Time management is an important ability for everyone, especially if you are your own boss, working from home or running an online business. It is a skill that can take time to develop and even longer to master. Here is a quick look at some simple yet essential tips to creating better time management skills…
1. Don’t Deceive Yourself
One of the biggest problems that most people have is that the underestimate how long a particular task really takes. If you think that something will take 20 minutes but actually takes 30 minutes, your entire schedule will soon fall apart. Let’s say you have 6 tasks to get done that take 20 minutes each, so you budget 2 hours to get everything done. However, reality sets in and each task takes 30 minutes to compete. Instead of 2 hours, it takes 3 hours to complete everything. If this is true for every task, your 8 hour workday will actually require a total of 12 hours to complete.
2. Schedule in Breaks When Needed
It would be nice to think that you are a workhorse and never need a break, but that simply isn’t true. Don’t feel bad if you schedule a 5 minute break after every task. And you definitely need to give yourself a 30-60 minutes lunch break. Trust me, I used to work straight through lunch hour all the time, and eventually I found it was actually doing me more harm than good as far as being productive. If anything, these scheduled breaks will actually give you something to look forward to and can actually make you work harder. Plus, by scheduling in breaks, you will be able to more accurately gauge how much you can accomplish during the day.
3. Stop Waiting Around
The biggest time waster is having to wait around for something. It is important to always stay busy, whenever possible. While waiting cannot be avoided if you have a meeting or are at the dentist, there is not much you can do about it. However, if you always have some work handy, even small assignments, then you can make the most of your time. It may surprise you how much extra you can get done during the week once you have turned waiting time into working time. It’s also important to remember that just because you are sitting at your computer, you aren’t necessarily “working” or getting anything important done. You would be surprised how easy it is to waste 2-3 hours every day just reading things or browsing, or whatever, and it feels like you are working because you are online.
Time management is a necessary skill that many people unfortunately lack and that is really bad for people who run their own home based business or have a work from home job. However, by following these 3 simple tips, you will find that managing your time doesn’t have to be difficult. Once you have these three tips under control, find some other ways to manage your time better and implement them. One of the most important things to remember is that while you may have excellent time management skills, they can always be improved.