Time Management When Working from Home
When you are starting a home based business, time management is an element of business management that can be frequently overlooked or left out of the equation.
Surely everybody knows some person in small business who races at it like a madman all day, rarely enough hours in every day, all they do is rush and get overwhelmed - is it that this person is you! At the end of the week, when the rush settles, what have you achieved? Do you reflect on the day and realise “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get so much accomplished as I planned I could. If this is familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people rarely appear to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference from them and everybody else is they command time management.
What is time management? It is merely scheduling the clock in your day in an organised and efficient method. Before we can actually get how to time manage our day, we first need to question ourselves what we are hoping to do today, this week, this year and possibly even ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The best key in my preference to take on goals is to write them down. You might think about the goals at points to ensure that they are relevant and achievable but not so simple to do that you don’t have to try hard to complete them otherwise what is the point of your goals in the first place?
At the beginning of every working year you should sit down and ponder what you want to achieve this year. It may be that you want to raise your profits by 20%, you perhaps hope to move into larger premises, you could plan to get rid of your debt finally. By the first day of each working week you might write down on a note pad or in your diary the major chores that must to be completed this week, and check back them at the end of every day to make sure you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of your jobs off your list.
You should hold your list on your desk or on a point where you can be continually reminded of what must be done throughout the week. Your list can be in order of priority so that the key chores at the top of your list get accomplished first up. All the jobs not ticked off this week should be brought onto next week on a higher ranking, this will require it gets finalised.
The next thing you could be doing is giving yourself a daily list of jobs to accomplish. This may assist keep you focused during each day. Again, this list should be displayed where you can repeatedly refer to it and mark off the chores done. Polishing off the tasks will allow you a sense of completion and let you reflect on how you are working through the day. Always adhere to your list unless not possible and continue working from top priority to lower priority. I know things can appear through the day that may throw the whole day off track, but you need to either take on the crisis and get back on to your list or if the new job isn’t as urgent as some of the chores on your list then list it at the bottom on the list and continue with the task you were doing.
Each job you hope to complete must be written down for a few reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep your day organised and you complete your daily goals. Be wary of initiating items and not completing them. This would turn tomorrow in a plethora of not completed jobs and can cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list reading a mile long and you will give it up in despair and change back to old habits of getting yourself in confusion during your day and finishing nothing.
Remember each day you plan your goals and check off everything on your list, you will be a little bit closer to succeeding in your weekly and soon your yearly and long term goals.
A few basics on Time Management:
- Do it once and do it well, it’s fruitless going back to the issue and needing to redo it.
- Learn to civilly inform people when you’re working and that you would speak to them some time later.
- Learn to delegate jobs that truly don’t demand your involvement.
- Don’t go on wild goose chases.
- Don’t spend time by phone calls that aren’t going to achieve something.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Check back to your list of things to do repeatedly through the day.
- “Map out your day” in the shower and make out your daily list when you start work. Achieve what you initiate.
- Prioritise everything, always take care of items in their order of urgency to you and your work.
Stay away from time wasters, people that will simply go off to chat all day, and if they are your employees, 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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