Remember how your school days were divided into different subject periods? Do the same with your workdays now. Consider the major types of work you have before you and divide the day into work periods of an hour or so each. Schedule specific time slots to follow up with current clients, strategize to attract new ones, work on major projects, handle administrative tasks etc.
Concentrate on one project or one type of work during each period until that time is up. Then, give yourself a break between tasks, just as if you were changing classes. Walk around or exercise for ten to fifteen minutes then return refreshed to tackle the next type of work.
Workdays are so busy that you won’t usually have enough time at one sitting to complete a large project. You’re better off breaking down most projects into smaller tasks. If you allocate certain time periods throughout the day for different types of tasks, you can make progress on all of them. This is more practical than devoting yourself exclusively to one project while all the others are neglected. Of course, there will be times when it’s more important to be 100 percent finished with a single high-priority project than to be 50 percent finished with several of lower priority. When that’s the case, make an exception and reallocate your other work to other days.
To squeeze all your activities into an already busy schedule, create weekly and/or monthly calendar templates. Using a spreadsheet, fill in your personal schedule and recurring commitments; then add your recurring business activities. Designate certain days for certain kinds of work. For example, choose a regular time slot that you’ll do bookkeeping and send out invoices and another when you’ll write your newsletter. Pick a time you’ll do social media marketing if that’s part of your business. Keep adjusting length and frequency of time slots until you can accommodate everything. Not only will you decide on specific times for all of your activities, you’ll also make conscious decisions about how much time each deserves. As you identify tasks that relate to each type of work, add the specifics to that time slot. You’ll quickly see if everything fits or if you’ll need to drop or outsource certain activities.
Once you’ve got a schedule that’s running smoothly, consider entering into your computer calendar so that these recurring time slots automatically appear. If you need to make adjustments occasionally, it’s easy to rearrange times on the computer.
Before you know it, the time slots you’ve reserved for different business activities will fill in with specific to-do actions and you’ll have your workdays automatically planned. That’s not to say you can’t make changes whenever something comes up; that’s one of the freedoms of working from home!
If you’d like more tips on Working from Home, sign up for our newsletter and get a free report.
