Time Management When Working from Home
When starting out in a home business, time management is an area of business management usually overlooked or neglected.
Sure enough, we all know someone in small business who races around like a madman all day, rarely enough hours in each day, all they do is hurry and get overwhelmed - is it that this person is you! At the week’s end, when the rush settles, what have you achieved? Do you think about the day and wonder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get so much done as I intended. If this is familiar, then you may just have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people never appear to rush, they always remain composed and unflustered. The difference with them and others is they achieve time management.
What is time management? It is just scheduling time in your day in an organised and efficient process. Before we can truly go ahead with how to time manage our day, we first must question ourselves what we are trying to master today, this week, this year and even up to ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The simplest way in my view to complete goals is to write them down. You might think about these goals at times to feel that they are relevant and realisable but not so easy to do that you don’t need to put in the work to accomplish them otherwise what is the point of the goals in the first place?
At the start of each working year you could takethe time and plan what you desire to achieve this year. It may be that you plan to gross up your profits by 20%, you may want to move into other premises, you can desire to take down your debt significantly. At the start of each new working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the large chores that need to be done this week, and check back them every day to make sure you’re making progress and hopefully wipe some of the projects from the list.
You may hold your list on your desk or on a place where you should be continually reminded of what will be accomplished throughout the week. The list can be in order of priority so that the most important jobs at the top of your list get finished first up. All the tasks not done this week should be carried onto next week on a higher importance, this should make sure it gets achieved.
The next thing you should be doing is having a daily list of jobs to take care of. This will help keep you organised in the day. Again, this list may be displayed where you are able to continually look back to it and write off the items accomplished. Polishing off the projects can give you a sense of completion and let you reflect on how you are going across the day. Always stick to the list if possible and keep working from the top priority to less priority. I know loopholes could show up through the day that could throw the whole day off schedule, but you have to either take on the situation and get back on to your list or if the newly arisen chore isn’t as time sensitive as some of the issues on your list then target it after these on your list and continue on doing what you were doing.
Each item you have to do could be written down for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you have your day planned and you get your daily goals. Be alert to beginning chores and not completing them. This could turn tomorrow in a mess of incomplete jobs and can cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with your list reading a mile long and you will throw it out in despair and revert back to old habits of running around in a hurry during your day and completing nothing.
Remember for each day you set your goals and polish off every project on your list, you will get a little closer to reaching your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few tips on Time Management:
- Do it once and do it well, it’s fruitless returning to the issue and needing to redo it.
- Learn to simply say to people when you’re busy with work and that you would return to them later.
- Learn to issue work that truly don’t require your participation.
- Don’t make off on wild goose chases.
- Don’t waste time by phone calls that are not going to achieve something.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Check back on your list of chores to do regularly through the day.
- “Map out your day” in the car and make out your daily list right when you begin work. Achieve what you start.
- Prioritise all your work, always do chores in their order of urgency to you and your customers.
Get away from time wasters, people that will only go off to chat all day, and if they are employed by 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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