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Time Management When Working from Home

When starting out in a from-home business, time management is an area of business management that is usually overlooked or ignored.

Surely everybody knows a person in small business who races about like a chicken with its head cut off all day, never enough hours in each day, all they do is panic and get overtaken - is it that this person is you! By the week’s end, when the pace settles, what have you taken from it? Do you reflect on the day and ponder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much done as I intended to do. If this sounds familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people seldom seem to rush, they always stay composed and unflustered. The difference in them and the others is they have exceptional time management.

What is time management? It is simply scheduling time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can fully get how to time manage our day, we must figure for ourselves what we are aiming to achieve today, this week, this year and perhaps even ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The most effective method in my opinion to take on goals is to write them down. You should review the goals at times to know that they are meaningful and workable but not so achievable that you don’t have to try to achieve them otherwise what is the reason of any goals in the first place?

From the start of each new working year you should pause and plan what you want to complete this year. It may be that you hope to increase your profits by 20%, you can would like to move into other premises, you may desire to take away from your debt in a significant way. By the beginning of every working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the signifcant jobs that have to be achieved this week, and reflect them at every day to check you’re making progress and hopefully polish some of the chores from your list.

You might place the list on your desk or at a point where you can be constantly reminded of what needs to be undertaken each week. Your list can be in order of priority so that the key work at the top of your list get taken care of earlier. Any projects not achieved this week should be carried forward next week at a higher importance, this should make sure it gets accomplished.

The next thing you will be doing is giving yourself a daily list of tasks to get done. This may help keep you on schedule in the day. Again, this list might be put where you are able to persistently see it and mark off the items finalised. Ticking off the items is a way to allow you a touch of achievement and let you reflect on how you are going through the day. Always stay to this list when possible and try to keep working from high priority to low priority. I know difficulties could turn up over the day that might throw the whole day topsyturvy, but you have to either deal with the dilemma and get back on to your list or if the newly arisen situation isn’t as important as some of the projects on your list then target it after these on your list and continue on with the project you were doing.

Each issue you need to get done must be written down for a numerous reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have each day outlined and you complete your daily goals. Be careful of starting chores and not finishing them. This could turn tomorrow in a mushroom cloud of half baked work and could cause “list blowout”.

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

Remember for each day you set your goals and mark off all the items on your list, you will get a step closer to succeeding in your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.

A few pointers on Time Management:

Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating going back to the issue and having to redo it.

Learn to civilly say to people when you’re too busy and that you can return to them at a later time.

Learn to give other employees items that really don’t demand your direct participation.

Don’t make off on wild goose chases.

Don’t fizzle away time by phone calls that won’t take care of something.

Don’t procrastinate.

Check back on your list of items to do frequently at points through the day.

“Map out your day” in the car and schedule out your daily list right when you arrive at work. Don’t stop what you start.

Prioritise always, always keep jobs in their order of importance to you and the customers.

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

For more information about working from home in Brisbane, contact Lifestyle Switch. Make the switch to your own business today.