In this article, our guest author Stephanie Haywood, will be sharing with you practical Time Management Tips for PHP developers who are willing to launch their own startup.
Founding a startup is fast-paced, exciting, and full of potential. It also comes with a huge workload. From building a minimum viable product to courting venture capital, a startup founder’s to-do list is long and varied enough to make your head spin. How do successful startups pull it off?
The answer is careful time management.
Time Management
We’re not just talking time management on the job either. The most innovative entrepreneurs take productivity to the next level by optimizing every aspect of life. From sunup to sundown, these are the habits and practices that help successful founders achieve more.
Start each day with a plan
Don’t waste time on analysis paralysis. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything on your plate. That’s why you should always start with a plan. Set aside 20 minutes at the start or end of each day to plan what you’ll tackle next. This practice keeps you organized and is a great way to get sources of stress out of your brain and onto paper.
Block your time
Multitasking makes it feel like you’re getting a lot done. In reality, multitaskers are less productive and more prone to errors. Time blocking is a more effective strategy for managing a complex to-do list. Instead of trying to do it all at once, give your full attention to one task at a time and set aside blocks of time for different tasks. It’s this tactic that allows founders to balance both day-to-day tasks and long-term strategic goals.
Delegate
What if there simply aren’t enough hours in the day? Working from dawn until dusk is a recipe for burnout. Instead, successful founders delegate. Start with things you aren’t good at. As a founder, you shouldn’t be reviewing contracts, designing marketing strategy, or keeping the books. Next is tasks that don’t maximize a founder’s skills. You may be great at customer service, but is answering phone calls the best use of your time? The same goes for filing business forms. Keeping an LLC in compliance requires a lot of paperwork. It’s much easier to let a registered agent service handle it rather than cluttering your own calendar.
Get organized
There’s one key to delegating: Everyone needs to understand their role and responsibilities. To delegate successfully, founders have to choose the right people, communicate the task clearly, and provide the right tools for the job.
These same tips apply to staying organized as a startup founder. As ReWire explains, “disorganization … can lead to wasted time and misplaced priorities” for entrepreneurs. The most successful entrepreneurs run their calendars and their workspaces like fine-tuned machines to maximize efficiency.
Set communication standards
Constant distraction from emails, phone calls, and other notifications is a major challenge for modern entrepreneurs. However, there’s no rulebook that says you need to be on-call 24/7. While silencing phone calls may feel rude at first, establishing communication norms with colleagues and clients is necessary for distraction-free productivity. Designate time for phone calls and emails and use autoresponders to let people know when to expect a response.
Make time for down time
Improved productivity is the obvious reward of time management for entrepreneurs. However, these tips don’t just help founders get more done at work. They also make it possible to carve out downtime despite a busy schedule. While work and life can be hard to separate for entrepreneurs, being intentional about personal time ensures the downtime you do get is quality time.
If you’re starting a tech company, these are five productivity tips you can’t afford to skip. However, the benefits of time management don’t stop with business. These tips are just as relevant whether you’re a startup founder, searching for your next PHP job, or just trying to do more in everyday life.
