When starting out in a home business, time management is an aspect of business management that is usually overlooked or left out of the equation.

Sure enough, everybody knows some person in small business who races about like a mad dog all day, never enough hours in every day, all they do is push and get overwhelmed – is it that this person is you! By the day’s end, when the rush settles, what have you taken from it? Do you replay the day and ponder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much completed as I hoped I should. If this seems familiar, then you may simply have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people don’t ever seem to rush, they stay composed and unflustered. The difference from them and everybody else is they command time management.

What is time management? It is simply scheduling hours in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can truly get how to time manage our day, we first must ask ourselves what we are trying to master today, this week, this year and perhaps even ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The most effective key in my opinion to take on goals is to write them down. You may review the goals sometimes to make sure that they are purposeful and realisable but not so achievable that you don’t have to work to complete them otherwise what is the reason of those goals in the first place?

From the start of each working year you should sit and reflect on what you desire to end up with this year. It can be that you plan to raise your profits by 20%, you may desire to move into larger premises, you may hope to reduce your debt substantially. At the first day of every working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the signifcant tasks that have to be done this week, and look back to them every day to check you’re making progress and hopefully check some of those tasks off the list.

You can hold this list on your desk or on a place where you will be persistently reminded of what must be finalised throughout the week. This list should be in order of priority so that the most important tasks at the top of the list get achieved earlier. All the tasks not completed this week need to be carried up to next week at a higher priority, this should make sure it gets accomplished.

The next thing you may not be doing is having yourself a daily list of jobs to achieve. This can help keep you organised throughout the day. Again, this list could be put where you are able to continually check on it and tick off the chores accomplished. Checking off the chores will give you a touch of accomplishment and let you check on how you are working through the day. Always stay to this list where possible and try to continue working from top priority to the lower priority. I know difficulties can show up throughout the day that may throw the whole day out of whack, but you need to either deal with the crisis and get back to your list or if the sudden dilemma isn’t as urgent as some of the work on your list then list it for later on the list and continue doing the project you were doing.

Each issue you have to do should be written down for a multiplicity of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have the day organised and you finish your daily goals. Be careful of starting items and not completing them. This can come back tomorrow in a plethora of incomplete chores and could cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with your list reading a mile long and you will throw it out in despair and go back to bad habits of working in confusion during your day and completing nothing.

Remember for each day you set your goals and write off every item on your list, you will be a step closer to finalising your weekly and eventually your yearly and long term goals.

A few hints on Time Management:

• Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating returning to the issue and having to redo it.
• Learn to nicely tell people when you’re busy and that you can speak to them at a later point.
• Learn to pass out work that actually don’t demand your involvement.
• Don’t take on wild goose chases.
• Don’t fizzle away time during phone calls that cannot do something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Review your list of jobs to do regularly at points through the day.
• “Map out your day” in the shower and plan out your daily list the minute you start work. Complete what you initiate.
• Prioritise habitually, always do tasks in their order of necessity to you and the clients.

Get away from time wasters, people that simply go off to chat all day, and if they are employed by 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.