When starting up a from-home business, time management is an element of business management that can be overlooked or left out of the equation.
We all know someone in small business who races about like a madman all day, never enough hours in a day, all they do is hurry and get overwhelmed - perhaps this person is you! To the end of the day, when the panic settles, what have you taken from it? Do you replay the day and wonder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much completed as I planned. If this reads familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t seem to rush, they always seem composed and unflustered. The difference between them and other people is they achieve time management.
What is time management? It is simply scheduling minutes in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can fully go ahead with how to time manage our day, we first must question ourselves what we are hoping to achieve today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The simplest process in my preference to achieve goals is to write them down. You can go back to the goals at times to make sure that they are relevant and workable but not so easy to do that you don’t need to put in the effort to succeed at them otherwise what is the point of your goals in the first place?
At the start of every new working year you could sit down and think about what you hope to accomplish this year. It could be that you desire to enlarge your profits by 20%, you perhaps plan to move into larger premises, you perhaps want to get rid of your debt significantly. By the first day of every new working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that have to be finished this week, and check up them at the end of each day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of those chores off your list.
You might keep this list on your desk or in a point where you will be repeatedly reminded of what will be done this week. The list should be in order of urgency so that the major work at the top of your list get accomplished earlier. All the work not ticked off this week must be put forward next week at a higher priority, this will demand it gets done.
The next thing you may not be doing is writing a daily list of chores to accomplish. This can help keep you organised on each day. Again, this list can be put up where you are able to persistently look back to it and tick off the chores finalised. Checking off the tasks can allow you a pride of success and let you know how you are going across the day. Always hold to this list if possible and try to continue working from top priority to the lower priority. I know wormholes sometimes jump up throughout the day that could throw the whole day out of whack, but you must either take on the crisis and get back on to the list or if the sudden project isn’t as time sensitive as some of the work on your list then put it at the bottom on your list and continue with the item you were doing.
Each aspect of work you hope to do could be written down for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep your day scheduled and you accomplish your daily goals. Be alert to starting tasks and not completing them. This might become tomorrow in a cloud of incomplete tasks and will cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list at a mile long and you will throw the towel in in despair and revert back to those habits of getting in confusion each day and completing nothing.
Remember for each day you write out your goals and mark off all the chores on your list, you will get a little bit closer to realizing your weekly and eventually your yearly and long term goals.
A few pointers on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating reverting to the project and having to redo it.
Learn to politely tell people when you’re too busy and that you can return to them at a later time.
Learn to give other employees chores that truly don’t need your direct involvement.
Don’t make off on wild goose chases.
Don’t use up time on phone calls that aren’t going to take care of something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Look back on your list of work to do repeatedly at points through your day.
“Map out your day” in the car and schedule out your daily list the second you get to work. Complete what you begin.
Prioritise all your jobs, always do chores in their order of priority to you and your clients.
Avoid time wasters, people who will simply like to chat all day, and if they are your employees, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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