in at different times of the say maybe inopportune when it comes to getting work done.

In the end, the amount of work done depends on the amount spent on actually doing the work. Spending 10 hours in your business means nothing if you are only able to get 7 hours of work done. The 3 hours of unproductive time is time that you won’t be able to get back. It’s also time that could have been turned into money for your business.

Time management is a good idea. This allows you to take control of the limited time you have so you can do more for less resulting in greater productivity and efficiency.

Cutting down on things that waste time is a start. What time wasters can you cut down in your business so you can be more productive and more efficient in managing your time. Leave your comments below.