The Importance of Time Management

It may be that more money and energy has been spent on time management studies than on any other tool of management in business. It drives numbers-crunchers crazy to see what they view as "time wasting ? activities, or inefficient use of time employed in their business. Sometimes, in an effort to cut these things short, management winds up requiring even more time-wasting paper work than before, insisting that employees keep detailed accounts of how they spend every minute. In addition to adding to wheel-spinning activity instead of reducing it, management winds up with disgruntled employees who will go to any lengths to sabotage the boss' nit-picky ways.

Finally, managers become little more than petty overlords, spending hours of their own time policing minutes and seconds of their employees' use of time. The classic example of this is the manager who stood every morning looking out a second story window and timing with a stopwatch how long it took his employees to get from their car to the door. That itself is an example of poor time management. Much better, instead, to give the employees some training in a variety of ways in which they can choose for themselves which time management techniques work better for them individually and then giving them incentives for getting their work done well and efficiently.

Time management IS very important to any successful enterprise. This is even truer in the case of a work-from-home business. Without someone else keeping track of your time wasting activity it may be difficult to realize how much of it you are doing. You wanted to be your own boss, so sometimes you must act like a boss and expect efficiency and good use of time from yourself. After all, if you waste time in a home based business, you are wasting not someone else's money, but your own. And you didn't get into a work at home business so that you could have no free time to enjoy yourself - that is the opposite of what you wanted.

Sometimes just taking a little time to plan will save you hours of time in the long run. Experiment, for instance, with what time of day you are most efficient. This is one of the great advantages of working from home. If you like to sleep late and then hit your stride during the early evening hours, put yourself on that schedule. If your biorhythms are cooking at full steam in the early morning hours, make the best use of that time. Whichever you choose, however, once you have chosen it and proved its efficiency, STICK TO IT!!

Sit down at your computer for whatever hours you have chosen and let everyone know that those are your working hours. Unless whatever they are contacting you about is business, it will have to wait for your free time. You would have to do this in someone else's office, so do it in yours.

Set up your workspace so that you don't have to spend time looking for the things you need once you start work. Do not think that you can juggle personal calls or other people's priorities just because you are working at home. A successful home business is run just like any other business and you must take it seriously. Remember, the more efficiently you make use of your time the more time you will eventually have for yourself.

In part two we will explore programs that help you with your time management while running your home business. You can do it.