As a business owner you’re a busy person, and even though you might be interested in getting some new qualifications, you’re not sure that you could spare the time to study. But you have more time available to you than you think, and by implementing some simple procedures you can capture otherwise wasted time and use it to study for a qualification like a masters in social work online from a top university like Rutgers Online, or for any one of the hundreds of other accredited degree programs that colleges now offer.
Decide Which Work You Can Delegate To Others
Managing your time effectively isn’t just a way to free up a few hours to study for your online MSW degree. Delegating tasks to others gives you the time and freedom to grow your business.
Perhaps you devote one hour each day to answering email and another hour to keeping up with your accounts. Both of those responsibilities could be handed off to a virtual assistant.
You might think that you can’t afford to pay someone for 10 hours a week, but if you hire someone who knows what they’re doing, then that skilled person could breeze through the tasks in just two or three hours.
Plan Every Task throughout Your Day
Make a schedule and stick to it. People who use a well-planned schedule actually have more time available to them, even though it takes some time to set up the schedule in the first place.
Productivity guru Brian Tracy says that for every minute spent planning a task, you can save 10 minutes when it’s time to do that task.
How many tasks do you have to get through each day? How many minutes could you save by planning? If you had 10 tasks on your list, then you might find that you have an extra hour and a half of free time each day.
Use Technology to Put Time Saving Systems in Place
Two big time savers are project management apps like Basecamp or Asana and a productivity tool called If This Then That (IFTTT).
Project management apps allow you to manage workflows, assign tasks to individuals or groups, and then have the completed work come back to you. Notes and queries can be attached to each task and collaboration can happen in real time.
IFTTT is an app that connects hundreds of other apps using ‘recipes’, allowing processes to happen automatically and free up your time.
For example, you can set email attachments to go to another app, saving you the hassle of downloading and then transferring the file. Instead of listening to rambling voice messages and taking notes, you can have them compiled into a text file for quick scanning.
There are hundreds of apps in IFTTT, and thousands of recipes for connecting them. Once you get to grips with IFTTT you’ll soon appreciate how all of those odd minutes copying and sending information between applications throughout the day adds up to big chunks of wasted time.
An online degree needs around 10 to 15 hours of your time each week. By planning well and putting some new systems in place you can easily find the time to complete your course without sacrificing the time that you need for your family, and for rest and relaxation.
