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Many of us feel different when we return to work from a break. If you come back with better ideas, more energy and more creativity, it may be because your way of working is out of balance, or perhaps you’re just working too hard.

A trap that many business owners fall into is that as their business grows, they seem to have less and less time – despite adding more people, better technology and new systems.

“I need more time to think about my business,” “My time is at a premium, and I don’t have time to plan properly,” “I’d like to grow my business, but I can’t find the time.” Are these familiar complaints? How can you overcome the time challenges you currently face to create the business you have always wanted? Here are some simple strategies you can use to help yourself reach the next stage, despite the demands on your time.

Do you recognise time as your most valuable asset? Making the most of your time can make a huge difference to your business.

If you waste money, you can spend time to get it back, but if you waste time, no amount of money can get it back. Successful people recognise this and will spend money to save their time; they invest in the services of domestic cleaners and gardeners, online shopping deliveries and labour-saving devices because they understand that the time they save is worth more to them than the actual cost of buying these services in.

Do you believe that the training courses you’ve done have been truly valuable? Do you use what you’ve learned in your everyday working life? Often people are dubious, if not negative, about the training they’ve done and the benefit to them. It is possible to make training stick, and have a lasting benefit.

One of the difficulties many successful entrepreneurs have when their business grows into a bigger organisation is changing their own mindset from doing everything in the business to delegating work to their staff. We have some guidelines that can help you, or an employee, when struggling to make the transition.

Look at job descriptions in almost any organisation, and you’ll find they’re broad statements of areas of responsibility or maybe lists of activities. Job descriptions like this are concerned with activity rather than output, and fuel the culture of ‘hard work’ and long hours. What you don’t see is a short, complete list of the results you are accountable for producing.

…and they might actually cost you and your business less. Imagine you hired a meetings fairy. The fairy’s job would be to ensure that meetings were short, efficient and effective.

Leadership skills can be learned, though along the way you may have to rethink your conception of what a great leader actually does, and overcome discomfort and anxiety in order to raise your game. One of the most uncomfortable facts is that great leadership is not about having all the answers, but about asking the right questions.

What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life and work? Your ‘important, not urgent’ projects? Your fitness? Your personal development? Your friends? Your family? Try putting these in first. You’ll be surprised at how much space and time there is then to fit in all the other stuff…