Time managers will make good business managers

It is easy to say, but difficult to practice. Most small business entrepreneurs have difficulty controlling their time. It is fundamental to organize your tasks and schedule. Let's start from the goal. With more time available you will be able to exercise innovation, develop "out-of-the-box" thinking to see what is wrong and what can be improved. You will be able to be more connected and updated with trends, opportunities and threats. You will be able to have a more balanced life with leisure and with your family.

So, what should you do? There is no magic. But the best solutions for the worst problems are often the most simple.

Start with writing down the daily tasks that you need to do every day. Examples: read the news, read e-mails, reply e-mails, pay bills, verify bank accounts, verify stock, call suppliers, and so on.

Estimate how much time you need to accomplish those tasks. Verify where you can optimize your time, and organize the schedule to get it done. Start with only controlling the time spent. It is already a great step.

Resolve, first, the easiest and shortest tasks. If in some task you exceed your time limit, stop, then go to the next one. Return to that one only after finished the "round" and use your "spare time" for so doing.

Try to reduce 10 percent to 30 percent the time of some less valuable tasks. With other tasks, develop a worksheet and try to empower yourself to accomplish and control it.

Try to reserve, at least one or two hours to creative thinking, to research, new products, new approaches, and new markets, depending on your core business and always with focus on strengths. Keep in mind to not lose touch with the "big picture" of your market and competitors.

Creative time is defined as taking a certain thought (such as getting rich or finding that one special love), thinking about it in a determined fashion, and then holding that thought strongly enough to impress that thought onto motion implementation. This will cause the creative thinking process to accomplish the circumstances you wish to achieve your goals.

With time management planning we have a scope enlarged, a little more of variables, an expanded timeline, defined methodologies (tools) and usually we need to write it down. But it continues to be an extension, or an improvement, of what we are accustomed to do.

Speak with focus on startups, and small business ideas; your time management is a fundamental tool to avoid "losing the path in the middle of the running." Maintain your focus on using positive thoughts to overcome the mental barriers that most people have to making money and becoming wealthy.

When you get stuck in a particular situation and don't find a solution, go for a walk, have a coffee, do something that makes you disconnect completely and quickly from the problem, and return to it later after gaining new perspective.

To manage a business, to develop a business plan or to improve competitive business efficiency, one must have a knowledge framework of some basic concepts and practices, and even if you know them, it is always interesting to revise them by using those time management tools.

When we talk about time management sometimes we associate it with paperwork, theories, old school assignments, and other boring, time consuming tasks. But actually time management and planning is a natural embedded activity that we practice every day. We plan the best route to go to the office. We plan when we go shopping. We plan our vacations. And so we do with other diverse actions of our daily activities (professional and personal).

Don't try to only memorize everything that happens or what you will need to accomplish that day. You will lose time to struggling with the effort to remember so why not write down items in a notebook, Outlook calendar, cell phone or Palm Pilot.

When you are involved with a complex problem, that needs immediate resolution, and you need concentration, don't let anyone interrupt your thoughts, close the door, don't answer the phone, and concentrate on finishing your task first. You will economize valuable time. You will have a more efficient focused process utilizing your time results. Time, it's not only money. It's your life!

Farrah Gray is the author of "The Truth Shall Make You Rich: The New Road Map to Radical Prosperity," "Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You from Success" and the international best-seller "Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out." He is chairman of the Farrah Gray Foundation. Dr. Gray can be reached via email at fg@drfarrahgray.com or his Web site at http://www.drfarrahgray.com.