Personal organisation and time management

Let’s talk about burnout.

Burnout, juggling, and work-life blend (notice we don’t say ‘balance’ at Hello Business Support: more about that further in the post).

For business owners everywhere, we are told time and time again that we must focus on our wellbeing first and not as an afterthought.

However, when you are juggling….everything ….burnout can be slow building, and when it hits, it is very real.

Rather than tell you why it’s important to prioritise your wellbeing (because we know you KNOW) we thought we’d share with you the importance of organisation and time management with some helpful tips to improve both, thus leading to a better work-life blend and improved wellbeing.

Your work and personal life overlap

No matter how much you try to keep them separate, as a business owner or entrepreneur, there is no hiding from the fact that your work and personal life will undoubtedly overlap.

Whether this is you taking a little bit of work home to finish up. Or maybe your kids coming with you to work for the afternoon due to a forgotten teacher training day. Life is constantly moving, just like your business, and like everything, it must be managed.

Work-life blend is not about making catastrophic changes to how you operate and run. It is about small, intentional shifts in organisation and time management that support wellbeing and productivity.

Balance vs Blend

Your wellbeing as a business owner is paramount – you need to be at the top of your game to keep the cogs turning and achieve your goals. However, the reality is that no matter how hard you try, you can’t do everything. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

So, what changes when we look at it from the perspective of work-life blend?

When we think of balance we might think of a set of scales, a clear yet rigid picture of separation, i.e., the idea that if we take from one end (work) to give to the other (life), we will become ‘off balance.’ And when we strive to keep a constant balance, we are fighting a losing battle. Making it clear, and also anxiety driving, that balance is almost, if not impossible.

This is where ‘blend’ comes in.

For example, it’s not about trying to switch off completely as soon as you walk through the door, (we know, we also find this hard), but rather integrating priorities i.e. going to your child’s sports day without worrying about work AND having focussed time for deep work scheduled in at a more convenient time. It’s about finding a give and take system with dedicated time blocked out for activities, removing the feeling of guilt that while you focus on one area another is falling behind.

Remember, we decided to work for ourselves and set up our businesses to achieve the perfect work-life, so our work needs to work for us.

Personal Organisation is Power!

Ok, let’s get the negatives, which we know so well, out of the way. Disorganisation causes stress, wastes so much time, and can lead to overwhelm, ultimately leaving you feeling like you have achieved nothing.

However, being organised doesn’t mean jumping straight into colour-coded planners, sticky notes, and stationery (although we always advocate for pretty stationery); organisation means clarity.

It means clearly identifying your priorities. Blocking out dedicated time in your calendar for all to see your non-negotiables i.e. these things take priority and cannot be moved or delayed.

It is also about working in sync with your energy, if you’re an early bird, then why not tackle that to-do list or do your creative work first thing, leaving answering emails and admin until later in the day (or of course, take the afternoon off and leave our Hayley in charge of that ;-))

And we can’t emphasise energy enough. Finding the best times for you to carry out specific tasks is what helps to keep us motivated, but also more productive and……yes, organised!

And, when we feel more organised, everything feels much more manageable.

Manage your time productively

Good time management is about doing less of the wrong things, or in other words, things that aren’t moving you towards your goals, and more of the good stuff.

Think about what drains your time and energy? Could you delegate or remove tasks from your to-do list completely?

What routines work for you? What times during the day do you find you are most productive?

As a business owner, you are the CENTRAL cog in your business (no pressure), and your mindset, energy, and clarity will directly impact decision-making and growth, both personal and business.

It’s important to identify what works and what doesn’t, as well as what areas you identify as your priorities.

Tips to help get and keep you on the right track

Set daily to-do lists – what do you have to achieve today to keep you on track to achieving your goals? Make sure these are realistic, and if you need to, block out time to help keep you focused. Think about clearly defining your business processes, and once these are in place, set up workflows so you know exactly what you need to do and when. Some of these things could then be automated to free up time and resource. For example, automating invoices, onboarding emails, etc.

Use the Pomodoro method – block out time, roughly 2-hour chunks, and break down tasks to fit into these sections. Break these down further into 25-minute sprints, allowing yourself a 5-minute rest after completing each task. After two hours, look to take a longer break to refuel and recharge.

Manage distractions – find a time in the day that works for you and your situation. Leave your phone in another room if it is too much of a distraction.

Remember, not everyone is the same, so you must find what works for you.

Keep a tidy workspace – tidy desk, tidy mind. Make sure to keep your workspace free from clutter, and if in doubt, check out our post on making now the time to get organised.

Avoid procrastination – eat the frog, i.e., identify your most challenging task and rather than leaving it until last, tackle it first on your to-do list – trust us, it’s a great feeling when you tick the complete box.

Organisation and time management tools

There are numerous online time management and organisation tools you can include to help streamline your processes and keep you on track.

For example:

Trello – helping you to keep work organised and your teams on track. Workflows and projects can all be managed in one handy place.

Capsule CRM – an incredible CRM platform designed around small business needs. With all information recorded in one place you can build your customer relationships, manage your to-do lists more effectively, and capitalise on your sales pipeline faster – delivering more while staying on track.

ClickUp – one app that supports business owners with a little bit of everything. From managing tasks, recording documents, calendar schedules, time tracking, dashboards for instant information and insight, and more ClickUp is designed around improving productivity.

Toggl – track time spent on individual projects and maximise your minutes.

Google Calendar – use categories within your calendar system that show items/work/life that can’t be moved – they are your non-negotiables. This will help provide you with a framework to strategically devise the rest of your time.

Asana – connects teams, projects, campaigns, and time management all on one platform.

Scheduling software – other scheduling software includes time tracker, Monday, and more.

The key is finding a platform/software that works for you, meets your requirements, and makes your life easier.