Time Management When Working from Home
When you start out in a home based business, time management is an element of business management that is overlooked or ignored.
Sure enough, we all know someone in small business who races at it like a mad dog all day, seldom enough hours in their day, all they do is panic and get worked up - perhaps this person is you! Come the day’s end, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you reflect on the day and realise “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much done as I hoped to do. If this is familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people do not seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference with them and others is they command time management.
What is time management? It is simply scheduling time in your day in an organised and efficient method. Before we can actually get how to time manage our day, we first need to decide for ourselves what we are aiming to complete today, this week, this year and possibly even ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The simplest process in my preference to complete goals is to write them down. You might think about the goals at points to ensure that they are appropriate and realisable but not so easy to do that you don’t need to try to succeed at them otherwise what is the point of any goals in the first place?
From the beginning of every working year you should takethe time and plan what you want to complete this year. It might be that you plan to raise your profits by 20%, you can desire to move into other premises, you can desire to take away from your debt once and for all. At the beginning of each working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the signifcant jobs that have to be completed this week, and check up them each day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of the chores off your list.
You can have this list on your desk or on a spot where you could be continually reminded of what needs to be finished throughout the week. This list can be in order of importance so that the impending projects at the top of this list get accomplished first up. Any work not checked off this week should be put up to next week at a higher urgency, this should demand it gets finished.
The next thing you should be doing is writing a daily list of chores to get done. This will assist keep you focused during each day. Again, this list may be displayed where you can repeatedly check on it and mark off the tasks finalised. Ticking off the items should allow you a sense of a job well done and remind you how you are going across the day. Always stay to the list when possible and continue working from high priority to low priority. I know loopholes will jump up over the day that may throw the whole day out of whack, but you must either deal with the problem and then return to your list or if the new chore isn’t as time sensitive as some of the tasks on your list then list it after these on the list and continue on doing the project you were doing.
Every job you plan to complete should be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep your day outlined and you get your daily goals. Be careful of beginning chores and not finishing them. This may turn tomorrow in a disaster of half baked work and could cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with your list reading a mile long and you will throw the towel in in despair and revert back to bad habits of running around in confusion every day and achieving nothing.
Remember that each day you write out your goals and mark off everything on your list, you will get a day closer to polishing off your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few hints on Time Management:
- Do it once and do it well, it’s pointless coming back to the task and having to redo it.
- Learn to civilly tell people when you’re busy working and that you would get back to them later.
- Learn to issue jobs that actually don’t require your direct participation.
- Don’t embark on wild goose chases.
- Don’t use up time with phone calls that are not going to do something.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Refer to your list of things to do regularly through your day.
- “Map out your day” in the morning and write out your daily list as soon as you start work. Achieve what you start.
- Prioritise every day, always keep things in their order of priority to you and your business.
Stay away from time wasters, people that would merely choose to chat all day, and if they work for you, set them straight, or get rid of them.
For more information about self employment Brisbane, home business Brisbane, or work from home Brisbane, contact Lifestyle Switch. Make the switch to your own business today.
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