Can you Handle being Busy?
The past few weeks have been very busy for me as I complete client work but also prepare to head to a conference for nearly one week. It has made me appreciate the systems and processes I have setup for my business. These systems help when interruptions, new contacts and other things not written in my daily planner happen during my workday, I can easily deal with most of them and not get off task.
Staying on task for me is vital, I have many different things in my daily work that must be completed for each client. If I get backed up or behind then it is not affecting only me, but my clients.
What can get you off track? When you work from a home office, it’s a myriad of things and not just clients. For me it can be the dog, the kids, my home phone as well as contact from new clients, new requests from present clients, computer issues, internet issues … the list goes on and on.
What systems help me? The main ones are:
- New Client Inquiry procedures/info packets
- A 10 minute per hour break time
- My own business scheduled time each day
How do these help? The new client inquiry packets save me time in that I have the info ready when someone asks for it. The hourly break time allows me time to grab some laundry, a coffee, check on the dog or deal with other items that happen. Having time for my own business allows me to stay on top of my own social media tasks and blog writing and other marketing efforts for my business. This time also gives me space in my day to deal with the unexpected that may take even more time.
All of this helps keep my stress levels lower as I have time set aside to deal with the planned and the unexpected. When things are on a roll and your hours are filled every day it is important to be able to deal with new business/contact or other tasks that pop up, and deal with them in a way that does not adversely affect your day.
What is your top tips to handing the busy-times of your workday?
4 Responses to “Can you Handle being Busy?”
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Thanks for the tip on taking a break for your own business and house chores, I am inspired to adopt a similar regime as I find it hard to allow time for my own tasks, prioritising client work whenever a choice has to be made and usually just putting things off until I have a quieter work day! I can appreciate though, as you already have, that it’s important to be organised in your own life as well as your work life! I appreciate it
I have a skeleton daily plan in place that includes things like time every morning to do one load of laundry, have coffee, wipe down the bathrooms and take care of the pets. Doing these things first thing in the day clears my head of the domestic goddess tasks.
My best trick is spending ten minutes three times per day dealing with my email. I use the Do it, Delete it, Delegate it or Date it, (Date it is where I drag the email to my task list to be scheduled at a later date).
With my skeleton plan in place, I am able to go to my prioritized task list and fill in the empty time.
I also use Client Inquiry packaged information which keeps me from re-inventing the wheel all the time.
I am looking forward to reading others time-saver or organizational tricks and tips.
Use a virtual assistant! We are over double the business that we had last year at this same time and are still managing it without other employees. Saves us time and money! Still can always do better, though.
Getting organized to work at home is one of the biggest challenges isn’t it Lisa? Best of Luck!