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Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category

The desire to work from home usually goes hand in hand with the desire not to have to report to anyone else. People envision a life free of alarm clocks and rush hour traffic, free of pointless meetings and time cards.

 Still, many people begin their work at home careers with a telecommute job. They may get started by talking their current boss into allowing them to work from home, or they may secure a telecommute job such as customer service rep or telemarketing job that entails putting in a certain number of hours, possibly at specific times.

 There is nothing wrong with that if that is really what you want.  But a telecommute job is just that – a job. You still have a boss, you still have to put in a certain number of hours and your worth is often perceived based on how many hours you put in, not the quality of your work or how productive you can be.

 A home business on the other hand is a way for you to really be the boss. This can have both good and bad aspects to it. You are in charge of what hours you work. If you don’t work, you don’t make money. At least, that’s how it is in the early months of your business.

 The ultimate goal for a home business owner is to create an environment in which you are making money whether you are working or not. You may have employees that are able to carry the ball for you. Or you may be able to set up a business that brings in money on auto-pilot, such as a website that sells high demand items.

 The choice of a home business or a work at home job is up to you. Consider what is most important to you, and then decide which path is the right one for you to take.

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One of the advantages of working at home is the freedom to work with your own body clock. In the corporate world, you have very little control over your day. If you are a morning person, or a person who is most energetic earlier in the day, you will find yourself sluggish and unproductive when difficult tasks or meetings are scheduled for late in the day. If you are a night person, you may struggle to be alert for tasks that are scheduled for the morning.

 As a home business owner, you have the freedom to plan around your own biological fluctuations. If you are most energetic in the morning, you can plan your most difficult or challenging tasks for first thing in the morning. If you are a night owl, you have the freedom to sleep late and tackle challenging projects after dinner, or even in the middle of the night.

 The key to working with your own body clock starts with recognizing when your highest energy level is. Some people are always energetic at a certain time of day and you can almost set the clock by the time when their energy wanes and their alertness fades. Other people are less predictable, and their energy level may depend on family demands or other stressors, or may even be affected by fluctuations in their diet.

 Working with your own body clock also means that you have to take responsibility for planning your day. It’s very important for a home business owner to plan ahead. The most productive days are usually days that are planned the night before. Obviously, unplanned events sometimes come up and not everything can be predetermined. But if you at least sketch out your day and plan ahead to the best of your ability, you will likely find your productivity will skyrocket.

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The biggest challenge most people who work from home face is distraction. You may picture working at home as a stress-free life, but you may find that being able to stay disciplined and focused in the middle of constant distraction is a lot more difficult than you anticipate.

 In an office environment, workers are often placed inside cubicles, probably to reduce noise and other distractions. The decision to work from home is usually at least partly motivated by wanting to get away from living inside a cubicle. You are looking for freedom:  flexible hours, even a flexible location. You may imagine sitting on a beach with your laptop.

 In an at-home work environment, dealing with distraction is a daily challenge. For one thing, other people tend to view a person who works from home as not really working. They will be quick to call you on the phone, or show up on your doorstep, expecting you not to be busy. And if you’re not battling other people, you may find sometimes you are battling yourself.  Self-discipline and motivation take constant practice.

 The belief that you can create a life free of distractions is unrealistic.  Life is full of ringing phones, crying babies, and needy spouses. And if you’re able to get away from all that, you will still have to contend with noise in your head. Your mind may start running away with planning dinner or next week’s schedule. You’re curious what emails you have received in the last hour or two. Ultimately you are distracting yourself even when others aren’t distracting you.

Self-discipline and focus won’t come easily, but they will get better with time and practice. As long as you are truly committed to your goals, you will be able to deal with the distractions both inside and outside yourself. 

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The importance of daily planning for a home business owner can’t be overemphasized. In the corporate world, days are very structured. You may need to complete certain projects by certain dates, attend meetings or training programs at certain times. You probably have coffee break at a certain time, lunch at a certain time, and you go home at a certain time.

