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Managing your time as a home-based worker
BY SARAH CRUICKSHANK
Working and living in the same environment can be a serious buzz kill...
Successful time management requires not just planning (we can all do that), but also the discipline to carry those plans into reality. This article will help you identify the time you need and also how to make the best use of that time to move your business forward.
Work/life tension and how to manage it I’m not really convinced that there’s such a thing as a work/life balance, but there’s certainly a tension – particularly for those of us who work and live in the same place – between work and family time. The proximity of work stuff makes the temptation to “just send those few emails”, or “just finish that quick job”, seem easy to give in to.
To stop yourself from falling into this trap, set yourself strict working hours, stick to them and “close your door” (even if that means packing all your papers off the kitchen table and into a box), at the end of your working day. Give yourself 30 minutes or so for your last daily task so you can review your day and plan for tomorrow.
Knowing what you’ve achieved so far and what you need to do tomorrow should help you to feel confident that you can leave your business and focus all your energy on your family.
The time you need is the time you have There are so many reasons for becoming self-employed and one of the things you’ve probably thought about was the amount of time you’d need to spend working at your business. You might have two hours a day whilst your child is at nursery, or you might be able to work six or seven hour days.
You can probably find some extra time by getting up early, going to bed later, or giving up watching some TV. That’s the time you have to work with and that’s the time where you need to achieve stuff to move your business forward.
Planning Make it SMART All your business planning needs to be: Specific (know exactly what you want to achieve).
52 | The Entrepreneur | JULY 2014
Your weekly plans will also need to include around six hours to work on developing/ maintaining your business (including working on new products or services, networking, research, marketing, social media and your own admin and invoicing), and some time for you to develop or learn new skills and keep yourself up to date with developments and news in your niche or industry.
Review regularly
Measurable (how will you know you’ve succeeded?). Achievable (you have to be able to actually do the thing). Relevant (to your customers and to where your business currently is). Time bound (have a start and finish date).
Plan your year Get a planner (paper or electronic, whichever works for you), and start by marking off all the major family events you have going on (holidays, school trips, times when your partner is away and any times when you know you don’t want to, or can’t work).
Next think about any products or services you want to launch and allocate them a month.
Mark off any major events in your industry or niche.
Mark off any events friends or joint venture partners are holding that you’re involved in or that you want to promote.
Plan your months Set yourself some goals to achieve each month (remember SMART).
Plan your weeks and days Use the broad plans you’ve laid out in your yearly and monthly calendars as “end points” and break those big goals into manageable steps to populate your weekly and daily plans.
Keep your short and long-term plans reviewed regularly so that you know whether you’re on track to achieve your goals and don’t be afraid to modify your plans if you need to (none of this should be ‘set-in-stone’).
Discipline is the key So far I’ve only talked about planning your time, but your business won’t go anywhere unless you turn those plans into actions. You have to commit to turning up for your working hours and then doing what needs to be done to translate your tasks into actual clients and sales.
Time management This is something that’s very individual and it’s only by doing it and seeing how things work for you that you’ll find your perfect solution. There is no right answer, there’s only the trial and error of planning and execution to see what actually translates into a working model for you and your business.
There is no doubt however, that without a plan that you discipline yourself to follow, you won’t achieve anything near your full business potential and success.
Sarah runs Sarah Cruickshank Media Solutions where she provides a Virtual Assistant service covering audio transcription, copywriting, administrative and social media support to businesses and individuals across the UK. She is also a freelance writer specialising in family life, play, wellbeing and home working.
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