Feeling overwhelmed? 2 time management SECRETS to effectively managing your projects and your schedule

If you’re like most entrepreneurs you’ve got a long list of things to do every day.

With managing clients, customers or employees, taking care of your marketing, creating new programs, handling your to-do’s and running a business.

Sometimes overwhelm takes over and either pushes your panic buttons or forces you to do nothing.

Instead of letting that happen I recommend that you use some basic tools to organize your tasks and make client scheduling and appointments easier.

First, I recommend that you organize your projects and break them down into bite sized easy to manage tasks. Consider “umbrella-ing” your projects by identifying the large projects you have to do and then creating specific tasks for each.

For your schedule you’ll want to look at your availability and determine which days of the week you’ll do what. For example, I always have client and sales conversation on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is my marketing and podcast interview day. Fridays are my VIP Retreat Days and Mondays I run my business and work on projects.

To make life easier for you here’s what I recommend:

1-  Use a Project Management Tool

I resisted this for a long time but eventually realized that this was the best thing for me.

My most favorite tool is Basecamp. It’s an online tool to manage easily manage your projects. You can break down your tasks, schedule when they need to be done and even have reminders sent to you so you stay on schedule. Prices start at just $20 per month so it’s an affordable tool that can help you stay organized.

I also recommend Asana which does very much the same but is free.

Check them both out and even try a trial on them to determine which is best for you.

2-  Use a Client Scheduling Tool

Recommended by one of my clients, Emily Ginn of www.CreativelySimpleSolutions.com, I now use AcuityScheduling. It allows you to create scheduling links for your client sessions, referral connections and sales conversations so you can provide a link and reduce the back and forth hassle of finding the right time to meet.

One of my favorite features is that it allows for recurring scheduling so if you provide multiple sessions for clients you can have them schedule them all at once.

It also integrates with your Google calendar which means less manual coordination on your end. You can see how mine works in action here.

Also know that this tool has a free version but I prefer the $10 per month one as it meets all of my needs.

Now I’d love to hear from you.

Where do you struggle with managing your business? Or is there a particular tool that you absolutely can’t recommend enough? Please let me know in the comments below!