When starting out in a home based business, time management is an area of business management that is usually overlooked or ignored.
Everybody knows some person in small business who races around like a bull all day, seldom enough hours in the day, all they do is panic and get worked up - maybe this person is you! To the end of the day, when the panic settles, what have you gotten out of it? Do you think about the day and ponder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get so much accomplished as I hoped I should. If this feels familiar, then you may simply have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference between them and the other people is they have accomplished time management.
What is time management? It is simply allocating minutes in your day in an organised and efficient method. Before we can truly get how to time manage our day, we need to question ourselves what we are hoping to achieve today, this week, this year and up to ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The most effective method in my preference to complete goals is to write them down. You could go back to the goals at points to know that they are appropriate and workable but not so simple that you don’t have to put in the work to accomplish them otherwise what is the point of any goals in the first place?
At the beginning of every working year you should sit and ponder what you wish to get this year. It can be that you need to raise your profits by 20%, you could plan to move into other premises, you could wish to take down your debt once and for all. From the beginning of each working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the major tasks that must to be taken care of this week, and look back on them on each day to ensure you’re making progress and hopefully wipe some of your tasks from the list.
You may keep the list on your desk or at a spot where you can be persistently reminded of what needs to be undertaken throughout the week. This list might be in order of importance so that the impending jobs at the top of the list get done earlier. All work not finished this week need to be put onto next week at a higher urgency, this will demand it gets ticked off.
The next thing you will be doing is giving yourself a daily list of tasks to do. This should help keep you on schedule in the day. Again, this list may be put where you are able to persistently check on it and tick off the tasks finalised. Polishing off the jobs is a way to give you a touch of achievement and let you review how you are progressing throughout the day. Always stick to your list if possible and try to continue working from the highest priority to less priority. I know difficulties will turn up during the day that can throw the whole day off schedule, but you need to either take on the problem and then return to the list or if the new situation isn’t as urgent as some of the chores on your list then place it after these on the list and continue on doing the task you were doing.
Each aspect of work you have to get done must be written down for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep the day organised and you accomplish your daily goals. Be sensitive to initiating chores and not completing them. This would come back tomorrow in a mess of half baked tasks and can cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with the list being a mile long and you will throw it out in despair and go back to bad habits of running around in panic each day and realizing nothing.
Remember for each day you write out your goals and write off everything on your list, you get a step closer to accomplishing your weekly and finally your yearly and long term goals.
A few tips on Time Management:
Avoid time wasters, people that will simply go off to chat all day, and if they are employed by you, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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Tags: home business brisbane, work from homeMay 18th, 2010UncategorizedRead More >No Comments