Posts Tagged ‘Working From Home’
When you start out in a from-home business, time management is an area of business management often overlooked or ignored.
Surely everybody knows a friend in small business who races about like a mad dog all day, without enough hours in each day, all they do is rush and get overloaded – is it that this person is you! At the end of the day, when the rush settles, what have you completed? Do you think about the day and wonder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I hoped to do. If this feels familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people never seem to rush, they are composed and unflustered. The difference in them and other people is they have exceptional time management.
What is time management? It is merely arranging time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can actually get how to time manage our day, we first need to question ourselves what we are attempting to achieve today, this week, this year and even up to ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The easiest key in my preference to achieve goals is to write them down. You could review the goals at times to feel that they are meaningful and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t need to put in the work to succeed at them otherwise what is the purpose of your goals in the first place?
From the start of each working year you could sit and think about what you want to complete this year. It might be that you hope to gross up your profits by 20%, you might decide to move into bigger premises, you may hope to take down your debt significantly. From the start of each new working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the signifcant projects that have to be finalised this week, and check on them on each day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully check some of those projects from your list.
You might keep the list on your desk or on a spot where you could be persistently reminded of what must be completed throughout the week. This list may be in order of necessity so that the major projects at the top of the list get taken care of earlier. Any projects not accomplished this week will be carried up to next week on a higher priority, this should require it gets ticked off.
The next thing you might not be doing is having a daily list of projects to accomplish. This may assist keep you on schedule during the day. Again, this list should be displayed where you are able to constantly refer to it and wipe off the chores finished. Finishing off the projects should allow you a sense of a job well done and let you review how you are progressing through the day. Always hold to this list where possible and continue working from the highest priority to low priority. I know things could jump up over the day that could throw the whole day in the air, but you need to either deal with the dilemma and get back on to your list or if the unplanned job isn’t as time sensitive as some of the items on the list then list it at the bottom on your list and continue with the project you were doing.
Each item you hope to do could be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep each day outlined and you achieve your daily goals. Be alert to starting tasks and not completing them. This might become tomorrow in a disaster of half finished jobs and will cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list a mile long and you will give up in despair and reverse back to those habits of getting yourself in confusion during your day and accomplishing nothing.
Remember that every day you achieve your goals and tick off all the projects on your list, you become a day closer to reaching your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few pointers on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating returning to the task and having to redo it.
Learn to civilly communicate to people when you’re busy working and that you will speak to them at a later time.
Learn to issue chores that truly don’t need your involvement.
Don’t go on wild goose chases.
Don’t fizzle away time during phone calls that will not do something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Look back to your list of jobs to do often during the day.
“Map out your day” in the morning and schedule out your daily list the minute you begin work. Complete what you begin.
Prioritise as a matter of habit, always begin things in their order of urgency to you and your customers.
Be evasive with time wasters, people that would simply like to chat all day, and if they are employed by you, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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Working from home is becoming more and more popular. I work from home and I love it. I don’t think I could ever work at a factory again, but I must face the possibility that I may have to transfer my enterprise into business premises if it keeps growing like it has in the last few months. Even if parts of my enterprise move out of home, I’ll try to stay there myself as much as I can.
Times are changing and working from home, particularly for the self-employed or contract employees is becoming more common. It is pointless paying rent for commercial premises if it isn’t necessary. Working from home has many advantages.
You can work back late without getting into strife with your family. You can “drop into the office” anytime you like. You can get up really early if the mood takes you and put in a few hours work then go back to bed. But as a web designer, there is one feature I really like, all the tax deductions!
You can claim some of your home-running expenses on your tax return. Based on the floor area used for business purposes, you can claim a portion of your mortgage interest, insurance, rates, water, electricity, maintenance and the bulk of your telephone bill as well as depreciation on the carpets, curtains, computer equipment and so on. At the end of the financial year you will be surprised by the list of deductions.
You will also save on travel costs, wear and tear on your car and more importantly wear and tear on you, having not to deal with peak hour or public transport. Not to mention picking up approximately an extra one to two hours per day of work when you don’t have to travel.
There is a downside to working from home. The first problem is family distractions. Kids home from school at three o’clock, a friend at the front door, phone calls for other members of the family.
You also may not have the perfect workspace, or space may be limited. Work space is vitally important, you must have an area set aside purely for business, nothing else, just business. I have found that it’s best also if you can close the door on the weekends and at the end of the day so you can “leave work”.
I think many of the attitudes of people that working from home is “unprofessional” have lapsed into history. The number of major companies that allow their workers to work from home via the internet has increased enormously in recent years. “Outsourcing” has become a commonly used term and this has brought about a spate of self-employed former employees, most of them working from home.
The other problem that many people working from home suffer is motivation and discipline. You must start work everyday just as you would if you were working for someone else.
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