Time Management When Working from Home

When you start a home business, time management is an aspect of business management that is overlooked or left out of the equation.

Surely everybody knows some person in small business who races about like a chicken with its head cut off all day, rarely enough hours in their day, all they do is panic and get worked up - maybe this person is you! By the end of the day, when the pace settles, what have you gotten out of it? Do you reflect on the day and wonder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get so much completed as I hoped I would. If this seems familiar, then you might simply have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people don’t ever seem to rush, they always seem composed and unflustered. The difference from them and everybody else is they command time management.

What is time management? It is just scheduling minutes in your day in an organised and efficient method. Before we can really get how to time manage our day, we must figure for ourselves what we are trying to master today, this week, this year and as far as ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The most effective key in my opinion to accomplish goals is to write them down. You might review these goals sometimes to feel that they are purposeful and achievable but not so easy that you don’t have to put in the work to succeed at them otherwise what is the meaning of any goals in the first place?

From the start of each working year you should take time and think about what you hope to achieve this year. It could be that you plan to raise your profits by 20%, you perhaps want to move into larger premises, you could plan to take down your debt in a significant way. From the beginning of each new working week you might write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that must to be achieved this week, and review them at the end of each day to make sure that you’re making progress and hopefully polish some of those chores off your list.

You could have the list on your desk or on a location where you will be repeatedly reminded of what will be finalised throughout the week. The list should be in order of necessity so that the most important chores at the top of your list get achieved first. All chores not done this week will be taken onto next week on a higher importance, this will ensure it gets finished.

The next thing you can be doing is having a daily list of tasks to accomplish. This will help keep you focused during the day. Again, this list may be put up where you can continually look at it and write off the jobs completed. Polishing off the items helps allow you a pride of a job well done and remind you how you are moving through the day. Always adhere to the list if possible and try to continue working from high priority to the lesser priority. I know changes can show up through the day that can throw the whole day up in the air, but you must either take care of the dilemma and get back on to your list or if the sudden dilemma isn’t as serious as some of the issues on your list then list it after these on your list and continue with the job you were doing.

Each chore you have to get done needs to be written down for a numerous reasons. Firstly, so you don’t put off to do it and secondly, so you keep your day organised and you finish your daily goals. Be sensitive to initiating items and not finishing them. This could show up tomorrow in a disaster of half finished jobs and can cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with your list being a mile long and you will give up in despair and revert back to old habits of being in panic during the day and completing nothing.

Remember that every day you set your goals and check off all the projects on your list, you will get a little closer to polishing off your weekly and finally your yearly and long term goals.

A few hints on Time Management:

• Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating coming back to the chore and needing to redo it.
• Learn to politely communicate to people when you’re busy working and that you would get back to them later.
• Learn to give other people work that really don’t require your participation.
• Don’t take on wild goose chases.
• Don’t fizzle away time during phone calls that won’t assist with something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Review your list of items to do continually through the day.
• “Map out your day” in the car and make out your daily list the minute you get to work. Achieve what you start.
• Prioritise habitually, always begin things in their order of priority to you and your business.

Avoid time wasters, people who would merely start to chat all day, and if they work for you, set them straight, or get rid of them.

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