Time is a common problem among small business owners. Helen Dowling from Exceptional Thinking shows you her top tips to coping with it.

1. If something appears on my list more than three weeks in a row, I force myself to make a decision about whether I’m going to do the task or drop it from my list.

2. Every time I see a piece of paper, I will mark it the first time I see it with a cross, the second time with a triangle and the third time with a circle. If a piece of paper has got all three on them, I must either do it or drop it.

3. I will often try to do the same type of tasks together i.e. all calls together, all emails together. This really helps get rid of the tasks that I don’t like doing.

4. I play games with tasks too. So, I’ll do something easy and then something hard followed by something easy. I can’t move on to the easy thing until I’ve finished the hard thing.

5. Staple pages of your diary together so that you can’t put any appointments in there. When you reach that week, you’ll have a whole week to do the work you want to do. No appointments can go in there no matter what.

6. If you’re struggling to get something done and it can be done on a laptop, try taking your laptop with you when you’re out and about. You can either work on the document in between meetings or deliberately go to a café and work. It’s a lot easier to get things done if you’re out and about.

7. Give yourself a reward for completing unpleasant tasks. They rarely turn out or take as long as you think they will.

8. Break large jobs down into more manageable chunks. Think about the immediate next step for the task and do that.

9. If you find you’re delaying because you can’t make up your mind, set a deadline for making a decision and stick to it. Share the deadline with someone else and talk through your decision with them.

10. Remember things will rarely be perfect. If you’re delaying something because you want it to be perfect, recognise that 80% for you may well be 100% for someone else. You can always change it later – it’s much easier to change once you’ve already done it.

11. I can get bored with a task quite quickly, so I make myself stay in my chair and not move, look at the Internet or do anything else until I’ve completed the task I’m working on.

12. You don’t have to finish all of the task in one go…finish up to a certain point and then come back to it on another day.

13. Don’t let other people distract you from your task. Isolate yourself. Put up a sign, work in a café, put on headphones (people are a lot less likely to talk to you).

14. Stand up when you’re on the phone. You’re much more likely to get off it quicker. Try this same trick if someone comes into where you’re working to disturb you. If you’re standing up, they’re much less likely to sit down and get comfortable.

15. Invent a meeting that you really need to go out for. Confess that you promised to call someone back about a confidential matter at exactly this time. This will bring an unimportant discussion to an end.