Time Management Tips 

Here are some time management tips that you might find helpful.

1. Establish a routine: If some days you start at 9:00 a.m. and others you start at 1:00 p.m., all dependent upon how you feel, you won’t be very effective at controlling your work time.  Determine the hour you want to start work and the hour you want to stop and then schedule within that time frame.  Sticking to a routine actually makes it easier for you to manage your time efficiently.

2. Start the day with the right frame of mind: A positive frame of mind can do wonders for a business owner with a lot on her plate. You’re most effective when you’re alert, energized and eager to tackle the day ahead.  Since we all don’t naturally wake up that way, figure out your healthy triggers.  What healthy habit makes you feel positive and alert in the morning.  Experts suggest a healthy breakfast, exercise and deep breathing as wonderful ways to clear the mind, create calmness and improve your alertness levels.

Here’s a suggested routine: Choose a manageable exercise activity in the morning – even if it is just stretching for 20 minutes.  Then have a healthy breakfast.  Follow that by sharpening your mind around the news of the day. You might do that by visiting your favorite news site or online community, like the blog at http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/blog/  .  Then take a few deep cleansing breaths and dive into your work.  After all, you’re working for yourself that’s about the best way to start the day!

Updating the Day’s Plan:  Update or devise your plan for the day keeping in mind what you want to have achieved that week or month.  This could take 10 or 20 minutes and ideally should be done before you delve into your work.  Put about that much time into this mini plan before you start work and you might save yourself hours of work later on.  Sometimes by doing this daily check of work to do you end up finding tasks or projects that were missed or that need attention.

Ever Heard of the Rule of Two? I read about this recently and it seems like a good tip to share.  So that you don’t feel swamped by the work ahead of you, look at your tasks carefully and then focus on the two most important pieces of work.  Determine their importance by how crucial these tasks are to your business (or even other projects).  Once you’ve zeroed in on the top two tasks, tackle them first.  By attacking your to-do list this way you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and you may even enhance the effectiveness of your work by dealing with priority projects that may have an impact on other areas of your business.

Avoid the “email tick”: One of the biggest time wasters today is the act of checking email.  It wouldn’t be so bad if we checked it once or twice a day, but far too many of us check our emails 6,7 and 8 times a day and that’s not productive.

Checking email is too easy and quick a way to divert attention away from the work at hand. You open one email, follow a trusted link somewhere you had no intention of going, and 20 minutes later you still haven’t returned to your work.

Don’t succumb to the temptation to check your email, again and again. Give yourself 2-4 intervals in the day (depending on the nature of your business) when you will check your email and then stick to that schedule.  You’ll thank yourself for showing such discipline – especially if it allows you to work more efficiently.  When you work more efficiently that’s more quality time available for you to do the other important things in your life.