Time Management When Working from Home

When you start a home based business, time management is an area of business management that can be frequently overlooked or left out of the equation.

Sure enough, we all know a person in small business who races at it like a bull all day, without enough hours in a day, all they do is push and get overwhelmed - perhaps this person is you! Come the end of the week, when the dust settles, what have you completed? Do you review the day and think “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get as much completed as I hoped to do. If this reads familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people don’t appear to rush, they remain composed and unflustered. The difference in them and everybody else is they have accomplished time management.

What is time management? It is just scheduling the clock in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can really understand how to time manage our day, we first must ask ourselves what we are attempting to master today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The easiest process in my perspective to take on goals is to write them down. You can go back to your goals at times to make sure that they are purposeful and possible but not so achievable that you don’t have to put in the work to accomplish them otherwise what is the point of the goals in the first place?

From the beginning of each working year you could takethe time and think about what you want to end up with this year. It can be that you hope to raise your profits by 20%, you could desire to move into other premises, you might hope to reduce your debt once and for all. From the first day of each new working week you may write down on a note pad or in your diary the major chores that have to be finalised this week, and check up them at each day to be sure you’re making progress and hopefully polish some of your chores off your list.

You should place this list on your desk or at a point where you will be continually reminded of what must be finished each week. Your list should be in order of priority so that the key work at the top of your list get accomplished first. Any of the jobs not ticked off this week should be taken up to next week on a higher urgency, this will require it gets taken care of.

The next thing you should be doing is having a daily list of projects to accomplish. This might help keep you on track each day. Again, this list will be put up where you are able to repeatedly check on it and wipe off the items finalised. Polishing off the chores is a way to allow you a touch of completion and let you know how you are working through the day. Always adhere to this list where possible and try to keep working from top priority to the lesser priority. I know difficulties will show up through the day that can throw the whole day out, but you have to either deal with the situation and get back to your list or if the newly arisen project isn’t as serious as some of the projects on the list then list it for later on the list and continue with the work you were doing.

Each chore you have to do needs to be written down for a numerous reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep the day outlined and you complete your daily goals. Be wary of beginning jobs and not finishing them. This will come back tomorrow in a mushroom cloud of not completed chores and will cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with the list at a mile long and you will give it up in despair and go back to bad habits of running around in rush all day and completing nothing.

Remember every day you set your goals and check off every task on your list, you will get a bit closer to succeeding in your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.

A few hints on Time Management:

• Do it once and do it well, it’s fruitless reverting to the item and needing to redo it.
• Learn to politely say to people when you’re busy working and that you would speak to them at a later time.
• Learn to delegate jobs that really don’t require your involvement.
• Don’t embark on wild goose chases.
• Don’t fizzle away time by phone calls that aren’t going to assist with something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Check back to your list of work to do regularly at points through the day.
• “Map out your day” in the car and schedule out your daily list right when you begin work. Achieve what you initiate.
• Prioritise in everything you do, always take care of items in their order of importance to you and your clients.

Get away from time wasters, people who would just decide to chat all day, and if they are your workers, 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.