Ideally, everyone wants to use their time efficiently. Food truck vendors lead such busy lives, and there is rarely enough time to do everything. Fortunately, with proper time managing, your day can hold enough time to do it all. This article will offer you some time management tips to help you manage your time better.

Time Management Tips For Food Truck Vendors

Study the following time management tips, and then implement those that fit into your schedule to improve your food truck life.

Determine Where You Are Losing Time

The first of our time management tips is key. If you can’t manage your time right, step back and try to figure out why. If you can’t concentrate on tasks or stick with them until completion, then figure out why. Are you’re serious about managing time wisely? If so,  you must identify what is keeping you from doing that.

The easiest way to do this is to keep a diary of how you are spending your time. Do this for about 3 days. You will be able to see what you are spending time on. You can then determine what is necessary to spend time doing and what isn’t necessary. Figure out how to manage your time better.

RELATED: Become More Productive By Writing A Food Truck Work Diary

Use a Calendar

If you desire better time management, use a calendar. There are many people who like to use a paper calendar to record notes and keep track of dates. An electronic calendar may better suit you though. No matter which you prefer, use a calendar to help you manage your time.

To help you reduce stress and stay on task plan each day’s activities. Plan the activities that you must complete daily by keeping a calendar. This will help ensure that you allot enough time for each activity. Additionally, this will help avoid scheduling conflicts that can create unnecessary stress.

Watch the Time

When you find yourself constantly late and missing deadlines, consider getting a bigger clock. Yes we all have smartphones, but many of us set them aside when we get busy. Put a clock on your truck and in your office so it stares you down all the time. Studies show that when people can see a clock during the day, they mentally gravitate toward more time-saving efforts!

Start Planning Your Day Early

When you get up in the morning, plan the whole day out. Write down your schedule on paper. Keeping a schedule everyday will improve the efficiency of your time usage. Do not begin your day until you have completed a plan that includes the times that everything is to be done. You can consider this time block used for scheduling your day one of the most important times of your day.

Set a schedule for the tasks you want to complete in the morning. You’re more likely to accomplish each goal when you know what is coming next. Don’t overbook yourself for the day.

Set Deadlines

An area that many people have trouble with in time management is setting deadlines. You have to set deadlines and stick to them. Any task you have is going to take a certain amount of time and if you have a deadline for your tasks, your life will run smoothly.

Prioritize

Discriminate between important and unimportant tasks. Your day can become consumed by unimportant activities. By making a priority list, you can focus your energy on the most important things first and that will help you accomplish more. Create a to-do list and then start with the most important tasks.

Do hard tasks first. This makes it possible to do them first and do easier tasks later. Then, you can attend to lesser tasks with reduced pressure. If you get through the toughest part of your day right away, you can feel more refreshed as the day goes by.

If you don’t enjoy managing your time, try concentrating on one task at a time. Many people run into a lot of trouble when they start taking on too many projects at once. Multi-tasking often leaves you exhausted; thus, the quality of your work suffers. Focus on one thing at a time to get the job done right.

RELATED: Get Through Your Food Truck To-Do List Faster

Stop Wasting Time

If you need help improving your life, you need to avoid wasting time at all costs. We all need some down time to relax and recuperate. But during the work day, you need to be working and accomplishing tasks. Time wasting on your phone, Facebook and other distractions is just unnecessary.

Prior to calling someone on the phone at work, take a few minutes to plan out the questions that you need answered. Often a lot of time is wasted simply through the rambling that occurs on the telephone when you don’t know what you really need. Having a sense of your goals prior will help keep you on track.

Make a List

Sometimes it’s easier to manage your time when you know exactly what you have to do. Write down exactly what you would like to accomplish and get started. Once you finish one task, mark it off your list. This can help you feel accomplished and help you continue on your to your goal.

If a whole list seems overwhelming, just concentrate on one thing at a time. Lots of folks fail when they think they can multi-task. Doing too much at one time can leave you exhausted. Pay close attention to each task as you complete it. Stay calm and relaxed as you work.

Create a list of all of the tasks you have for a day. Once you have the list, go through and prioritize each item on the list. If you get behind on the day, you can knock off something that is at the bottom of the list and reschedule it for another day.

RELATED: Make Your Food Truck To-Do Lists Work For You

Seek Help

Don’t be afraid of division! Many of the tasks that look impossible in your to-do list are actually composed of several small tasks. In order to manage your time wisely, break down major tasks into lesser, minor ones. You’ll be able to tackle individual parts of a big job one at a time, making progress and maintaining your motivation. Of all of these time management tips, this one takes time to learn. If you can’t delegate you’ll constantly find yourself spinning your wheels.

RELATED: How To Choose What Tasks You Delegate

Eliminate Distractions

Try eliminating distractions in your life if you’re always running out of time for things. For example, it’s difficult to finish a financial report if your email is constantly dinging and cell phone always ringing. Turn off technology and learn to tune out distractions. You should be able to focus much better!

Determine Your Desired Outcomes

The last of our time management tips is to know what you want. Take about five minutes before your tasks and calls for deciding what results you wish to achieve. This can help you see success before you begin. It can also slow down some time. Take about five minutes after every activity and call to figure out if you achieved the desired outcome. If you didn’t, what did you miss? How can add the missing element to the next task?

The Bottom Line: Time Management Tips

Now that you understand time management better. When you routinely practice the advice shared here, you will get things done in a timely manner. It takes hard work and practice. Start applying each of these time management tips, you will see an increase in your efficiency. Just make sure you’re patient and you don’t try taking things too fast. If you just work at this it will eventually pay off because you’ll be using your time wisely.

Do you have any additional time management tips we may have missed? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section or on social media. Facebook | Twitter