Time Management When Working from Home
When you start up a from-home business, time management is an area of business management often overlooked or ignored.
Sure enough, we all know a friend in small business who races at it like a madman all day, without enough hours in their day, all they do is rush and get worked up - perhaps this person is you! Come the end of the day, when the rush settles, what have you done? Do you review the day and realise “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much completed as I thought I should. If this reads familiar, then you may just have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people seldom seem to rush, they seem composed and unflustered. The difference in them and everybody else is they possess time management.
What is time management? It is just scheduling the clock in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can truly go ahead on how to time manage our day, we first must ask ourselves what we are attempting to master today, this week, this year and perhaps even ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The best key in my view to complete goals is to write them down. You should review all your goals at times to ensure that they are relevant and achievable but not so easy that you don’t have to make the effort to achieve them otherwise what is the meaning of those goals in the first place?
At the beginning of every new working year you can pause and ponder what you want to take away from this year. It might be that you wish to increase your profits by 20%, you might desire to move into different premises, you perhaps wish to take away from your debt significantly. From the start of a new working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the important jobs that have to be accomplished this week, and check back them at each day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully polish some of the chores off your list.
You might keep this list on your desk or in a spot where you should be continually reminded of what will be undertaken this week. The list might be in order of urgency so that the major projects at the top of the list get finished earlier. Any of the jobs not finished this week will be carried through to next week on a higher ranking, this should ensure it gets ticked off.
The next thing you may not be doing is having yourself a daily list of tasks to accomplish. This should help keep you on track throughout each day. Again, this list might be placed where you are able to continually see it and write off the projects completed. Polishing off the chores could give you a pride of accomplishment and let you reflect on how you are working through the day. Always adhere to the list unless not possible and try to keep working from top priority to the lesser priority. I know problems do turn up through the day that can throw the whole day topsyturvy, but you have to either deal with the problem and then return to your list or if the sudden dilemma isn’t as serious as some of the items on your list then place it for later on the list and continue doing the item you were doing.
Each project you have to complete must be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have your day outlined and you get your daily goals. Be wary of initiating items and not completing them. This may turn tomorrow in a mushroom cloud of half finished chores and could cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list at a mile long and you will give up in despair and change back to those habits of being in rush each day and accomplishing nothing.
Remember every day you set your goals and polish off every project on your list, you get a little bit closer to finalising your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few essentials on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating coming back to the project and needing to redo it.
Learn to politely say to people when you’re too busy and that you would speak to them at a later time.
Learn to give other employees chores that truly don’t require your direct work.
Don’t make off on wild goose chases.
Don’t spend time by phone calls that are not going to assist with something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Check back to your list of work to do repeatedly throughout the day.
“Map out your day” in the morning and plan out your daily list when you get to work. Complete what you initiate.
Prioritise all your jobs, always begin chores in their order of urgency to you and the clients.
Get away from time wasters, people that will merely go off to chat all day, and if they are your workers, 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.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment