When you start out in a home business, time management is an area of business management that is overlooked or neglected.
We all know a friend in small business who races around like a mad dog 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 dust settles, what have you gotten out of it? Do you think about the day and wonder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I intended to do. If this sounds familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t appear to rush, they remain composed and unflustered. The difference between them and other people is they achieve time management.
What is time management? It is simply arranging the clock in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can actually understand how to time manage our day, we need to question ourselves what we are planning to complete today, this week, this year and up to ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The best way in my preference to accomplish goals is to write them down. You can think about these goals at points to make sure that they are purposeful and realisable but not so achievable that you don’t have to make the effort to succeed at them otherwise what is the meaning of the goals in the first place?
From the beginning of a new working year you could pause and plan what you plan to get this year. It might be that you need to enlarge your profits by 20%, you can desire to move into bigger premises, you may wish to take down your debt once and for all. At the start of each working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that have to be achieved this week, and check on them at each day to make sure that you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of those projects off your list.
You should keep your list on your desk or in a point where you could be persistently reminded of what has to be accomplished each week. Your list should be in order of priority so that the most important jobs at the top of this list get achieved first up. Any of the projects not finished this week must be carried onto next week at a higher importance, this will make sure it gets taken care of.
The next thing you could be doing is having a daily list of projects to take care of. This might assist keep you organised throughout the day. Again, this list should be put up where you can persistently look back to it and tick off the projects done. Ticking off the items could allow you a sense of a job well done and remind you how you are working across the day. Always stick to this list where possible and continue working from the top priority to low priority. I know difficulties could come up during the day that could throw the whole day off track, but you must either deal with the problem and get back to the list or if the sudden project isn’t as serious as some of the work on the list then place it lower on the list and continue on with the work you were doing.
Each piece of work you hope to get done could be written down for a numerous reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you have the day outlined and you complete your daily goals. Be alert to starting jobs and not completing them. This will become tomorrow in a plethora of not completed projects and could cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list reading a mile long and you will throw it up in despair and go back to bad habits of being in confusion during the day and completing nothing.
Remember every day you write out your goals and check off all the jobs on your list, you will be a little closer to achieving your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few basics on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s wasteful reverting to the issue and having to redo it.
Learn to nicely say to people when you’re busy working and that you will return to them at a later time.
Learn to delegate tasks that really don’t demand your direct participation.
Don’t make off on wild goose chases.
Don’t use up time on phone calls that are not going to assist with something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Refer to your list of jobs to do repeatedly throughout the day.
“Map out your day” in the car and make out your daily list as soon as you get to work. Achieve what you start.
Prioritise in everything you do, always do things in their order of urgency to you and your business.
Get away from time wasters, people who will only like to chat all day, and if they work for you, 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.
Fresh Water Aquarium