 But in planning your day for your home business, you are faced with a blank calendar. No one is going to make you do anything. No one is going to notice if you fritter your day away with web surfing or checking emails, or if you chat on the phone or watch soap operas or talk shows.

 Of course, you will notice if time passes and you’re not making money. As a home business owner, you are responsible for planning your day and sticking to your plan. No one is going to make you do it but you.

The most important part of daily planning is to write down the tasks you expect to accomplish each day. It’s easy to tell yourself that today you will work on certain things, but if you don’t have a written plan, chances are you’ll succumb to distractions.  They best way to write out a plan is in the evening. Clearly state what you will work on the next day. Plan your hardest tasks for the hours you are most alert, and the hours you are least likely to be interrupted by children and family.

 You may have to dedicate a certain part of your day to marketing or business record keeping. Keep track of the hours you are actually working, not web surfing or chatting on the telephone with friends. Strive to better your best by knowing where you are now and what you’re actually doing with your time.

 Some business owners prefer to use software to plan their day.

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Information overload is one of the most crippling problems for people who work at home from their computer. There is so much to do and learn. Everywhere you turn, there are new ebooks to read, blogs to follow, forum discussions to participate in, audios and videos to listen to. You subscribe to the newsletters of a dozen gurus. The next thing you know, it seems like you’re running in place, putting forth a ton of energy but never really making progress.

One of the keys to successful self-employment is productive use of time. Working at home means no one is looking over your shoulder. You don’t have to punch a time clock, so no one notices if you work two hours a day or twelve. But if you’re putting in a full day, or even if you’re working two or three hours a day around a full-time job, what do you have to show for the time you are putting in?

If you clearly know what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s easier not to get sidetracked. Each night before you go to bed, make a clear plan of what you are going to accomplish the next day. Put 3-5 things on your to do list and make sure those things get done. They may be adding an entry to your blog, writing a chapter in an ebook, sending out a newsletter, doing keyword research, working on an adwords campaign or learning something that you don’t yet know how to do (read an ebook or watch a video on a specific topic). Set a time limit for how much time you will spend on each task.

To further bring things into focus, you need to decrease the ton of information that is coming at you. Unsubscribe from newsletters that you never get around to reading. Turn off the TV. Complete one or more items from your “to do” list before side-tracking yourself with reading emails. In fact, for most people, a time limit has to be set for reading emails than for any other area.

Do what you can with each day. The more you plan ahead to take charge of your own time, the less information overload will sidetrack you and distract you from where you’re trying to go.

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When you are dreaming of a home business, you dream of freedom – freedom from bosses and schedules. When you attain that dream, you see the reality that time is money and every minute counts.

Some days it may feel that you have worked all day and gotten nothing accomplished. When you work at home, everyone assumes you’re not busy. You may be constantly interrupted by relatives and friends who think you’re free. The phone and the doorbell interrupt constantly, and if you have small children, the last thing they want to do is leave you alone.

Here are some tips to help you get a handle on your time.

Plan ahead. Each night before you go to bed, plan ahead what your next day is going to look like. This means working with your own body clock: schedule your most challenging tasks for the time of day when you have the most energy.

Prioritize. Everything you do should be contributing to the ultimate goal of making money. It’s easy to fritter away your time opening email and surfing the web. Know what the most important things you need to accomplish each day are and do them before you ever look at your mail.

Learn from your mistakes. If you plan your day a certain way and it doesn’t work out, what went wrong? Did you try to schedule your most challenging tasks for the same time that your children are most likely to interrupt you? Do you need to turn the ringer off the phone? Whatever went wrong today can be corrected tomorrow.

Allow time for family. When you are just getting started, you may want to work on your business day and night. The more you neglect your family, the more they will interrupt you. Schedule time in your day for your family and don’t let work interrupt family time whenever possible.

Like any other aspect of running a home business, time management takes practice. The more your practice, the more you will improve.

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