As an overall society, we’re completely distracted.
We can’t even have conversations with people in front of us because we’re constantly on our phones.
This is even worse for introverted women entrepreneurs because not only are you distracted but you also have things weighing in on your energy as well.
Some of us are married
Others have children
Others have fur babies
And even more of us are still full-time in 9 to 5 employment
And it’s no wonder it seems like building your business seemingly takes a back seat and you fly by the seat of your pants and are running on adrenaline.
The problem is operating your business like this causes things (& people!) to fall through the cracks. This isn’t good for your business’s longevity.
I’ve discovered at least 7 time management mistakes introverted women entrepreneurs are making that are draining them and keeping their business stagnant.
I’m going to over each of these mistakes and explain why they are mistakes and what to do about it.
1. Not doing brain dumps
Entrepreneurs are naturally creative people. We get tons of ideas and often these ideas are “amazing” and may be the next best thing! As women we also have a MILLION and One things going on in our lives (remember the list?). And we’ve gotten this false belief that we can do multiple things at once but that’s not actually true… even for women.
Brain dumps allow us to remove the ideas and thoughts from our heads which is a processing unit not a storage unit and put it down on paper. This allows our brains to get back to work processing and staying on task.
2. Not committing to doing 1 task at a time
Women were told, at some point, that we’re the better multitaskers. I fell for this story as well. But it’s actually not true.
Task switching takes up A LOT of mental bandwidth and it also screws up the momentum and flow that happens when you’re focused. We think multitasking will save time but it actually doesn’t.
When you complete one task your brain releases the mental energy that it was holding for that task and it’s now able to apply it to the next task.
This will actually help you get more tasks done in less time. Now this isn’t to be confused with using the WAITING time to do things. We’re gonna talk about that next.
3. Not creating focused time even if it’s just in the fringe time.
What I mean here is not taking the time you do have and using it to focus on completing that one task.
You have 30 mins waiting for your kid to get from soccer? Use that time to focus on completing one specific task that will move your business forward.
Have time on your commute to work? Use that time to focus on completing specific tasks in your business.
This is all about using the WAITING time to move your business forward. This requires you be aware of your choices in the time you’re waiting. On average, Americans spend 40-60 mins waiting a day.
And, since this is an average, that means some people spend less but most people spend more than that so think about what you could be doing in that time and use it to your advantage.
4. Not outlining your content before you start writing
When you don’t outline your content your brain is forced to come up with the ideas as well as the content at the same time and those actually come from different areas of the brain. This is back to the task switching we spoke about in #2.
Outlining your content helps you streamline your thoughts and your actions. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of what you’re going to write. In addition to this, it also helps you determine if you really want to write that article or not.
It also makes better use of your wait time because if you’ve decided that you are going to write that article and you’ve outlined it, then you can use the 10-15 min here and there to write the paragraphs to that go with that bullet point. And before you know it you have a blog post for next week or even the week after that!
5. No choosing you & saying no
This might be hard. A lot of women are people pleasers and we’ve been told that we need to do and be everything for everyone else….
Not true. Your dreams, goals, and desires were given to you for a reason and that reason is because it’s meant for you to fulfill them. SO you have to choose to put yourself first.
It probably sounds “Trite” coming from a woman with no children and a husband that can take care of himself but there are still times where I feel that I should be doing housework instead of focusing on growing my business.
Matter of fact, it’s happening right now because there are dishes in the sink. But doing this has a higher priority because writing this post moves you closer to your goals and potentially closer to purchasing something from me whereas dishes don’t!
Does this mean the dishes won’t get done? Nope. Does it mean I’m a terrible wife? Nope. It means when I am done with this OR if my husband decides to wash them they will get washed.
6. Not having clear goals
This is a BIG mistake because if you don’t have clear goals it can be really hard to even know what to focus on and where to apply your energy.
Goals give you direction and they help you focus. If you don’t know what you’re working for it can be hard to even want to do the work in the first place.
Without goals things often feel pointless and when your mind thinks things are pointless it reverts to its main task: conserving energy. When you mind thinks something is futile it resists against it.
7. Not giving yourself grace and forgiveness for past time management mistakes
You might be wondering how is this a mistake Brittany? Well when we hold on to the mistakes we’ve made in the past we tend to beat ourselves up and shift our identities.
This can lead to you calling yourself a procrastinator versus saying you occasionally procrastinate. Once this becomes your identity your mind works VERY hard to maintain it.
By forgiving the past behavior and giving yourself grace you remove the identity and identify with the behavior. The thing about behavior is that it can change. Even if its an old habit.
8. Keeping highly distracting apps on your phone.
Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms are DESIGNED to be addictive.
The way the newsfeed is defaulted to top posts and how there is almost always a notification waiting for you when you log in so you get that hit of dopamine when you log-in are intentional.
You have to counteract this is if you want to become more in control of your time & energy.
Removing the apps from your phone won’t completely remove you from the platforms.
Both Facebook and Instagram can be accessed from the mobile browser. That’s how I access it for the most part.
The habit of picking my phone up nearly every 15 mins is still there but if I move it out of site it gets much easier to focus on what I’m doing.
9. Not enlisting others to help hold you accountable.
I recently discovered is that people don’t like talking about their goals. Why? Well some people are superstitious and believe that talking about it won’t allow it to happen. (I don’t believe this because I think this takes your power away but that’s just me.)
But there is another reason why people don’t talk about their goals. It’s because they don’t want people asking them how it’s going. Not telling others may keep the “nagging” at bay but it also allows them to let themselves off the hook.
If you don’t tell people then it’s ok for you change it or not hit it or not work towards it. No one is watching. But if telling others DIDN’T work there wouldn’t be a program called “Weight Watchers” people watching OTHER people’s weight.
There’s power in sharing your goals and having other keep you accountable. Don’t reject this to just to keep your ego safe.
Alright, so instead of 7 mistakes there are 9 and that’s because when I was outlining this more mistakes came up after the blog post idea 😀
Those 9 time management mistakes were:
- Not doing brain dumps
- Not committing to completing 1 task at a time
- Not creating focus time even in the fringe time
- Not outlining your content ideas
- Not choosing you and saying no
- Not having clear goals
- Not giving yourself grace for your past mistakes
- Not removing distracting apps from your phone
- Not enlisting others to hold you accountable
These time management mistakes are so common so there’s no reason to place shame and blame on yourself. That will do you no good but here’s what shining a light on these mistakes does allow you to do: change your behavior.
You can change your behavior to be more in alignment with a woman who is working to reach her goals by removing distractions and choosing herself. You are worthy of your biggest dreams. You just gotta believe in yourself and put the work in.
Let me know in the comments which of these mistakes you’ve made in the past and what you’re going to do to change it up in the future. I look forward to hearing from you!
Be sure to share this post with your fellow women entrepreneur friends that you think this will benefit!
