When you start up a home based business, time management is an area of business management usually overlooked or ignored.
Surely we all know a person in small business who races at it like a madman all day, without enough hours in a day, all they do is panic and get worked up - is it that this person is you! At the end of the day, when the dust settles, what have you completed? Do you replay the day and realise “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would. If this reads familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people do not seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference with them and others is they achieve time management.
What is time management? It is just arranging the clock in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can fully take on how to time manage our day, we need to question ourselves what we are planning to accomplish today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The simplest key in my view to take on goals is to write them down. You can go back to these goals at points to ensure that they are purposeful and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t need to work hard to succeed at them otherwise what is the reason of the goals in the first place?
From the beginning of every new working year you could sit and ponder what you plan to end up with this year. It could be that you hope to enlarge your profits by 20%, you can hope to move into other premises, you might desire to take away from your debt once and for all. At the first day of each new working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the major tasks that must to be finished this week, and check on them at every day to ensure you’re making progress and hopefully check some of those projects from the list.
You may keep your list on your desk or in a spot where you can be continually reminded of what must be completed this week. This list should be in order of priority so that the key jobs at the top of this list get finalised earlier. Any of the tasks not checked off this week need to be taken up to next week at a higher importance, this will make sure it gets finalised.
The next thing you might not be doing is creating a daily list of chores to achieve. This might help keep you on track during each day. Again, this list can be placed where you can continually see it and check off the tasks completed. Wiping off the jobs will give you a touch of completion and let you know how you are progressing through the day. Always adhere to this list unless not possible and try to continue working from high priority to lower priority. I know difficulties sometimes jump up through the day that can throw the whole day up in the air, but you have to either deal with the problem and then return to the list or if the unplanned task isn’t as important as some of the tasks on the list then place it lower on the list and continue on doing the chore you were doing.
Every item you have to do should be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep every day organised and you accomplish your daily goals. Be sensitive to beginning tasks and not finishing them. This might come back tomorrow in a mess of half finished jobs and can cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with your list a mile long and you will back out in despair and revert back to those habits of getting yourself in panic all day and completing nothing.
Remember for each day you achieve your goals and tick off every project on your list, you become a little bit closer to realizing your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few hints 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 politely say to people when you’re working and that you will speak to them at a later time.
Learn to pass out chores that truly don’t demand your direct involvement.
Don’t go on wild goose chases.
Don’t spend time during phone calls that cannot assist with something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Refer to your list of work to do repeatedly through your day.
“Map out your day” in the shower and list out your daily list the second you get to work. Don’t stop what you start.
Prioritise as a matter of habit, always begin issues in their order of urgency to you and the customers.
Stay away from time wasters, people that would only choose to chat all day, and if they are your workers, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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