Must-Know Time Management Skills for Cosmetologists
Friends, if that doesn’t describe you—then straight-up relax. Because that cosmetologist doesn’t exist.
No one is perfect, and even more importantly, there’s never going to be such a thing as the perfect work-life balance—as human beings who have a lot on their plate, perfection is impossible.
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a better, more managed career and life.
We’re not saying it’s easy to juggle all the tasks you have, try to live a healthy life, work with your clients, constantly try to elevate your career, and be the best version of yourself all at once—but we are saying that with a few, simple steps, you can work toward a better, balanced, and happier person all around.
How? With a little somethin’-somethin’ we like to call time management.
Don’t groan—this isn’t a time management guide that’s totally ludicrous (like those guides that tell you to cut all kinds of things out of your life—sorry, it’s not like you can just not pick up your kids from school, right?).
Nope, this time management guide is practical, doable, and straight-up helpful. If you choose to follow along with some of these tips, you might notice a few advantages in your life and career, like:
- Improved punctuality
- Better planning skills
- Optimal productivity
- Less freakin’ stress
- A big ol’ boost in morale (for you and those around you)
- More revenue
- A happier, healthier work-life balance
If you’re reading that list like, “I want some of that,” then you’re in the right place. Read more to learn about how you can balance your crazy cosmetologist life just a teensy bit better with some small but impactful time management tips.
A cosmetologist who runs a kickass business, has the perfect work-life balance, has a burgeoning career, drinks 8 glasses of water a day, always eats their veggies, is on top of everything, and has never missed a bill’s due date or a kid’s dance recital.
Set Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Goals
Be more intentional with your time by sitting down and setting goals. No, you don’t have to have the next five years of your life planned out to do this—you just need some dedication.
Take some time each morning, every Monday, and every beginning of the month to jot down your daily, weekly, and monthly goals. When you set your focus and intention, you’re able to work toward something specific—that means you’re going to be far more productive trying to meet the goals you have in mind.
Planning can sometimes get a bad reputation—it’s not as stuffy and type A as you think, OK—but if you want to tap into a better, more balanced life, it’s going to become a big part of it.
You already know time is precious, so try to optimize where you can by planning and setting realistic, but impactful, goals for your life and your career.
Schedule the Heck Out of Your Life—Even Breaks
Like it or not, scheduling is at the very core of all things time management—and even if you don’t consider yourself a “planner,” once you decide to schedule, you’ll see how quickly your life changes for the better. You can still be free-spirited and spontaneous if you schedule things—you’ll just be more productive and optimized when you abide by the plan (which, we might argue leaves more time for you to be spontaneous in the long run, but that’s just our opinion).
Schedule all the normal stuff—your appointments, your meetings, your consults, your training sessions, etc.—but also get into the habit of scheduling even more important things like breaks, vacations, holidays, and time-off.
Why should you do this? So you can STOP trying to hustle 100% of the time—if you do that, you’re bound to burnout. When that happens, that doesn’t help anyone.
Take care of yourself, take breaks, relax when you can—and make sure you’re scheduling it!
Automate Where You Can
Automation might sound impersonal, but it’s a freakin’ timesaver. Consider adding automation to tasks that otherwise would eat up big parts of your day, like email marketing campaigns, client scheduling and appointment booking, and even social media or digital marketing posting.
With all the technology out there, there are tons of different (and easy to use) tools that can help you optimize these tasks. You’ll be surprised how much time you get back.
Task Batching for the Win
Of course, there are always going to be things you have to do yourself. We don’t want automation to totally take over our lives, right? (Right). For tasks like social media planning, cleaning, inventory, and more, try a strategy called “task batching.” Where you dedicate a few days to one big task—and that task only.
That way, you get everything planned and out of the way so it’s prepared for the week or month ahead. This helps you save time during your everyday routine—you won’t have to divert your attention to small, tedious tasks as part of your day-to-day anymore, you’ll have that task batched and taken care of.
Loving this helpful advice? We sure hope so.
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