Using your time efficiently

As you may have noticed? It has been a little longer than I would have liked since I last posted here. I apologize. That is why I have decided that there is no better time than now to stress how important scheduling your time is.

Personally, I have many different projects that I am currently working on. That is actually nothing to relatively new. However, I failed to sit down and set up a plan as to how I would start to accomplish each task. In doing so, I spent more time than I should have on certain projects and not nearly enough on others.

I honestly believe that if you plan to be successful in any work at home opportunity, you must create a schedule and follow through with it! A few of the areas that are extremely important, especially for me personally, are...

1. Set a specific time to handle emails. Let's say for 30 minutes at 8am, noon & 4pm, then maybe once before you shut down for the evening. That may seem like a lot to some, but if you would see the amount of emails that I get on a daily basis...if I do not stay on top of things, it can definitely get a bit overwhelming at times trying to catch back up.
2. Start your day with a good, solid 2-3 hour period to get all of your prospecting done. It is inevitable that you are going to have to call people. Who you call, that's up to you. I don't do cold calls, you may. All I'm saying is to be successful you need to talk to people. So, if you are like most people, this is the one area that is most difficult to stick with in the beginning. The phone may feel as though it weighs a ton, at least for the first few calls. But I assure you it will get lighter. Setting your hours so that you do nothing except make calls from 9am-noon will bring your business to new levels. Just think of it like this...by noon, you will actually be done working, if you would like to that is. You will have the entire rest of the day to do whatever you would like.
3. Schedule cleaning time and household chores. (This is huge) Often times, we as work at home business owners, will find all sorts of things that could be done around the house. I was so guilty of this at one point. I would find anything & everything I could think of that needed to be cleaned, just so that I did not have to make calls or do "work." There is no boss standing over your shoulder making sure you are getting things done. We are the only ones who know if and when we are working. The problem here is that when we do not work, we do not get paid. We are paid on results, not the time we put into it. So, schedule blocks of time throughout the day as to when you will wash dishes, or do the laundry, etc.
   

These are just a few areas that I feel are extremely important in terms of scheduling your time. In doing so, you will also free your mind to be able to concentrate on the task at hand. When your making calls to prospects, you won't be thinking of how badly the bathroom needs cleaned, or how much laundry you have to do, etc. You will get so much more done in a shorter amount of time, and trust me, it will definitely pay off.



One resource that I have found that is awesome for setting up daily chores for everyone in your household is Chore Buster. It is free to use and you can add every single chore you would do & have it schedule what needs to be done, and what day to do it on.



So, to sum it all up...even if you are the type of person who is not really into doing the whole schedule thing. (I was that person.) Take the time right now to sit down and just do it. You will save yourself so much time, as well as stress, among many other things as well. But the time you will save by doing so will be huge.

Source: Work at Home Facts