When you run your own business, you do it for the financial freedom and to free yourself of time constraints, but in reality, none of those things happen, You end up busier, working longer hours with very little pay and finishing work at times you never would have dreamed of in a paid position.

But it doesn't have to be that way, there are things you can do to make sure you finish work at the time you want every single day. This is a tried and tested method that I use and it works like a charm.

You will need to follow a few techniques but trust me, they soon become second nature.

Your To-Do List

First off, you will need a handle on your to-do list. If it's not in an organised format, just get it written out or typed up, personally, I love using Asana for mine. I can create repetitive tasks and I get a little thrill whenever I complete a project and a unicorn flies across the screen.

We're going to use a technique that works daily rather than for longer periods of time. I just feel that life is too fluid and running a business even more so, there's no point planning a whole week only to have it ruined by the dreaded domino effect, when one thing goes wrong. So, get your to-do list in order, and let's start there.

Diary

Whether you love doing everything digitally like me or not, I highly recommend a good old fashioned diary for this next part. At the end of every work day, make two columns in your diary, one side should be called appointments and the next To-Do. In your appointments column, list out all your appointments for the next day. Before you write out your do-to column, you will need to complete the next technique.

The Eisenhower Matrix

I love the Eisenhower Matrix! I no longer need a template as it's become second nature, but here's a template for you and you can scan the QR code to get a video walk-through of how it works.

You look at your to-do list for the next day, and you start to write them into each of these quadrants. Do are tasks that absolutely have to be done, there's no choice, there's a deadline. Don't are tasks that do need to be done by you, but can wait. Delegate is any tasks that you do not need to do yourself, and delete are the jobs you can just get rid of.

Now, you should have a refined to-do list, something much shorter, from your Do column. Plan those tasks out being conscious of the time you want to start and finish work, using time blocking in your diary, allocating enough time to each task. What you should end up with, is a finish time of something earlier than you anticipated, or bang on time. If it looks like you might have time left in your day, consider adding in some of those Don't tasks, but only if you want to.

By working in this way, you will soon get the balance you need, and will stop working mindlessly on tasks without a prioritisation system. Put time in for breaks, lunch and even walks. And please do let me know how you get on!

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