It’s so easy to get wound up on one project or another and ending up just getting completely lost in it for hours. Where on earth does the time go.
Managing your time is not a natural skill for most of us but instead is an aquired skill.
Time is our most treasured commodity, yet it is the hardest one to keep under control. You set out to do some research, you run across something else that interest you and first thing you know, you can’t even remember what you were originally looking for and hours have passed.
Time management skills include planning, focus, rest, decision-making and communication skills.
Lets face it, life happens and even with the most elaborate set of plans, some times you just have to abort the plan.
When you are in the beginning stages of starting a new business, time management can be an even greater problem. You are already stressed with trying to get everything set up properly and you probably are not getting enough rest so you get hit with a double whammy.
When you do have time to socialize, be sure to spend that time with positive people. Positivity is contagious. when you spend time around positive people it lifts you up to sense of well-being. It’s a known fact that positivity leads to creativity.
The more positive your mentality, the more creative you are and life is just easier.
Planning
It is very beneficial to start with a plan. I try to use a couple of hours on the weekend, once a month to write up a monthly plan as well as a weekly and daily plan.
My monthly plan includes setting growth goals, evaluating my success so far and posting my last months results.
My weekly planning includes working on Post titles and headlines for the week, doing any catch up that remains and researching for my articles that I have planned.
My daily plan is to get up early, check and answer emails, reply to comments and new followers, check analytics, publish any planned post, live chat, affiliate bootcamp and do any other catch up work that I need to do.
Focus
What are your “core Values”? According to Tony Robbins, who I am a huge fan of, “unless you align your actions with your core values, no matter how much you do, you will never achieve a sense of achievement and fulfillment”.
Clarity is achieved by being specific about your goals.
A good rule to follow ids to complete the most important task first. That way if your plan does get disrupted, at least you got the most important things done.
Keep your eye on the ball, or goal, so to speak. Focus requires concentration, so as not to get lost ad to complete the goal. You can quickly get thrown of your path when doing research because so many interesting facts keep popping up to lead you astray.
Other interuptions can also interfere with focus, such as phone calls, unexpected visitors, famiy crisis and a multitude of other things.
We can’t control everything but we can develop some better time management skills tooffset some of the problems that pop up.
Get Plenty Of Rest
First and foremost make sure you get plenty of rest. I know for many of us this is easier said than done. It is extremely important. When you fail to get enough rest every project suffers.
When you’re writing content for your website, for instance, you tend to misspell words, use the wrong punctuations, repeat words and in general, just fail to make sense.
This funny but I do most of my creative thinking while sleeping. I have to keep a pen and pad next to my bed because creative thoughts soar while I am sleeping and wake me up.
I use to think I could just wait til morning and write them down but by the time I got up in the morning, I couldn’t remember what the idea was, hence the pen and pad.
The only problem with that is, sometimes I can’t let go and go back to sleep. I have to get up and write the post right then. I will say that when that happens the words just flow so fast and easy.
I don’t have to stop and think what I want to write next. My fingers just keep moving and the words keep coming. Oh well, we can always sleep when there is nothing better to do.
What did I say about the importance of getting enough sleep……
Managing and Minimizing Distractions
The number one rule of time management is, learn to say NO. It sounds simple but it is easier said than done. Often times, your friends and family don’t see your work at home job as serious. My standard answer is I’ll have to think about that and see if it works with my busy schedule.
They think it is no big deal to interupt. Some even get offended if you say no. They just don’t understand that this is how you make your living. (The thing is, if you are ever able to make them understand, they all want to do what you are doing)
Yes, your family comes first but beyond that, don’t let other peoples priorities get in the way of your own priorities. You must keep your own priorities in sight to achieve success.
Some say that working on task in 20-30 minute increments helps them but for me, it seems be seen as, Oh, you’re done working! That is not a good thing. Everyone has the same amount of time. It’s just a matter of how we use that time.
It is a matter of setting priorities as to what is most important on your agenda.
A few things you can do to avoid distraction
- Meditate to creat calm before you start
- Shut off all background noise
- take one thing at a time
- switch off phones
- take frequent breaks
- add short intervals of time for things that come up