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Time Management Takes Self Dicipline
Aside from creating to do
lists and using them as guidelines for your business day, you need to
become better at time management on the whole. That means that you will
have to learn what schedule works best for you and your business, how
to set goals and follow through making them, and how to prioritize
those goals. You will want to stay away from time drainers, especially
if you work at home.
It appears when you work at home that friends, neighbors, even family
can sometimes get the idea that you are free to run errands, make
calls, take visits, or just plain chat because you are at home. You
need to quickly dispel the idea that your time is available and open
for other's to schedule for you.
YOUR WORK SCHEDULE
This is probably one of the most overlooked and most beneficial aspects
of having your own business. If your customers are not setting the
hours for you based on their schedules, you can reasonably create a
schedule that maximizes your productivity because it suits your
personality and your lifestyle. There are many entrepreneurs who use
the flexibility of home businesses to manage their time in a fashion
that doesn't exactly fit the straight 9 to 5 pm standard workweek.
There are plenty of entrepreneurs who prefer the standard workweek. It
all depends on how used you are to this routine and whether you think
you can get more mileage out of a different work schedule.
A STANDARD SCHEDULE
If you are on the conservative side or trying to do business with
others who are on this schedule, then you will probably schedule your
day so that you commence working at 8 am or 9 am and quit after 8 hours
or more. You can do this for five days a week and keep your weekend
this way.
The key here is to have some separate area in your home set up as an
office that marks when you are at work and when you are on your own
time. If you don't have this boundary, you will be consistently hit
upon by people trying to take advantage of the fact that you are not
under anyone's supervision but your own. Be clear, when you are in your
office - you are working and should not be disturbed. Have two phone
lines and don't answer the home phone when you are at work. All this is
common sense, but many people waste time by not making it clear to
their spouses, their children, or even their pets that work time is not
play time or come bother mommy time.
FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES
One of the key benefits that people who work at home and have online
businesses realize quickly is their ability to take advantage of
flexible schedules. If you hate waking up early in the morning and are
not a morning person, you can begin working later - as long as you make
your full day of work.
If you prefer working weekends and doing your grocery shopping on the
week days (when the stores are empty), you can soon figure out that you
are saving yourself time on your home duties as well as smartly
scheduling your time for work. If you have to make runs to particular
businesses in the course of your workday, like the post office or the
bank, then you will begin to find out when the best time is to show up.
The less time you spend in line, the more time you have to work and
make money.
Don't forget that the hours you save commuting can also be used quite
well, if you are an early riser. You can schedule your alarm as if you
were going to a regular office and instead go to your home office,
which should be a much closer commute. You save money on gas too.
There are people who do freelancing who work in the middle of the night
and during hours that are more comfortable for them. In the middle of
the night, there are no distractions and the possibility of being
completely free of the noise of the outside world is something very
attractive to programmers, writers, and other professionals.
If you have a full day during the day caring for children, you can
schedule to sleep when a spouse comes home and wake up early in the
morning (2 am to 3 am) to begin your workday in complete solitude. You
save money on day care but can still schedule some time to work from
home on an online business. This may sound totally unpleasant to some
people, but there are a number of business owners who relish the idea
of having a very quiet and beautifully cool night to work through.
Finally, if you've hired contract workers who are working in India or
some other place because they are cheaper, you may need to modify your
schedule to be able to contact them during their working hours. While
the cost of labor may smaller, the price you pay is that your schedule
has to work to be able to telephone them directly at a time when they
are available. Otherwise, you can work through emails and expect a time
lag difference, which is not very effective.
Time Management involves numerous disciplines, but if you are keeping
your time line goals in mind, you will get better at managing the time
required to make your business a success.
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