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When you are starting a home based business, time management is an aspect of business management that is overlooked or ignored.

We all know some person in small business who races about like a bull all day, rarely enough hours in their day, all they do is push and get overwhelmed - maybe this person is you! To the end of the day, when the panic settles, what have you achieved? Do you replay the day and realise “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much done as I hoped. If this sounds familiar, then you might simply have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people seldom appear to rush, they remain composed and unflustered. The difference with them and the other people is they have great time management.

What is time management? It is just arranging minutes in your day in an organised and efficient scheme. Before we can fully understand how to time manage our day, we first must figure for ourselves what we are hoping to master today, this week, this year and perhaps even ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The best method in my opinion to take on goals is to write them down. You may go back to the goals from time to time to feel that they are appropriate and possible but not so easy that you don’t have to put in the effort to complete them otherwise what is the meaning of your goals in the first place?

At the beginning of each new working year you should takethe time and ponder what you want to complete this year. It could be that you need to raise your profits by 20%, you might desire to move into different premises, you can plan to take down your debt once and for all. By the start of each working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the major tasks that must to be achieved this week, and look back on them at each day to be sure you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of those tasks from your list.

You can keep the list on your desk or at a point where you can be continually reminded of what will be achieved throughout the week. Your list can be in order of priority so that the most important jobs at the top of this list get done first. All the work not completed this week will be brought forward next week on a higher importance, this will demand it gets checked off.

The next thing you will be doing is having yourself a daily list of jobs to do. This should assist keep you organised throughout the day. Again, this list should be put up where you can persistently look back to it and tick off the jobs accomplished. Finishing off the chores is a way to allow you a sense of achievement and let you review how you are working through the day. Always adhere to this list when possible and try to keep working from high priority to the lower priority. I know difficulties could jump up throughout the day that might throw the whole day out, but you must either take on the problem and return to the list or if the new project isn’t as time sensitive as some of the chores on the list then place it after these on your list and continue doing the chore you were doing.

Each aspect of work you plan to get done needs to be written down for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you keep the day outlined and you accomplish your daily goals. Be alert to initiating jobs and not completing them. This will show up tomorrow in a mess of half finished projects and can cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with a list reading a mile long and you will throw it up in despair and change back to bad habits of running around in panic all day and finishing nothing.

Remember for each day you accomplish your goals and polish off every chore on your list, you become a bit closer to succeeding in your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.

A few essentials on Time Management:

• Do it once and do it well, it’s fruitless coming back to the work and needing to redo it.
• Learn to simply tell people when you’re busy working and that you will speak to them later.
• Learn to issue jobs that actually don’t demand your direct participation.
• Don’t take on wild goose chases.
• Don’t use up time during phone calls that aren’t going to achieve something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Review your list of tasks to do repeatedly through your day.
• “Map out your day” in the car and make out your daily list right when you get to work. Don’t stop what you initiate.
• Prioritise in everything you do, always start jobs in their order of importance to you and your clients.

Don’t get in with time wasters, people who will simply go off to chat all day, and if they work for you, set them straight, or get rid of them.

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