Are You Managing Your Time

What are you doing—right now? Sure, you’re reading an article, but is this the best use of your time? If you’re like many home-based business owners, time management may be your Achilles’ heel in growing a more profitable business.

“Day mapping”—or tracking the highest, most efficient use of the day—is one exercise home-based owners and workers can perform to ensure that they’re operating at peak efficiency. Business owners working out of their homes must think of ways to squeeze more time out of an otherwise static workday.

What are your peaks and valleys?
Too often, home-based owners don’t give time a second’s thought. They mosey through their day, do their tasks when they’re so inclined, and react when clients call or crises erupt. But we all need to know when our personal performance peaks and valleys—or circadian rhythms—come, so we can make sure we’re doing the right tasks at the right time.

A University of North Carolina study asked 4,000 retired executives what they would change if they had it to do over again. The majority said they would like to have realized earlier that time is a non-renewable asset, and made better use of the time they were given. Realizing this early on can result in improved productivity—and increased billings for your home business.

Start by evaluating your time to ensure that it’s being spent wisely. Experts note that saving time starts with a shift in priorities. Consider these three Ps:

• Plan — Sketch out your day and week early to avoid wasting time along the way. Prioritize important projects and set realistic deadlines for them — knowing all the while that other projects will arise to find their lace around them.
• Prioritize — Ask yourself what is the most valuable use of your time. What should you be doing that will give you the greatest return for your business?
• Perform — Stick to your assessment. Don’t squeeze in more “important projects, knowing you’ll have to scramble to meet deadlines, or possibly beg an extension.

Over the next week, map your workdays and chart your time usage, frequently stopping to ask yourself if what you’re doing at that moment is the best use of your time. Note especially your productivity peaks and valleys throughout each day. Some people are most creative in the morning, so they’ll use those hours for productive or creative processes. Others save their creative work for the evening, leaving the days for interaction, telephone calls and meetings.

What will you find?
It might amaze you how easily you can get caught up in minutia. You could realize you’re spending too much time on “non-paying” efforts. You’ll learn to work in a more productive way.

To set up a schedule, take a long-term view of your calendar. Look at a week or a month, as opposed to the day. Even if you use a “day-at-a-glance” calendar, buy another one that’s weekly or monthly. If the week has important projects to be completed, schedule them first. Little “to-dos” will pop up, but with the larger tasks scheduled, core projects and time demands will be in place.

Make it a habit to map your day and track your time usage to ensure that you’re running at peak efficiency. Along the way, you’ll end up better prioritizing your professional and personal lives. And that will leave time for a smile at the end of the day.
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Jeffrey Zbar, the Chief Home Officer, is a journalist, author and authority specializing in small office/home office (SOHO) business, technology and marketing issues.