Time Management When Working from Home

When you start out in a from-home business, time management is an element of business management that can be overlooked or ignored.

Sure enough, everybody knows someone in small business who races at it like a madman all day, never enough hours in a day, all they do is rush and get worked up - is it that this person is you! To the week’s end, when the panic settles, what have you achieved? Do you replay the day and ponder “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get so much finished as I planned to do. If this is familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people rarely seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference between them and the other people is they have accomplished time management.

What is time management? It is merely planning time in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can truly understand how to time manage our day, we first need to decide for ourselves what we are hoping to achieve today, this week, this year and perhaps ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The most effective method in my preference to complete goals is to write them down. You might go back to the goals at points to ensure that they are purposeful and possible but not so simple that you don’t need to work to succeed at them otherwise what is the purpose of any goals in the first place?

At the start of every working year you could sit and reflect on what you desire to get this year. It could be that you plan to increase your profits by 20%, you perhaps would like to move into better premises, you might plan to take away from your debt once and for all. From the beginning of a new working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the large tasks that need to be accomplished this week, and check up them on each day to check that you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of the jobs off your list.

You should hold your list on your desk or at a spot where you can be persistently reminded of what needs to be finished this week. The list might be in order of priority so that the most important tasks at the top of your list get done earlier. All the chores not done this week must be put through to next week at a higher priority, this will demand it gets done.

The next thing you should be doing is having a daily list of projects to accomplish. This should help keep you focused during the day. Again, this list may be placed where you are able to persistently refer to it and mark off the items finished. Marking off the chores helps allow you a pride of a job well done and let you check on how you are working during the day. Always adhere to the list unless not possible and try to continue working from the highest priority to low priority. I know problems will show up over the day that might throw the whole day off schedule, but you have to either deal with the problem and get back to your list or if the new job isn’t as urgent as some of the issues on the list then target it for later on the list and continue with the task you were doing.

Every job you need to complete can be written down for a few reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have the day outlined and you complete your daily goals. Be alert to beginning jobs and not finishing them. This could become tomorrow in a cloud of not completed tasks and can cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with the list at a mile long and you will give up in despair and change back to old habits of working in a hurry during your day and finishing nothing.

Remember that every day you set your goals and tick off every job on your list, you will get a little closer to finalising 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 pointless coming back to the item and needing to redo it.
• Learn to simply say to people when you’re too busy and that you will return to them later.
• Learn to give other employees chores that truly don’t require your direct involvement.
• Don’t embark on wild goose chases.
• Don’t use up time on phone calls that will not accomplish something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Look at your list of tasks to do continually throughout the day.
• “Map out your day” in the shower and make out your daily list the minute you begin work. Don’t stop what you begin.
• Prioritise all your jobs, always take care of tasks in their order of necessity to you and your business.

Be evasive with time wasters, people who will only choose to chat all day, and if they are employed by you, set them straight, or get rid of them.

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