Time Management When Working from Home
When you start out in a from-home business, time management is an aspect of business management that can be frequently overlooked or neglected.
Sure enough, we all know someone in small business who races at it like a madman all day, seldom enough hours in a day, all they do is panic and get overwhelmed - maybe this person is you! To the end of the week, when the panic settles, what have you achieved? Do you think about the day and ponder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much completed as I hoped I would. If this seems familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t ever seem to rush, they always stay composed and unflustered. The difference with them and other people is they have accomplished time management.
What is time management? It is simply allocating time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can really go ahead with how to time manage our day, we need to decide for ourselves what we are aiming to master today, this week, this year and as far as ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The most effective process in my view to accomplish goals is to write them down. You can go back to the goals at points to feel that they are purposeful and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t have to put in the hard work to accomplish them otherwise what is the point of any goals in the first place?
At the start of a working year you could takethe time and plan what you plan to achieve this year. It may be that you desire to increase your profits by 20%, you could hope to move into other premises, you perhaps plan to take down your debt in a significant way. At the start of every new working week you may write down on a note pad or in your diary the important jobs that need to be finished this week, and check up them at every day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of those chores from your list.
You could keep your list on your desk or at a point where you will be repeatedly reminded of what will be finalised each week. This list should be in order of importance so that the key projects at the top of your list get finished early. Any jobs not finished this week should be carried through to next week at a higher priority, this will ensure it gets achieved.
The next thing you can be doing is creating a daily list of tasks to get done. This should assist keep you focused throughout the day. Again, this list will be placed where you are able to continually see it and check off the items finalised. Checking off the tasks helps to allow you a feeling of accomplishment and let you know how you are going during the day. Always adhere to this list where possible and try to keep working from top priority to the lesser priority. I know problems do turn up during the day that might throw the whole day off track, but you have to either deal with the situation and get back to your list or if the sudden problem isn’t as urgent as some of the issues on the list then target it later on the list and continue on doing the job you were doing.
Every project you hope to finish needs to be written down for a number of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep every day planned and you finish your daily goals. Beware starting items and not finishing them. This might turn tomorrow in a cloud of incomplete chores and could cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with your list being a mile long and you will throw the towel in in despair and revert back to bad habits of running around in a fuss during your day and completing nothing.
Remember that each day you plan your goals and mark off every project on your list, you will get a bit closer to accomplishing your weekly and soon your yearly and long term goals.
A few pointers on Time Management:
- Do it once and do it well, it’s fruitless going back to the work and having to redo it.
- Learn to simply tell people when you’re busy with work and that you would speak to them later.
- Learn to give out items that truly don’t demand your direct involvement.
- Don’t take on wild goose chases.
- Don’t fizzle away time by phone calls that are not going to accomplish something.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Look back to your list of jobs to do regularly throughout the day.
- “Map out your day” in the car and list out your daily list the minute you start work. Finish what you start.
- Prioritise all your chores, always do tasks in their order of necessity to you and the business.
Avoid time wasters, people who will only start to chat all day, and if they are your employees, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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