Time Management is Your Friend!

Posted by Glyna Humm | Posted in Success | Posted on 14-04-2010-05-2008

0

Tired of waking up at the crack of dawn, running around trying to get ready and then sitting in traffic jams everyday no matter what time you leave? So was I until I found the awesome world of owning a home business. Now I make that long trek to my comfy desk chair about 8:00, in my sweats and not having a care in the world about making it to work on time. These are just some of the perks of owning your own home business.

Ok, enough of the pleasantries. As wonderful as working at home is, you must possess some great skills to find success at it. I am talking about time management and organization. If you are not careful, the comfort and distractions of having a home business can also be the doom of the very same thing. You have to find ways to ignore the laundry, cleaning and cooking that seems to be calling you throughout the day and make sure you stay on the task at hand. To help you accomplish just that, I have come up with a few tips that might make your life easier.

1: Be realistic with yourself. – You might want to start with asking yourself a few tough questions. Can I do this? Do I have what it takes to stay focused and ignore all the household distractions? Can I work to meet the deadlines while still retaining my freedom that I worked so hard to achieve? Freedom is great but it doesn’t pay the bills and if you don’t have the focus you need, this could be a disaster waiting to happen. Before you give a home based business a try, ask yourself the tough questions and try your best to answer them realistically.

2: Treat it like a job. – This may sound simple, but it can slip your mind easily if you can’t find the concentration you need. This is definitely a real job and is what you are counting on to pay your bills. Clock in and out just like you would a traditional business. Schedule your week and put it on a calendar you can follow daily. Schedule breaks and lunch like you normally would if you worked for someone else. Try not to detract form your schedule if you wan to find real success.

3: Is accountability your strong suit? – If it is not and you do get distracted easily, you may want to appoint an accountability partner. A spouse fits that description well, because they are looking out for what is best for you and the family as a whole. Check in with each other a couple of times a day to get a status report and use it as a way to gauge your activity.

4: Separate church and state. To manage your time working at home efficiently, you have to decide what you spend your hours on. Sometimes it is hard to explain to your family the difference between work time and family time. Once the workday is over, focus entirely on your family, and don’t let business intrude on your time with them.

5: How organized are you? – This is another very important question you need to address. De-clutter your home business surroundings. Concentrate on putting things away when you are finished with them, both on your computer and in your filing cabinet. Label everything in folders both online and offline. Being organized can lead to your success more quickly.

I hope these tips will help you with managing your time when it comes to your home based business. Having the right frame of mind and organization can be the real difference in your success.

Glyna Humm helps online marketing owners obtain success through step-by-step teaching, marketing ideas and strategies. To learn more about one of her unique, proven opportunities visit Let Me Help You During These Tough Economic Times

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

How To Get Things Done In 24 Hours

Posted by Allen Davis | Posted in Productivity | Posted on 21-11-2009-05-2008

0

There are a lot of management techniques out there. A lot of authors have written on the topic of how to manage your time and get the most out of it. Most of the books written focused on business leaders and corporate executives.

Stephen Covey’s time management book, First Things First, is a well acclaimed book. His time management technique is focused on giving tips to individuals to do things effectively.

Let us take a look at Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix.

-FIRST QUADRANT (URGENT & IMPORTANT)

MANAGE / QUADRANT OF NECESSITY – Crisis – Medical emergencies – Pressing problems – Deadline-driven projects – Last minute preparation for scheduled activities

-SECOND QUADRANT (NOT URGENT & IMPORTANT)

FOCUS / QUADRANT OF QUALITY – Personal leadership – Preparation / Planning – Prevention – Values Clarification – Exercise – Relationship Building – True recreation / relaxation

-THIRD QUADRANT (URGENT & NOT IMPORTANT)

AVOID / QUADRANT OF DECEPTION – Interruptions and some calls – Some mails and reports – Some meetings – Many “pressing matters” – Many popular activities

-FOURTH QUADRANT (NOT URGENT NOT IMPORTANT)

AVOID / QUADRANT OF WASTE – Trivia, busywork – Junk mail – Emails – Time wasters – Escape activities – Viewing mindless tv shows

There are 24 hours in a day. Eight hours is for sleeping and the next 16 hours are for our usual schedule. In Stephen Covey’s time management book (First Things First), he noted that most of us spend our 16 hours in the third and fourth quadrant, the quadrant of deception and waste.

If you will really look at our daily activities, Stephen Covey is actually right. Most of us spend hours watching tv, reading unimportant emails, answering calls, and other things that actually does not help us accomplish anything.

Stephen Covey’s time management is a great tool that can help us finish more important things before a day ends. You just have to focus yourself and experiment with the quadrants and how it can help you. In getting things done you have to set your mind on what you will do. The activities in the first quadrant need to be managed in the best way that you can. Focus on the Quadrant of Quality and Personal Leadership because this can help you achieve your goals faster.

The last two quadrants should be avoided as much as possible. The third quadrant looks deceiving, it may look important but it is not. While the fourth quadrant will never help you get things done.

How we manage our time is all up to us. Whatever the consequences of our actions might be, we only have ourselves to blame.

If you wish to learn more about time management, be sure to check out our site today. It has tons of helpful tips and information on managing your time.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Common Pitfalls And Mistakes In Managing Time

Posted by gmunroe | Posted in Time Management | Posted on 18-11-2009-05-2008

0

There are days that you find yourself drowning in constant work and daily appointments. You struggle with everything from home, work, or school. Everything needs to be done and the problem is you do not have enough time on your hands.

Learning time management is very important for us to tackle everything that we need to do. This can help you do work with lesser time involved, eliminate wastage, achieve your goal, and finish everything before a day ends or just to meet deadlines.

The common mistake we make in managing our time is just trying to cram all our chores in a single day. We work ourselves into a disastrous state that sometimes we are just like walking time bombs that can explode anytime.  Learning time management can help us solve this problem.

If you are swamped with work and do not know how to manage all your activities, in due time you can easily burn yourself out. To make the most out of your time, it  requires planning on what to do at the moment and then make the best possible decision. You need to relax before making a decision and this can help you focus on what you need to do.

Remember, if you feel rushed all the time you will not be able to concentrate on anything and can possibly make hasty decisions that can easily lead to disastrous outcomes. Anything done in haste can be a waste of your efforts. It is possible that you will never get things done.

When planning what to do with all your work, try to be calm and compose yourself first. Think what urgent matters need to be done immediately and then write them down. Prioritize your list and do it on a per day basis, which means only what you can finish for a particular day.

Put in mind never to rush yourself. With the list in hand, try focusing on your first chore. Work on it as fast and as efficiently as you can. After finishing the first chore, go to the next one and repeat the same process for every chore until you have finished everything on the list. In no time at all, you will have everything done.

Learning time management is very simple, you just need to relax and focus. Never procrastinate because your chore will never finish itself, you have to act on it. Do what needs to be done in a calm state of mind.

If you wish to learn more about time management calendar, be sure to check out our site today. It has tons of helpful tips and information on managing your time.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace