Time Management When Working from Home

May 18th, 2010

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

We all know a person in small business who races at it like a mad dog all day, rarely enough hours in a day, all they do is hurry and get overloaded - is it that this person is you! Come the end of the week, when the rush settles, what have you done? Do you reflect on the day and think “what happened to the time, I didn’t get so much done as I thought I should. If this seems familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people don’t appear to rush, they always remain composed and unflustered. The difference between them and the others is they have exceptional time management.

What is time management? It is just planning time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can actually get how to time manage our day, we first need to decide for ourselves what we are attempting to accomplish today, this week, this year and perhaps ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The best way in my opinion to complete goals is to write them down. You may review the goals sometimes to know that they are purposeful and possible but not so achievable that you don’t need to put in the hard work to succeed at them otherwise what is the meaning of your goals in the first place?

At the start of each new working year you should take time and think about what you plan to get this year. It might be that you desire to raise your profits by 20%, you perhaps want to move into larger premises, you could wish to reduce your debt substantially. At the beginning of every working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the important projects that need to be accomplished this week, and reflect them each day to ensure that you’re making progress and hopefully wipe some of your tasks off your list.

You might hold your list on your desk or on a point where you can be constantly reminded of what will be accomplished this week. The list should be in order of priority so that the most important work at the top of your list get accomplished first. All chores not achieved this week need to be put up to next week at a higher priority, this should ensure it gets completed.

The next thing you could be doing is creating a daily list of chores to achieve. This might assist keep you focused on each day. Again, this list can be put up where you are able to repeatedly check on it and wipe off the items accomplished. Checking off the chores could give you a touch of success and remind you how you are working through the day. Always stay to this list where possible and try to continue working from high priority to the lesser priority. I know issues could turn up over the day that could throw the whole day up in the air, but you have to either take care of the situation and then return to the list or if the unplanned work isn’t as urgent as some of the projects on your list then target it for later on the list and continue with the work you were doing.

Each project you need to do needs to 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 get your daily goals. Be alert to beginning items and not finishing them. This will come back tomorrow in a plethora of half finished jobs and can cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with a list being a mile long and you will throw it up in despair and change back to bad habits of being in panic all day and completing nothing.

Remember for every day you plan your goals and polish off every job on your list, you will be a day closer to succeeding in 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 going back to the chore and needing to redo it.
Learn to simply inform people when you’re busy and that you will return to them some time later.
Learn to pass out tasks that really don’t need your direct involvement.
Don’t embark on wild goose chases.
Don’t waste time during phone calls that aren’t going to accomplish something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Look at your list of tasks to do frequently at times through your day.
“Map out your day” in the car and schedule out your daily list when you arrive at work. Don’t stop what you start.
Prioritise as a matter of habit, always begin things in their order of urgency to you and the customers.

Be evasive with time wasters, people who would just go off 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.

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