Time Management When Working from Home
When starting up a home based business, time management is an area of business management frequently overlooked or left out of the equation.
Surely we all know a person in small business who races about like a madman all day, never enough hours in each day, all they do is hurry and get overwhelmed – is it that this person is you! To the end of the day, when the panic settles, what have you done? Do you replay the day and ponder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I planned to do. If this seems familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t seem to rush, they always stay composed and unflustered. The difference between them and others is they command time management.
What is time management? It is merely arranging the clock in your day in an organised and efficient method. Before we can truly go ahead on how to time manage our day, we first need to ask 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 most effective process in my perspective to accomplish goals is to write them down. You may review these goals sometimes to feel that they are appropriate and workable but not so easy to do that you don’t have to work hard to succeed at them otherwise what is the point of the goals in the first place?
At the beginning of every working year you should sit down and plan what you desire to complete this year. It might be that you wish to gross up your profits by 20%, you can would like to move into different premises, you can wish to reduce your debt in a significant way. At the first day of every working week you might write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that need to be taken care of this week, and check back them on every day to know that you’re making progress and hopefully polish some of those projects from the list.
You can place the list on your desk or on a spot where you can be constantly reminded of what will be finalised this week. Your list should be in order of urgency so that the most important chores at the top of your list get achieved first up. Any projects not achieved this week must be taken onto next week at a higher importance, this should ensure it gets finalised.
The next thing you will be doing is writing a daily list of projects to accomplish. This should assist keep you on schedule in the day. Again, this list might be put where you are able to continually look at it and tick off the chores accomplished. Wiping off the chores helps to allow you a pride of achievement and let you review how you are moving throughout the day. Always hold to this list when possible and try to continue working from high priority to the lowest priority. I know changes sometimes appear through the day that can throw the whole day out, but you must either take on the situation and return to your list or if the sudden situation isn’t as serious as some of the tasks on the list then list it later on your list and continue doing the project you were doing.
Each aspect of work you plan to achieve should be written down for a few reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep every day scheduled and you achieve your daily goals. Be careful of initiating tasks and not finishing them. This could come back tomorrow in a plethora of half baked projects and could cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list at a mile long and you will give it up in despair and go back to those habits of running around in confusion during your day and finishing nothing.
Remember every day you write out your goals and tick off all the jobs on your list, you become a step closer to finalising your weekly and soon your yearly and long term goals.
A few essentials on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s wasteful returning to the project and having to redo it.
Learn to civilly inform people when you’re busy and that you will speak to them at a later point.
Learn to give other employees chores that truly don’t require your hand.
Don’t go on wild goose chases.
Don’t waste time by phone calls that can’t take care of something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Look at your list of tasks to do regularly at points through your day.
“Map out your day” in the shower and list out your daily list as soon as you get to work. Finish what you start.
Prioritise every day, always take jobs in their order of priority to you and the clients.
Don’t get in with 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.
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