How to schedule your day for maximum productivity when you run your own business

How to schedule your day when you own a small business Skye Gould/Business Insider

Time is a precious commodity, especially when you're a small business owner and it feels like there are always a million things to do.

"Most small business owners don't build time into their workdays for things that are not just run, run, run for the business," Laura Vanderkam, time-management expert and author of "I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time," tells Business Insider.

While the core production of doing things for your business will obviously take up the majority of your day, Vanderkam says it's also vital to make time for other high-value items, like networking, building skills, interacting with employees, and leisure.

While this routine may not be right for everyone, Vanderkam's sample schedule is a good jumping-off point for fitting it all in when you run a small business:

6:00 a.m. Wake up and work out

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Research out of Belgium suggests that working out early in the morning — before you've eaten breakfast — doesn't just help you meet your fitness goals, but could even give you more energy than those few extra minutes of shut-eye.

6:45 a.m. Get ready for the day ahead

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Time to hit the showers, eat a healthy breakfast, take care of family responsibilities, and get people where they need to go.

8:30 a.m. Do the most important stuff

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The first thing in the workday is your core production time, when you should focus on the day-to-day priorities that need to get done for your business to stay afloat.

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