When you start out in a home business, time management is an aspect of business management that can be often overlooked or left out of the equation.

Everybody knows a person in small business who races at it like a mad dog all day, never enough hours in each day, all they do is panic and get overloaded – is it that this person is you! To the end of the day, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you think about the day and ponder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get so much finished as I thought I could. If this reads familiar, then you might just have an organisational and time management problem.

Successful people never seem to rush, they are always composed and unflustered. The difference between them and the other people is they command time management.

What is time management? It is just arranging minutes in your day in an organised and efficient method. Before we can truly get how to time manage our day, we must decide for ourselves what we are hoping to achieve today, this week, this year and as far as ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.

The easiest key in my perspective to accomplish goals is to write them down. You should go back to your goals at times to feel that they are appropriate and workable but not so simple that you don’t need to try hard to complete them otherwise what is the purpose of your goals in the first place?

From the start of every working year you can takethe time and plan what you hope to get this year. It might be that you wish to increase your profits by 20%, you perhaps decide to move into other premises, you can plan to get rid of your debt in a significant way. From the beginning of a new working week you could write down on a note pad or in your diary the important projects that need to be taken care of this week, and review them at each day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully tick some of the tasks from the list.

You could hold your list on your desk or on a spot where you should be repeatedly reminded of what must be done this week. This list can be in order of importance so that the key tasks at the top of the list get finished first. Any tasks not completed this week should be put through to next week at a higher urgency, this will make sure it gets accomplished.

The next thing you can be doing is having a daily list of chores to take care of. This should assist keep you on track during the day. Again, this list might be put where you can persistently refer to it and wipe off the chores finalised. Polishing off the tasks helps to give you a touch of success and let you check on how you are working throughout the day. Always hold to the list if possible and keep working from top priority to the lower priority. I know things do jump up during the day that might throw the whole day out, but you have to either take on the dilemma and return to your list or if the new dilemma isn’t as time sensitive as some of the issues on your list then put it for later on your list and continue with the work you were doing.

Each job you have to complete should be written down for a few reasons. Firstly, so you don’t neglect to do it and secondly, so you have your day outlined and you accomplish your daily goals. Be alert to initiating jobs and not finishing them. This might come back tomorrow in a disaster of half baked tasks and will cause “list blowout”.

You will end up with the list being a mile long and you will back out in despair and go back to those habits of running around in a hurry during your day and finishing nothing.

Remember every day you set your goals and polish off all the tasks on your list, you will be a bit closer to achieving your weekly and ultimately 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 job and needing to redo it.
• Learn to nicely tell people when you’re busy and that you can return to them at a later time.
• Learn to give out jobs that really don’t require your direct involvement.
• Don’t go on wild goose chases.
• Don’t use up time by phone calls that will not assist with something.
• Don’t procrastinate.
• Check back to your list of tasks to do regularly throughout the day.
• “Map out your day” in the morning and list out your daily list the second you arrive at work. Don’t stop what you initiate.
• Prioritise every day, always take issues in their order of necessity to you and the business.

Avoid time wasters, people who will merely choose to chat all day, and if they are your employees, set them straight, or get rid of them.

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