5 ways to maximise your time
Your biggest investments in your home business are going to be time and money. You might be able to startup with a small amount of money but there’s no way you are going to get something going without investing a serious chunk of time.
You need to make sure you get maximum benefits from the time you have.
1. Plan your work
Write down your objectives for the day, the week, or the month. Estimate how long each task is going to take and where you are going to fit it in. Once you complete tasks, write down how long it took. Comparing your estimates against the actual time it took is a good idea because it helps you make more effective plans with more realistic estimations in the future. If a task took much longer than your estimation, think about why: was your estimations way out or was the task harder than you expected and how can you be more efficient next time?
2. Get up earlier
I always find that I work better in the mornings. I’m fresher, more focused and less likely to get side-tracked. Many studies have shown that office workers do their best work in the morning. A cup of strong coffee is an absolute must first thing if you want to get off to a flier.
3. Have the right tools
No matter what you use for your home business - a PC, a sewing machine, a pen and paper, whatever - make sure they are ready to be used when you need them. You don’t want to be wasting your valuable time updating your PC, searching for your favourite pen or ordering new thread. Make sure your tools work for you.
4. Stick to a schedule
When working from home it is very tempting to get the odd five minutes of work in here and there. I think it is far more productive to keep to a defined schedule - your family knows when you are going to be working and when your time is theirs. Sticking to a schedule helps keep a separation between your work and your free time - which I think is very important - if you let the two mix, both will suffer.
5. Take a break
If your work is stressing you out too much: take a break. Running your own business from home is supposed to be a fun and rewarding experience that will make your life better. If it’s all getting too much, let it go for a few days - a break will see you returning to your work refreshed and full of enthusiasm.
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Home office: The number one threat to getting things done!
Yeah, your kids!
A new home office is going to be a magnet for the little rascals. All that new furniture to investigate and just what is Mummy/Daddy doing in there all the time?
Even once your office is established and you’ve been working from home for a while, your little one is going to be wanting to pop in all the time to update you on how they’ve managed to stick a whole pencil up their nose and can you guess what Elmo is doing today?
Some rules are needed. Make sure your home office has a door and lay down this simple rule: if the door is open they are allowed in, if it’s shut, they’re not. It works. Make sure the door is open now and again so they can come and see you - having a break with them when it suits you allows you to go undisturbed when you really need to be.
Going one better than just having an open/shut door: why not create a big picture to pin up outside your office to show them when it’s OK to come in? Something like a smiley face for when it’s OK and a sad face when it’s not.
Launchy gets your Windows apps moving
Launchy is an application that lets you forget about your Start Menu, your desktop items and even Windows Explorer. It’s the quick way to launch applications, bookmarks, music files and documents using just a few key presses.
On the face of it, Launchy doesn’t sound that impressive - doesn’t sound like it actually does much. But once you’ve got used to hitting Alt+spacebar to launch it instead of using Explorer or the Start Menu to find things you will soon warm to it.
So, how does it work? When you press Alt+spacebar a small screen will pop-up that lets you enter the name of the application, mp3, document, whatever you want to launch. And the best bit: you don’t have to type the complete name of the the thing you want to run; Launchy looks at what you are typing and offers suggestions.
Using it becomes second nature in no time. A great little app.