They say time is money, and if that’s true, then every minute you spend on your business should be time well-spent. This post will help identify six time management techniques that will help propel your business.
Working from home has a lot of benefits, but it also brings its share of distractions, right?
TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR SUCCESS
If you try one of the time management techniques and it doesn’t work, try another one — but keep at it until you feel performing at your best. The rule for productivity is that there are no hard and fast rules — it’s about what works for you. So, we hope at least a few of these will work for you!
FOCUS ON OBJECTIVES NOT ACTIVITIES
Ever find yourself busy and not productive? A great way to monitor this is to spend a week tracking what you are busy doing and what you accomplish. Then, when you structure your schedule based on achieving objectives instead of just your activities, you will be far more productive overall.
If you’ve ever worked with SMART goals (more on this soon if you haven’t), the ideology behind them is to;
- identify long-term goals
- identify short-term goals
- strategy to attain each
BE AWARE OF YOUR PEAK PERFORMANCE TIMES
Are you a morning person or an evening person? Most people are one or the other. Once you’ve identified this, one of the excellent time management techniques is to schedule your business time in alignment with your strength.
Going against this grain will have you less productive and spend far too much time on tasks that, in your optimal time, would be completed without issue.
STAY ORGANIZED, ESPECIALLY IN YOUR WORKSPACE
Where there is clutter, there is confusion. Although some people work well in chaos — most studies tell us that we are far more productive in a clean working environment. Keep in mind your workspace is wherever you essentially sit down to work. This might be an office area, living room or coffee shop. Keep the table around you clear of things you don’t need at the moment and have only the necessary items around you.
BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR PHONE
… not the other way around.
Phone calls, text messages and social media are enormous distractions from productivity. Aside from simply putting it away, one of our best time management techniques is to place it on Do Not Disturb. This will only allow important calls to come through and temporarily stop all social media and email notifications. Schedule breaks for phone use — and use a separate time outside of your phones to keep track of your time.
CREATE YOUR TO-DO LIST DAILY
It can be very tempting to keep a running to-do list (speaking from experience!) but avoid doing this. Sure, you will have items that you need to carry over into the next day, and that’s OK. However, add them to a new list.
This will help you avoid missing any items on the one hand, and on the other, it will help your list feel less overwhelming. When we continue to add onto the same lists, they can become very long and unorganized.
CREATE A FAMILY STRATEGY
Sit down with your family and/or spouse and discuss ways to respect your time when you’re working. For example, discuss when it’s OK to interrupt and when it’s not. Additionally, a visual schedule for your family is always helpful.
Eventually, like a career, they know your working hours, and your availability becomes predictable. So allow them to become involved in their place on your schedule and even plan activities during their time!
Do you have time management techniques that have worked best for you? We would love to know more!
