Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category

I was inspired for this blog post when talking to a friend of mine the other day.  She is starting a bookkeeping business and will be working from home.  She made a point of saying how she will have to start managing her mornings better; she has found herself having to take a computer break around 10 or 11 to have a shower and get dressed. (Yes, office folks, that is something we work at home people can do – work in pajamas or sweats if we choose)

What my friend has found happening is  she is getting lost in emails and work before she has even gotten ready to start her day.  She wakes up before the kids and hubby and goes to check her emails.  She starts acting on some of the emails and soon has to rush to get the kids off to school and then sits back down at the computer to finish what she started. When she finally looks up it is mid morning and she now needs to get showered and dressed. She also made the comment – “and it seems like I have been working all morning yet nothing was getting done”.

She’s falling into the email trap and it is so easy to do.

Time Management experts will tell you to plan out your day and schedule in time for checking emails. Your inbox can be the biggest time-suck in any workday – whether at home or in an office setting.  The best piece of advice they recommend is to NOT check your emails first thing in the morning but to attend to tasks that need completion first. Accomplish and finish one or two main tasks and then check your emails.  The best process I have seen so far is:

First, have a to-do list or schedule set for the day.  Take the time to write it out the night before – or once for the entire week with adjustments during the day and things change – then have a revolving system that goes as follows:

1. Tackle one or two main tasks first thing.  Get them done!
2. Then make time to check emails. Process the emails as recommended in another blog post here – DANG my Inbox Looks Great! * VIP!!! remember that you do not have to followup on each email immediately.
3. Move onto the next items in your daily schedule and later go back to check your inbox again.

Ideally you should be able to check your emails 3-4 times per day, depending upon your type of business and how work is assigned/processed.  The main point is to have a plan around your daily tasks, larger projects and your inbox.  Letting them all run wild will result in you thinking statements as my friend did and you will find yourself being less productive, getting more and more disorganized and wasting time.

What tips do you have for keeping the inbox monster at bay??  Please share them here.

Technorati Tags: email management, home office, WAHM, Work at Home

Everyone works differently; personality plays a big part. Finding an effective way to finish your daily tasks will depend upon your personality, the tasks and you.
Whether you use a paper planner, your email calendar, online calendar or wireless phone; you probably have a method to keeping track of your tasks. If not, and you are finding that you are not completing tasks and forgetting items; then you may want to figure out a task list or to-do system.
If you have system in place, does it work well? Do you get to cross off items; or are they continually added to tomorrow’s calendar? Are items forgotten and missed completely?
You may not realize it, but simply having a to-do list does not guarantee everything will get done. You need to back up your list with a system to help you complete what is on your list.
Here are the Top 5 tips I follow to get my to-do list completed and crossed off.

1. Update your List. Set aside time at the close of day to update your list for tomorrow. This way you will start your day knowing what tasks must be done. Add in new tasks as assigned and their deadline.
2. Block off time to work on tasks.  Most people are more productive early in the morning – so it is best to do this first thing.  Even before you open your email – emails are one of the biggest procrastination machines out there!  You also will fare much better if you work on the more intensive tasks first.
3. Order Tasks by time and priority. This will help you manage your time by knowing what is high priority and the time required.  If one task has a medium priority but will take 5 minutes and the high priority items will take 1.5 hours.  List the 5 minute task first. One more crossed off.  Sorting your tasks on your list will allow you to cross off more as completed. Also you can break up longer tasks into chunks of time allowing you to complete more in between.
4. Spread tasks out over the week, allowing for other aspects of your work to be fit in. Meetings, client calls and other time – takers are reality; allow and plan in time for them as well.
5. When this week’s list is complete; let it be.  Having some free space in your daytimers.  If all is done that needs to be; adding in more work will mean your list will never be completed. Not to say that if a task must be done that you don’t tackle it.  More to say – it’s okay to have a finished list with an end and new work can wait until next week.  Use the time for development and be happy with the accomplishments you have made.

What tricks do you use to help you complete your work? I’d love to learn your methods… maybe I can improve on mine?

