This month, Candice Coppola, Founder of Jubilee Events, Host of The Power in Purpose Podcast, two-time published author and small business coach at candicecoppola.com, is answering your most pressing time management questions all month long in our Ask An Expert series.
Your time management questions answered
Hey HoneyBookers, Candice Coppola here, answering all your questions about time management. I’m taking over HoneyBook’s Instagram for their Ask the Expert series, and I will be coming to you with answers to your time management questions.
So, I want to make sure first that you go and watch the first video. It’ll explain it a little bit more, and I want to make sure that you also submit your time management questions.
I’ve got three great time management questions to answer, so let’s get started.
Our first question comes from Liz, who’s a freelancer, and she asks the Holy Grail of time management questions. Liz asks…
What question should I be asking myself to reframe my view about time?
Good question, Liz. I think most of our time management hang ups come from our beliefs about time and our relationships with time.
I want you to ask yourself these two very important questions.
- What are my beliefs about time?
- What is my relationship with time?
If you can work on your limiting beliefs and work on having a healthier relationship with time, you’re going to find that your time management is going to be a lot better. Let’s make this actionable. Ask yourself those two questions, and then pick one limiting belief, and work towards turning that limiting belief from a weakness into a strength.
The next question comes from Donna, who’s a celebrant and an educator, and she asks…
What are some useful ways to structure my time for both each day and for every week?
Block scheduling
This is a great question, Donna, and I’ve got three quick tips for you. The first is block scheduling. So there has got to be a few things that you do in your business that are repetitious, where you can take all of those tasks and a chunk of time you’ve designated, and complete them all by just focusing on those tasks.
I do this in my business for a variety of things big and small. Big projects, something I might be launching, and then things that I do every week, like my podcast. Block scheduling can help you really cross the finish line on things in your business that you can chunk together, dedicate some time to, and get done.
Power of habit
The next is the power of habit. By simply paying attention to some of your bad habits as it relates to time, or time management, or your schedule, and slowly trying to shift those habits into being positive habits is going to pay off in the long run. It might be just changing up your morning routine, and trying to stick to that for a good four weeks or six weeks. And then looking at your afternoon routine, and making changes there.
The key to changing habits is not to change all your bad habits at once, but to pick one habit that you want to change, and work consistently on changing that habit. Now there’s a great book, it’s called The Power of Habits, and it explains all about that if you’re interested.
Say no
The last is be absolutely ruthless with your time. Say no to things that conflict with your time. Part of time management is not giving your time away when you don’t have it to give. Schedule time to meet people, to have consultations, to schedule phone calls with your customers, and don’t be afraid to say no to people who want to take your time when you don’t have it to give.
Our final question comes from Caroline, who owns a wedding planning and design firm, and she asks…
What are some of your top hacks for saving time in the day?
Automate
Great question. The first is automation, and you hear this word thrown around a lot, but it’s actually really important, and we all have these fantastic tools, like HoneyBook’s clientflow management platform, that give us the opportunity to automate things in our business. But I don’t feel like we fully use our tools to their best advantage.
Here’s how I want you to make this actionable. I want you to take a look at the tech tools that you use and the automation features that are available to you in those tools. I want you to learn a little bit more about how those automation features work, and then I want you to figure out how to make best use of those features in your business. It helps to save me a tremendous amount of time on a daily basis avoiding doing clerical work that all entrepreneurs hate, myself included. Automate is number one.
Outsource
Number two is to outsource absolutely everything that is outside of your genius zone. Now there’s a great book you can pick up, it’s called Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt, and it explains this better than I ever could.
But the gist of it is that we as entrepreneurs should be focusing on only the things that we can do in our business, and the things that bring us the most joy, the things that we do the best. And if we can focus on those things 70% of the time, we are going to make best use of our productivity and our time management.
There’s some great exercises in there for you, Caroline, that will help you to figure out how to outsource things in your business and be more productive.
Here’s the thing about outsourcing, everybody’s scared of it because of the financial cost, but there’s a simple question you can ask yourself, how much is my time worth? And then how much would this cost me to outsource? If your time is worth more than the cost to outsource, well then you’re saving money by outsourcing, so remember that. Those are my two tips.
That’s it for today’s video. I’ll meet you right back here next Friday to answer your questions about time management, so be sure to submit your time management questions and I’ll see you right back here.
Additional Time Management Resources
Want to learn more about time management and boosting your productivity? Get our Ultimate Guide to Time Management here.
Thanks, Candice!
