Time management is one essential criterion that is to be included in your lifestyle if you happen to have a home based business. There is a problem that generally arises with such business. Sine you are operating it from the comforts of your home, you never seem to get over the ‘home sweet home’ syndrome into the ‘work’ mode. The few tips that follow should help to see you through:
- Prioritize: have a clear sense of what jobs are most important and what not-so-important. You may love your home and may love working around the house, but you need to keep in mind that you cannot sacrifice business work and duties at the cost of looking after your house. Here is where you need to fix your priorities. Allot time that you will use to look after the house, and the time you will give your business. Do the same for any other activities (like club volunteering) that you maybe involved in.
- Delegate: now that you are managing a business from home, there are many jobs that your were performing earlier that wont be possible for you to perform any longer. Here is where you need to delegate responsibility for those jobs. Decide on the jobs you will continue to do and those that you will get done from other members of the family.
- Set goals: set your aims carefully. Preferably write them down neatly in the form of a check list that you can always revisit later to find out what you would like to add, and also to check whether you are working towards accomplishing those goals or not. Divide these goals into short term and long term goals. This would give you a clear idea of how much time you have in hand for each of those.
- Be realistic: while setting goals be realistic enough. It is always good to push your limits to get the best of your potential out, but it is also important not to go overboard with it. Also be flexible enough so as to accommodate any change of plans or course o action into your set plan.
- Organization: this is the most important thing that you need to go. Get organized! There are several things that come under this head. For starters, keeping your home and office clutter-free is half the problem solved. Put things in the right place so that you can find them easily later and also because you do not have to spend precious house later in trying to tidy up the place. Keep a calendar with important dates and events marked so that you don’t forget appointments. Maintain neat files so as to make documentation easier.