Freedom of time and economic woes are two of the popular reasons people begin a home based business. The reasoning here is that a businessperson working at home has absolute control over how they spend their time. This is true until your lack of discipline allows time to be in control of you. Time is the most precious commodity we have in our lives and works as an equalizer in business. There is only twenty-four hours in a day and if we do not choose to use it wisely we have lost it forever.
Working from home is an environment in which we must be especially aware of how time is used. A competent business plan is necessary for success and time management should be written in that plan from its inception. Methods to insure proper time use are simple and easily implemented into your day.
There is absolutely no way you can be able to properly use time until you know what the priorities for the day are. Beginning each day take a few moments to outline what need to be done in the course of the workday. When you have completed a list go back over it and place the items in order of their priority. This priority list will help you schedule the amount of time each task should take.
Of course, you should start with the highest priority items on your list. If you do this and you run out of time before completing the list you are assured that the most important tasks have been completed. The items on the list can be re-prioritized for the following day or possibly combined with other tasks to lighten your workload. If you have your list with you throughout the day it will help you to remain focused. And of course if you have the list in your pocket rather than on your desk you will not lose time searching for it when needed.
Having your priority list with you leads us to another time management tool. In order to have a productive day it is crucial that you are organized. Most management theories will tell you that you can produce more with a clean work environment. Organization is the method that you use to create that environment.
Organization of physical things is fairly easy. You know you need a desk, computer, monitor, and a mouse pad. You also need documents, ledgers, pens, pencils, and paper clips. Take a few moments before beginning work to acquire everything you can think of that your task will require. Time spent preparing your work area is consistently less than the time you will spend when you stop work, go search for an object, and then resume work. The time management term for this is the “therblig”. This is a time and motion study dating back about eighty five years and defines the motions performed by a worker to complete a task. If you are interested in time management studies look this up and you just may improve your work day.
Make a habit of prioritizing your work day and then enforce your organization. Learn to follow your priorities and you will see an increase in your productivity. While flexibility should be included in this workload it should be very well controlled. When something comes up through the day and is not on your list then you probably should not attempt this. It is easy to schedule that for another time simply by adding it to the list or making an appointment for a future date. However it is necessary that break times and lunch hours are scheduled into the day. If you use these breaks positively they will allow you to recharge and continue the day productively.
