When starting out in a from-home business, time management is an area of business management frequently overlooked or neglected.
Sure enough, we all know a friend in small business who races about like a bull all day, never enough hours in a day, all they do is rush and get overloaded - maybe this person is you! To the end of the day, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you review the day and ponder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much completed as I hoped I could. If this is familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people do not seem to rush, they always remain composed and unflustered. The difference with them and other people is they possess time management.
What is time management? It is simply scheduling minutes in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can truly go ahead on how to time manage our day, we first must question ourselves what we are aiming to complete today, this week, this year and as far as ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The simplest method in my opinion to complete goals is to write them down. You can review your goals from time to time to feel that they are appropriate and realisable but not so easy that you don’t have to try to succeed at them otherwise what is the point of the goals in the first place?
From the beginning of a working year you should take time and plan what you plan to achieve this year. It may be that you desire to enlarge your profits by 20%, you could decide to move into different premises, you may want to take down your debt once and for all. From the first day of a new working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the important projects that need to be done this week, and look back on them on every day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully wipe some of your projects from your list.
You can place this list on your desk or at a spot where you could be persistently reminded of what will be finalised throughout the week. This list could be in order of priority so that the key jobs at the top of this list get taken care of early. Any chores not accomplished this week need to be taken through to next week at a higher ranking, this will make sure it gets completed.
The next thing you could be doing is having yourself a daily list of tasks to take care of. This may assist keep you focused in the day. Again, this list may be placed where you are able to constantly look back to it and check off the jobs done. Marking off the projects will give you a pride of completion and let you check on how you are working across the day. Always adhere to your list if possible and keep working from top priority to low priority. I know things do appear through the day that might throw the whole day out of whack, but you need to either take care of the situation and then return to the list or if the newly arisen job isn’t as time sensitive as some of the tasks on the list then list it for later on your list and continue doing the job you were doing.
Every aspect of work you need to do should be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have the day scheduled and you achieve your daily goals. Be wary of initiating chores and not finishing them. This can show up tomorrow in a cloud of half finished tasks and will cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with your list at a mile long and you will back out in despair and go back to those habits of running around in a hurry during the day and completing nothing.
Remember for every day you achieve your goals and mark off every task on your list, you get a step closer to realizing your weekly and eventually your yearly and long term goals.
A few essentials on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s fruitless coming back to the project and having to redo it.
Learn to civilly inform people when you’re working and that you would speak to them some time later.
Learn to delegate tasks that really don’t demand your participation.
Don’t make off on wild goose chases.
Don’t fizzle away time on phone calls that aren’t going to assist with something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Check back on your list of items to do frequently through your day.
“Map out your day” in the shower and schedule out your daily list the minute you start work. Don’t stop what you list.
Prioritise all your chores, always take care of jobs in their order of priority to you and the customers.
Be evasive with time wasters, people who merely decide to chat all day, and if they are your employees, 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.
Pest Control