time management Tips

time management is a necessity for the work-at-home life.  If you aren’t careful, you will end up with a few hours at the end of the day trying to cram your whole day’s work in.  Everyone has different lifestyles that need to be accommodated while trying to make sure you accomplish your day’s work as well. 

Scheduling- Creating a schedule is a good way to make sure you have the time to accomplish all of your daily tasks, both household and work related.  Plan your schedule by making a list of all the daily and weekly tasks, errands and appointments that must be completed on a regular basis.  Next, decide when you will be most effective throughout the day completing your work and schedule your tasks as well as breaks you will be taking.  You may also want to have a set schedule for meals and completing household errands as well.   Look at the time you have available during your day from the time you wake up until you go to bed to schedule everything, and prioritize according to how you feel at what time of day and when you are most likely to be the most effective in your work.  It will take a few tries and some ‘rescheduling’ before you come up with an optimum daily routine, but you will find that you have a lot more time and less stress because you will feel more in control. 

Action Plan- For those that already have their daily schedules planned, but have a hard time completing detailed tasks, an action plan can offer the help and direction needed to succeed.  An action plan consists of writing down your task to complete, and the steps that need to be done to finish it.  Prioritize the steps and work on each one until it is finished, then move on to the next.  Doing this will break the job down into smaller tasks and make it more achievable.  Continue completing the steps of your action plan until you have finished the task.

Priority To Do Lists- Listing your daily work activities in order of importance is another way to effectively accomplish all of your assignments.  List those tasks that must be completed first, finishing with those that can be done on a more flexible schedule.  Working from the top of the list down, you can move from one item to the next, which provides greater control and a higher rate of accomplishment by the end of the day.  Creating an action plan for each item on your priority list can also be an effective way to move quickly through projects.

Managing your time enables you to accomplish your daily work as well as your household and general living tasks.  Combining scheduling, action plans and priority lists will greatly increase your time and effectiveness in working at home and achieving control over your life.

Posted:Monday, July 23, 2007