When you are starting a home business, time management is an area of business management that is overlooked or left out of the equation.

We all know a friend in small business who races at it like a madman all day, seldom enough hours in a day, all they do is panic and get overwhelmed - is it that this person is you! To the week’s end, when the pace settles, what have you achieved? Do you review the day and wonder “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get so much completed as I thought I would. If this seems familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people don’t seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference in them and the others is they possess time management.

What is time management? It is merely planning minutes in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can really go ahead with how to time manage our day, we must figure for ourselves what we are planning to achieve today, this week, this year and as far as ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The easiest process in my opinion to accomplish goals is to write them down. You may go back to these goals at times to feel that they are relevant and achievable but not so easy that you don’t need to try to complete them otherwise what is the reason of any goals in the first place?

At the beginning of every new working year you should sit and plan what you plan to accomplish this year. It may be that you hope to enlarge your profits by 20%, you could decide to move into larger premises, you might want to get rid of your debt in a significant way. From the first day of each working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that have to be finalised this week, and review them at every day to ensure that you’re making progress and hopefully wipe some of the chores from your list.

You may keep the list on your desk or on a spot where you could be persistently reminded of what must be achieved each week. Your list might be in order of necessity so that the most important jobs at the top of the list get accomplished early. Any of the chores not completed this week should be brought through to next week on a higher urgency, this will demand it gets finished.

The next thing you could be doing is writing a daily list of jobs to accomplish. This might assist keep you organised in the day. Again, this list will be put up where you are able to continually check on it and wipe off the items done. Ticking off the projects helps to give you a sense of accomplishment and remind you how you are progressing over the day. Always stick to this list when possible and keep working from top priority to less priority. I know changes will turn up throughout the day that sometimes throw the whole day topsyturvy, but you must either deal with the crisis and then return to your list or if the sudden project isn’t as serious as some of the chores on the list then put it lower on your list and continue on doing the work you were doing.

Every item you plan to do needs to be written down for a numerous reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep your day planned and you get your daily goals. Beware beginning chores and not completing them. This will turn tomorrow in a disaster of half baked jobs and will cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with the list reading a mile long and you will throw the towel in in despair and reverse back to bad habits of running around in panic during the day and completing nothing.

Remember for each day you plan your goals and polish off every chore on your list, you become a little bit closer to achieving your weekly and soon your yearly and long term goals.

A few tips on Time Management:

• Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating reverting to the project and needing to redo it.
• Learn to civilly say to people when you’re busy and that you will return to them at a later point.
• Learn to pass out chores that really don’t require your direct participation.
• Don’t go on wild goose chases.
• Don’t use up time by phone calls that are not going to achieve something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Check back on your list of items to do often during the day.
• “Map out your day” in the morning and list out your daily list the minute you get to work. Don’t stop what you initiate.
• Prioritise all your jobs, always begin issues in their order of urgency to you and your customers.

Get away from time wasters, people that only choose to chat all day, and if they are your workers, 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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