There is one commodity that nearly everyone runs out of, and that is time. For some reason, when someone opens a home business, they believe their days will suddenly have more hours than when they worked for someone else. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for them to realize that there are not only the same number of hours in a day, but those hours may seem like they have fewer minutes.
Time management is not a skill that can be taught; it is a behavior that has to be learned. Many tools are available to help people manage their time, but they have to take the initial step in getting started before they can make better use of their time. Time management will also help them balance their work and home life, commonly referred to as creating a work-life balance, and to start, they need to realize how close they are related.
Too many people have a calendar for their work and a separate calendar for their family life. With the two so closely connected, they only need one calendar. Instead of having to consult with two pieces of paper before determining if you can make a meeting, pulling out one calendar can make the decision easy. It does not matter what brand is considered the best or the most expensive. The only thing that matters is getting a planner with a calendar and using it regularly.
Before you fill out the calendar, you must ensure you have your priorities in order. New priorities will pop up daily based on emergencies and customer demands. One thing to consider is that when a customer emergency comes up and is in direct conflict with a scheduled family event, you must decide your priorities on that specific date and time. If you have a helper who can handle the customer’s issue without conflicting with their family calendar, that’s a plus. If not, the customer may have to wait until you finish it.
Setting daily priorities should always begin with a block of time being set aside as contingency time. That time set aside to handle unexpected issues can be as little as 15 minutes. If nothing happens, you have an extra 15 minutes unclaimed at the end of the day. If it does, you have time to handle it without throwing the schedule out of whack.
Possibly the best thing you can do to better manage your time is to establish a minimum of 10 minutes every morning to review what you have to do that day and reprioritize any items that did not get done from yesterday’s list. This daily planning session can be the first thing you do when you get to your office or finish your first cup of coffee. The bottom line is you need to get into the habit of reviewing your daily plans and then stick to the schedule throughout the day.
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