When starting up a home based business, time management is an aspect of business management that is overlooked or ignored.
Sure enough, we all know someone in small business who races around like a madman all day, rarely enough hours in the day, all they do is panic and get worked up – is it that this person is you! To the week’s end, when the pace settles, what have you accomplished? Do you think about the day and ponder “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I planned I would. If this reads familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people don’t ever seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference from them and everybody else is they have mastered time management.
What is time management? It is just scheduling the clock in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can fully go ahead with how to time manage our day, we need to ask ourselves what we are trying to master today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The top method in my preference to accomplish goals is to write them down. You should think about your goals at points to ensure that they are purposeful and realisable but not so simple that you don’t need to make the effort to accomplish them otherwise what is the reason of those goals in the first place?
From the beginning of each working year you could take time and ponder what you desire to complete this year. It can be that you need to enlarge your profits by 20%, you could want to move into other premises, you may hope to reduce your debt once and for all. By the beginning of each working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the major projects that have to be finished this week, and reflect them at the end of every day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of your jobs from the list.
You might have the list on your desk or at a place where you should be repeatedly reminded of what has to be achieved each week. The list could be in order of importance so that the major projects at the top of the list get finalised first. Anything not checked off this week will be taken through to next week at a higher urgency, this should demand it gets completed.
The next thing you may not be doing is having yourself a daily list of chores to achieve. This will assist keep you organised during the day. Again, this list could be displayed where you can repeatedly refer to it and tick off the jobs accomplished. Wiping off the tasks can allow you a pride of accomplishment and let you know how you are progressing through the day. Always hold to the list if possible and try to continue working from the top priority to the lesser priority. I know changes do appear over the day that can throw the whole day out, but you need to either deal with the dilemma and return to your list or if the sudden situation isn’t as time sensitive as some of the jobs on your list then target it lower on the list and continue with the work you were doing.
Every aspect of work you have to complete must be written down for a few reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have your day organised and you accomplish your daily goals. Be wary of beginning jobs and not completing them. This can come back tomorrow in a plethora of half finished jobs and can cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with the list reading a mile long and you will back out in despair and revert back to bad habits of being in rush during the day and completing nothing.
Remember each day you accomplish your goals and polish off every task on your list, you will get a little bit closer to achieving your weekly and eventually your yearly and long term goals.
A few hints on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating reverting to the chore and needing to redo it.
Learn to politely say to people when you’re busy with work and that you can speak to them later.
Learn to issue work that actually don’t require your involvement.
Don’t go on wild goose chases.
Don’t waste time on phone calls that won’t do something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Check back on your list of jobs to do regularly throughout the day.
“Map out your day” in the morning and plan out your daily list as soon as you get to work. Finish what you list.
Prioritise all your tasks, always keep tasks in their order of necessity to you and your clients.
Don’t get in with time wasters, people who will simply choose to chat all day, and if they are your employees, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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