Technorati Tags: efficient business, Time Management

Recently, I met with one of my clients, one who had started working with me back in January. We have had a lull in work lately mostly because she was trying to make everything perfect before handing it over. Finally at this week’s meeting she realized that this was actually holding her back in all areas of her work.

As we talked about a timeline when I would get the work and what the deadline was for some of it, she then mentioned how she was going to block off two days in a few weeks to go through all her files and sort everything out to give to me. She was also talking about how her workshop was coming up and that she had a conference out of town in 3 weeks as well. Very busy time.

So… I casually asked ” Why did you hire me?”
The answer from her was “To help me get this work done and off my plate”.
I said “Right, but look what you are doing now. You are actually thinking of blocking off two entire working days to sort the work for me; and when I get it I will have to do that to most of it anyhow.”
I paused, “Now think, how many client appointments could you book and what income would you earn from those in the two days?”
“Four clients”, she said. “And about $1,000.00.”
“And…. how much money will you pay me to do the work?” I asked.
“Argh!” was her answer. “You are so right. I will box it up right away!”

I think the stress of all she had going on, finally made her see the light.

Working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) shouldn’t be stressful – it should be the absolute opposite. As long as you have good communication and trust, you can easily give your VA what she (or he) needs and the work will get done. A simple system for assigning and handing over the work and it will get done.

You will gain what you wanted by hiring your VA in the first place… your time back to work on more important tasks and the work not requiring your special skills gets done.

Technorati Tags: office solution, Organization, virtual assistant

Life has gotten busy. Business has picked up and just when school let out for the summer! Yeahhhhh! (can you hear my fear?)

In an effort to keep on top of my tasks and clients I have been working on creating a system for over a month. Nothing was working. I tried online calendars, shared calendars, spreadsheets , a notebook and more.

The notebook was actually my preference for tasks, not so much appointments though. These I seemed to need in my Outlook calendar. I needed the popup reminder whether on my computer or my Blackberry.

Fine… appointments solved, now the tasks and client work; which is the crux of my business and cannot be missed. I decided to look around my office supply store and indeed found what was similar to my notebook, but had the structure my scribbler was lacking.

What I ended up with was a planner that has one page for the week and appointment times from 7am to 7pm and the second page is like a notebook page with lots of rooms for notes and reminders. It’s what I thought I was looking for… and having been using it for a week, it has turned out perfectly.

I was re-reading my Time Management book by Julie Morgenstein and she goes into detail about how people can be Visual/Tactile or Linear/Digital.  The stress is on discovering what works for you and then using that method.

I guess I am a mix of both; for tasks I am visual and I know it.  Clients files are on the desk and the planner is open there as well.  I need to ‘see’ my work to do it.  But for kids appointments/meetings/seminars  I am digital, which has the added bonus of a reminder bell.    What systems do you have in place?

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurs, Organization, Time Management, virtual assistant

It’s a comment I hear a lot lately, people are getting ‘grouped out’ on Facebook.  Personally, I don’t see the issue and there is a simple solution.

Let’s look at the problem first.  What happens when you join a group or page?

Well.. for starters, you are now connected to many more people through the group.  hmmm… that was kind of the point in ‘working’ Facebook for your business wasn’t it?

Then you start to receive updates or invites to events.  Let’s see… if you respond, your update goes out to all the members… again, your name in front of many.

Now, when someone posts a note, wall post or link, on any of the groups or pages; their post will show on your wall.  Which also means, if you make a comment on another group’s wall or page, your comment will be seen by all the group members or fans. Wow, so many people you are talking to.

The issue everyone seems to have is when they start to RECEIVE all these notes, invites, links and more on your Facebook homepage…that’s when most people become overwhelmed and stop joining anything.

Well… if you are like me, and have more than 100 friends on Facebook, you probably have lots of stuff already being posted on your wall from actual friends – not to mention the flower gardens, butterflies, IQ challenge tests, TV quizzes etc, etc, etc.  Do you read all those?  Probably not… that’s why everyone skim-reads now.  Way too much to take in. You skim and only look further into items that catch your eye.

So… long before you joined any groups you had trouble brewing already.  How do you deal with it and still remain connected to all the groups and pages? Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: facebook, Social Media, social networking, Time Management