When you start up a from-home business, time management is an aspect of business management that is overlooked or ignored.

We all know someone in small business who races about like a madman all day, never enough hours in their day, all they do is hurry and get worked up - perhaps this person is you! Come the end of the week, when the panic settles, what have you completed? Do you replay the day and think “what happened to the hours, I didn’t get as much completed as I thought I should. If this seems familiar, then you may just have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people don’t ever seem to rush, they are always composed and unflustered. The difference with them and the others is they have accomplished time management.

What is time management? It is merely arranging the clock in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can fully take on how to time manage our day, we need to decide for ourselves what we are trying to master today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The best method in my opinion to complete goals is to write them down. You may go back to all your goals sometimes to make sure that they are purposeful and achievable but not so simple to do that you don’t need to work hard to succeed at them otherwise what is the purpose of your goals in the first place?

From the start of a new working year you can sit down and plan what you plan to complete this year. It could be that you wish to gross up your profits by 20%, you could desire to move into larger premises, you might wish to reduce your debt substantially. From the start of each working week you may write down on a note pad or in your diary the large chores that need to be achieved this week, and check back them on each day to be sure you’re making progress and hopefully polish some of those projects from your list.

You can hold this list on your desk or on a place where you can be repeatedly reminded of what will be accomplished throughout the week. The list might be in order of priority so that the impending work at the top of the list get finished early. Any of the projects not completed this week should be taken forward next week on a higher ranking, this will ensure it gets taken care of.

The next thing you could be doing is writing a daily list of chores to get done. This can help keep you focused throughout the day. Again, this list will be put up where you can persistently see it and mark off the tasks done. Wiping off the chores could allow you a sense of completion and let you check on how you are moving over the day. Always hold to your list if possible and continue working from the top priority to the lower priority. I know things could come up over the day that can throw the whole day out of whack, but you must either take on the situation and get back on to your list or if the new situation isn’t as urgent as some of the work on your list then list it for later on the list and continue doing the item you were doing.

Every piece of work you have to complete can be written down for a numerous reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you have every day scheduled and you accomplish your daily goals. Beware initiating jobs and not completing them. This would turn tomorrow in a disaster of half finished chores and will cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with your list a mile long and you will throw it up in despair and change back to those habits of running around in panic every day and completing nothing.

Remember every day you write out your goals and write off all the jobs on your list, you become a little closer to completing your weekly and eventually your yearly and long term goals.

A few basics on Time Management:

• Do it once and do it well, it’s wasteful returning to the project and having to redo it.
• Learn to nicely say to people when you’re working and that you will speak to them some time later.
• Learn to give other people tasks that actually don’t demand your direct participation.
• Don’t embark on wild goose chases.
• Don’t fizzle away time with phone calls that won’t do something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Check back on your list of work to do frequently at points through the day.
• “Map out your day” in the morning and make out your daily list as soon as you begin work. Complete what you list.
• Prioritise in everything you do, always do chores in their order of urgency to you and your business.

Avoid time wasters, people that would only decide to chat all day, and if they work for you, set them straight, or get rid of them.

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