Time Management When Working from Home
When starting out in a home based business, time management is an element of business management that can be often overlooked or left out of the equation.
Sure enough, everybody knows some person in small business who races around like a chicken with its head cut off all day, without enough hours in the day, all they do is hurry and get worked up - is it that this person is you! Come the week’s end, when the rush settles, what have you achieved? Do you reflect on the day and ponder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get so much done as I hoped I should. If this seems familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t seem to rush, they always seem composed and unflustered. The difference from them and the other people is they command time management.
What is time management? It is simply scheduling time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can fully understand how to time manage our day, we need to decide for ourselves what we are trying to do today, this week, this year and up to ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The simplest key in my preference to accomplish goals is to write them down. You might think about these goals at times to feel that they are meaningful and achievable but not so simple to do that you don’t need to put in the work to accomplish them otherwise what is the meaning of the goals in the first place?
From the beginning of every new working year you could sit down and reflect on what you plan to take away from this year. It might be that you desire to increase your profits by 20%, you might would like to move into other premises, you may desire to take down your debt once and for all. From the beginning of each new working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the major chores that must to be completed this week, and look back on them on each day to make sure you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of those chores from the list.
You might keep this list on your desk or at a place where you can be persistently reminded of what must be done throughout the week. The list should be in order of urgency so that the impending work at the top of this list get finalised first up. All the chores not completed this week need to be carried forward next week on a higher ranking, this will require it gets ticked off.
The next thing you can be doing is writing a daily list of chores to accomplish. This may assist keep you focused throughout each day. Again, this list can be put up where you are able to repeatedly see it and wipe off the tasks finished. Finishing off the jobs helps allow you a sense of success and let you reflect on how you are progressing across the day. Always hold to your list if possible and try to continue working from the top priority to the lowest priority. I know difficulties do show up throughout the day that may throw the whole day off schedule, but you need to either take care of the situation and get back to your list or if the unplanned chore isn’t as serious as some of the jobs on your list then target it after these on your list and continue on doing what you were doing.
Each item you plan to get done should be written down for a multiplicity of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t put off to do it and secondly, so you have the day outlined and you realise your daily goals. Beware initiating items and not finishing them. This would become tomorrow in a mushroom cloud of half baked tasks and could cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list a mile long and you will throw it out in despair and revert back to those habits of working in confusion every day and accomplishing nothing.
Remember each day you write out your goals and mark off all the projects on your list, you will be a little bit closer to completing your weekly and eventually your yearly and long term goals.
A few hints on Time Management:
- Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating going back to the task and needing to redo it.
- Learn to civilly say to people when you’re busy working and that you would speak to them at a later time.
- Learn to give other people jobs that truly don’t need your direct involvement.
- Don’t embark on wild goose chases.
- Don’t waste time during phone calls that cannot take care of something.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Look back on your list of tasks to do regularly through your day.
- “Map out your day” in the shower and list out your daily list right when you begin work. Achieve what you initiate.
- Prioritise all your tasks, always take care of things in their order of urgency to you and the business.
Stay away from time wasters, people that will merely decide 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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