Managing your work time effectively is never easy, especially when you're your own boss and there's no one else looking over your shoulder to motivate you. If you're serious about making the most of your days, though, you'll discover you can get more done in a home office than you were ever able to at an outside workplace.
In part, that's because you have fewer distractions: no co-workers to blab with, no water-coolers to hang out at, no time-wasting meetings. But it's also because, as your own boss, you realize how serious a proposition effective time management is. Every minute you're working means money in your pocket. Every minute you waste is less cash for you.
So what are the keys to working efficiently? Here are a few pointers:
- Use your planner. Whether you prefer a pocket calendar or an elaborate time-management planning system, make sure you keep track of every task and project on paper: deadlines, appointments, notes, whatever you need to keep tabs on your work.
- A place for everything. If you need to keep extensive notes on individual projects, make a point of keeping them all in one place. Maybe you want to record them all in a single word-processing file. Maybe you'll stuff all the papers you accumulate in a single folder. Whichever method you use, just don't scatter your information around: you'll work much more effectively if you can access everything you need in one place.
- Save the distractions for after work. If you have to go online for your work, you know how tempting it is to keep surfing after you've sent those business-related e-mails or researched those business-related Websites. DON'T give in to the temptation. Afterhours, you can browse all you like, watch TV, flip through those home and garden magazines, whatever you feel like doing. Just don't do it during your workday.
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