Time Management for the Self-employed

“It’s not the hours you put in, but rather what you put into those hours”

Anthony Robbins

theft, loss, or damages to official documents or keys up to 450€ cancellation up to 8 000€ (same reason and excess as per cancellation insurance above) damage to sport equipment up to 600€ or 300€ if rented.

ASSURANCE MULTI-VOYAGES is an annual contract to cover trips up to 2 months with no limit per year on the number of trips everywhere in the world apart from North Korea.

It covers: medical costs up to 200 000€ (300 000€ for USA and Canada) luggage up to 3 000€. Excess of 30€ interruption of the trip and up to 150€ per night (max 14 nights) if you have to stay there longer. repatriation search and rescue fees up to 10 000€ funeral costs private liability legal costs up to 3 000€ theft, loss, or damages to official documents or keys up to 400€ cancellation up to 8 000€ (same reason and excess as cancellation insurance above)

Allianz travel also do Group travel cover or business travel cover.

Important

You must phone them before you undertake any medical expenses otherwise you risk not being reimbursed.

Conclusion: Personally, I would not bother to take out travel insurance for a trip to Spain (or in the EU) but I would not go outside Europe without one. And remember to check out our website www.bh-assurances.fr/en for all my previous articles and register to receive our monthly newsletter.

Time is precious, and for the selfemployed, time is also money. As a result, being able to manage your time effectively is crucial, not only for the success of your business, but also for your own well-being.

There are many benefits to managing your time more effectively, including: Productivity and efficiency – by accomplishing more in less time, you’ll optimise your productivity. Use of deadlines and time blocking will help to minimise distractions and enable you to focus on high value work.

Poor time management can be a major cause of stress and feeling of overwhelm

Meeting deadlines – we often have multiple projects/workstreams going on at any one time; effective time management enables you to meet deadlines and deliver on time which in turn helps to build and maintain your professional reputation and client satisfaction.

Work-life balance – ‘being your own boss’ is perhaps the biggest advantage to being self-employed, however it’s easy for the boundaries between work and home life to become blurred. Effective time management can help avoid (or at least minimise) this.

Reducing stress – Poor time management can be a major cause of stress and feeling of overwhelm. Better planning can allow you to work in a more relaxed manner and improve overall well-being.

Business growth – Good time management allows you to build in time for those activities that will contribute to the growth and development of your business (the ones that fall off the bottom of the list when you are stressed/busy!). There are many scientific theories and techniques out there (eg. Pareto’s Principle, Parkinson’s Law, Pomodoro

System, Eisenhower Matrix, ABCDE Method, the 4D System) and if you’re inclined to research them, usually at least one of these will ‘talk to you’ in terms of making sense. However there is no magic secret or hack to effective time management. It requires a good dollop of self-discipline alongside consistency and practice and importantly, there is no ‘onesize-fits-all’ solution. Essentially, you need to understand yourself, your personality, and how your mind works, and then plan your day smartly:

Track your time – this is crucial if you really want to get a grip on your time management, (and you need to do this for at least a week). Although it might seem tedious, it’s crucial to understand what you spend your time doing (and be honest, if you’ve spent half an hour watching Netflix or Tik Tok during your coffee break, then write it down!). This will give you a good understanding of where you’re spending your time, and where you’re wasting it. Set some goals – you’ve probably already heard of SMART goals (specific/measurable /achievable/realistic/timed) - they are effective and will help you keep focussed. Your goals will help you create an action plan (how you intend to achieve your goals), from which you can create your todo list and priorities.

Understand your ‘zone’ – are you a morning person, waking up full of energy and raring to go? Or do you get your energy spurt in the late afternoon. When you understand the time of day you’re most effective and focussed, you can plan around it.

Take breaks - working continuously for hours without breaks is detrimental to focus, and can lead to mistakes, burnout, stress, and fatigue. Taking frequent short breaks, even though it may sound counterintuitive, really helps to maintain focus. Just a 5 minute leg stretch and refreshment break really can work wonders and help you to reset.

Block distractions – whether it means putting your phone on silent, switching off your email or message notifications, closing the office door, or putting up a sign, you’ll be amazed how much more focussed you can be without them. Learn to say ‘no’ - whether it’s to professional or personal requests or commitments, saying no can help not only to avoid over-committing yourself but also avoids the guilt that goes with it. It’s not easy but sometimes it’s essential.

Be aware of procrastination - we can all be guilty of it at times, trying to convince ourselves and justify delaying or postponing important tasks, usually irrationally and often because of a feeling of overwhelm. At the very least you need to recognise when you’re doing it, and ideally ‘eat the frog’ (get on with whatever it is you’re putting off).

Delegate or outsource – if there are tasks that you continue to struggle with, either in terms of time commitment or expertise, consider outsourcing these. Very few of us are experts in everything, and you may be surprised at the relief you feel from getting those jobs off your desk! Use a system that works for you – there are many apps and software systems available to help you track and manage your time. The important thing here is to select one that works for you (and not one that simply eats up more of your time to use!). You may opt for an app such as Todoist, Trello, Asana, or use your online calendar to block and plan time, or you may prefer traditional pen-and-paper ‘to do’ lists – the main thing is that it needs to work for you and not become a chore in itself.

Are you Prepared for Retirement? business

Have you done everything possible to ensure a comfortable and financially independent retirement?

Your retirement income might depend on several workplace pensions, your social security pension, or perhaps even investments and savings. Are you confident that you have enough saved up? Did you know there are ways to optimise your retirement income and reduce taxation?

Pension transfers - You could transfer all your workplace pensions into one taxefficient place where you have control over the investment choices, e.g. a QROPS. Often workplace pensions are invested in generic funds, and returns are not necessarily optimised. You might end up with several smaller workplace pensions. It could make sense to have them all in one place where a larger amount can earn more interest.

Private pensions – A private pension is something you have control over and could be the one constant during your working life, e.g. a SIPP (Self-Invested Pension Plan). Because we change jobs an average of seven times in our lifetime, a private pension could be the way to guarantee a specific retirement income. It would be best to decide whether your workplace pension or your private pension will be your primary source of retirement income. Do you know at what age you wish to retire?

This could significantly impact your retirement planning. Remember that we are living longer, and our retirement may be longer than that of our parents. The longer the retirement, the more you must save.

What about supplementing your pension if you want to retire earlier?

A separate investment could help bridge the gap years if you wanted to retire earlier than expected without eating into your primary source of income, e.g. if your retirement planning and forecasts were planned for 65 and you want to retire at 62.

Helen Booth

retirement. Retiring early could see you run out of money down the line.