Tag: time management

The Power of 18 Minutes: How Small Daily Habits Fuel Business Growth

Being a business owner can feel overwhelming at times. There are constant demands for your attention, and the tasks you’d like to do to grow your business often take a back seat to the things you must do to keep the doors open.

Bills need to be paid, schedules made, inventory ordered, and payroll processed. Meanwhile, other valuable tasks—like updating your website, reaching out to potential clients, clearing out your inbox, developing new social media content, or reading a book to sharpen your skills—keep getting pushed to tomorrow.

Anders Ericsson popularized the Rule of 100, which says you can accomplish a great deal of learning, growth, and skill-building by consistently dedicating a small amount of time each day. Ericsson calculated that if you spent just 18 minutes per day on a task, it would add up to 100 hours in a year. The key is consistency.

Eighteen minutes is a small commitment. Most of us can find that many extra minutes in our day if we make it a priority. Here are a few suggestions to help you carve out those minutes:

  • Wake up 18 minutes earlier.
  • Take an 18-minute break mid-morning.
  • Dedicate a portion of your lunch hour.
  • Skip one half-hour television show.

Ways to Spend Your Extra 18 Minutes a Day

Read a business or financial book.
Depending on the titles you choose and your reading speed, you could finish 6–12 books a year by reading just 18 minutes a day.

Improve your social media content.
In 18 minutes, you can research trending topics and hashtags, write a quick post, respond to comments, and engage with followers and influencers.

Create a content calendar.
Spend one day a week using your 18 minutes to plan out your content calendar. In the beginning, you may need two days a week for this. As you get more efficient—or incorporate AI tools—you might only need one or two sessions per month.

Watch YouTube tutorials.
Many business-related videos are under 20 minutes and offer practical guidance on tools, software, or marketing tactics. (For example, I used YouTube to learn how to create newsletters in Mailchimp.) Just be careful to choose educational content over entertainment during this time.

Clean up your email inbox.
If you’re staring down hundreds (or thousands) of unread emails, it might take several 18-minute sessions to catch up. But once it’s under control, a session or two per month can keep it that way.

Make a networking call.
Reach out to a professional you’d like to partner with, follow up with a potential client, or reconnect with a former colleague. Plan what you want to say in advance and stay on task—most business calls last 5–15 minutes, so you can fit one or two into an 18-minute window.

Plan your day and set goals.
Many people find their most productive days start with a few minutes of intentional planning. Make a short list of what you need to accomplish and prioritize your top tasks. It helps you stay organized, focused, and less stressed.

Final Thoughts

Time is one of the most valuable resources a business owner has. By intentionally setting aside just a few minutes each day for the tasks that fuel your growth and sharpen your skills, you’ll start to see meaningful progress over time. Small, consistent actions can lead to big results—and it all starts with finding those 18 minutes.

How do you “find” extra minutes in your day?
How do you spend them?

I’d love to hear your strategies!

Time Management, Creativity, and REM Sleep

I have a good friend, Johnnie, who has expertise in many subjects, including time management. Time management is essential for Johnnie, as she balances family time, church service, and volunteering with SCORE with the four businesses she currently owns and manages. She also manages to include exercise, prayer, and devotional time into each day.

Earlier this week, I asked Johnnie how she plans her days and if she devoted some time each day to each business or if she focused on different businesses on different days of the week. This lead to Johnnie sharing some her time management tools. In the course of the conversation, she mentioned the importance of being quiet and still for a few minutes upon waking to continue in the creative sphere of REM sleep. I had never before considered that sleep had an impact on creativity, although I read studies that demonstrated that long period of quiet are a boost to creativity.

Coffee, note pad, and flowers
Photo by Lum3n on Pexels.com

Despite this being a new concept to me, I immediately recognized the truth of Johnnie’s statement from my own experiences and those of my husband, Steve.

Steve is a civil engineer. He deals with complex issues in designing sites for buildings and subdivisions and coming up with a good solution is often challenging. He is prone to wake up in the early hours of the morning with a solution having come to his mind. It is not uncommon for him to rise at 4 or 5 am to work on a plan. I believe that these solutions arise from the creative state the brain enters during REM sleep.

Personally, I have found that I if I can stay in bed and be still for a few minutes after waking that I will have a creative spurt. Suddenly, I am inspired with ideas for the next scene for a novel I am working on or a blog post to write.

If you want to increase your creativity, I encourage you to spend some time in the morning being quiet. Let your creative mind continue to work after sleeping, and listen for the still, small voice of the Lord speaking into your life.

Some of Johnnie’s other time management tips included (1) start the day with worship–she exercises to praise music, (2) schedule a time of prayer at the beginning of each day, (3) set aside one or two days a week to be less busy and more focused on projects that require concentration and/or creativity, (4) turn off your phone and ignore email for blocks of time each day, and (5) schedule most meetings on one or two days a week.

Woman with journal and a cup of coffee
Photo by Alina Vilchenko on Pexels.com

Johnnie is the author of Legacy Moments–Transformation that goes Beyond Change. You can learn more about Johnnie and her coaching services at JohnnieLloyd.com

To learn more about how to be a faithful steward of your financial resources, please click the Finances categories tab to find many blogs on money management, budgeting, and stewardship. My book Honoring God with Your Money is a great tool for financial money management.

Pepperonis as Quarters

Pepperoni Pizzas
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

In a different phase of life, my husband and I bought a pizza franchise and opened a restaurant in the little town of Orange, VA.  Our good friend, and pizza mentor, Jerry told us that we should look at “pepperonis as quarters.”  An individual pepperoni probably costs a penny or less–I never did the math, but I got the point.  Wasting food costs me money, and small wastes add up quickly and take money out of my pocket.  Little things matter whether you are trying to make money in your business or trying to live within your means on a tight budget.

In my current job, I am a consultant in a small business development center.  I meet with people each week who would like to start businesses.  Many of these dreams will be derailed or postponed due to poor credit and/or lack of financial resources to get a business started.  Often these people have plenty of income, yet they have failed to live within their means.  Some of them have made big financial mistakes, such as buying a house that they cannot afford, but many are in trouble because they have failed to control small expenses.  They forget that lunches out and $4 cups of coffee can make a big dent in their budgets.

As a Christian, I am a steward of all that God has entrusted to me.  When someone mentions stewardship, money management is probably the first thought that comes to mind.  Stewardship, however, encompasses all phases of your life, including how you use your time and how you use your talents.  We can relate the “pepperonis as quarters”  adage to time and talents, as well as to money.  Saving a few moments here and there throughout your day can add up and allow you more time to play a game with your child, read a book for pleasure, relax with your spouse, or start a new project.  Honing your talents little by little can help you gain speed and proficiency.

I Corinthians 4:2 tells us, “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”  I hope that this word will encourage you to look for small ways to be a better steward of your time, talent, and money.