When starting out in a home based business, time management is an element of business management that is overlooked or ignored.

Sure enough, we all know some person in small business who races about like a chicken with its head cut off all day, seldom enough hours in each day, all they do is push and get overwhelmed - is it that this person is you! Come the end of the week, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you replay the day and wonder “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get as much finished as I thought I could. If this feels familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people seldom seem to rush, they are always composed and unflustered. The difference from them and the other people is they command time management.

What is time management? It is merely allocating minutes in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can really understand how to time manage our day, we first must question ourselves what we are attempting to master today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The easiest key in my preference to take on goals is to write them down. You might go back to the goals at points to ensure that they are relevant and possible but not so achievable that you don’t have to try to succeed at them otherwise what is the purpose of any goals in the first place?

From the beginning of each new working year you should sit and plan what you want to accomplish this year. It can be that you want to enlarge your profits by 20%, you perhaps plan to move into different premises, you can hope to take down your debt significantly. By the first day of each new 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 look back on them on each day to know that you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of your chores off your list.

You may hold the list on your desk or at a place where you should be continually reminded of what has to be completed this week. This list may be in order of urgency so that the impending tasks at the top of the list get finalised first. Any chores not achieved this week need to be carried forward next week at a higher importance, this should make sure it gets accomplished.

The next thing you will be doing is creating a daily list of chores to accomplish. This will assist keep you organised in the day. Again, this list will be put up where you can persistently look at it and write off the chores finalised. Ticking off the jobs is a way to allow you a pride of a job well done and let you check on how you are moving during the day. Always hold to your list where possible and continue working from top priority to the lesser priority. I know changes do come up over the day that might throw the whole day out of whack, but you need to either deal with the problem and then return to the list or if the sudden job isn’t as serious as some of the items on your list then put it later on your list and continue doing the chore you were doing.

Every job you hope to do needs to be written down for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t put off to do it and secondly, so you have each day planned and you complete your daily goals. Be wary of starting chores and not completing them. This could become tomorrow in a plethora of half finished work and can cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with the list a mile long and you will back out in despair and go back to old habits of being in rush during your day and realizing nothing.

Remember that every day you accomplish your goals and check off every project on your list, you get a little bit closer to achieving 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 frustrating coming back to the chore and having to redo it.
• Learn to simply tell people when you’re too busy and that you would speak to them at a later point.
• Learn to give other people items that really don’t require your direct involvement.
• Don’t go on wild goose chases.
• Don’t waste time on phone calls that won’t achieve something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Refer to your list of items to do repeatedly throughout your day.
• “Map out your day” in the car and write out your daily list as soon as you arrive at work. Achieve what you initiate.
• Prioritise habitually, always take chores in their order of urgency to you and your work.

Get away from time wasters, people that just decide 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.

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