Managing to Manage Your Time

I’ve been working at home for a little over a month now. Let me tell you, this takes great discipline and planning in order to really get any work done. I’ve put together a list of things that I do weekly and monthly in order to really be successful in working from my house.

1) First and foremost – Use a planner! I SWEAR by my Franklin Covey Planner. Using a planner is a habit that I got into when I started working in an office setting 40+ hours a week. It was an enormous factor in making sure that, being a working mom, I wasn’t missing out on events or forgetting items at the grocery store. Now, working from home, I find that I use it just as much: to prioritize my lists, keep track of birthdays and phone numbers, important events, and keep an ongoing list of goals handy. Keep your planner handy at all times; you’ll want to purchase one small enough to keep in your purse. Some even have a second part of the planner that fits in your purse when you’re on the go, or can be joined to your main planner. Using a planner is a GREAT habit to get into – the more you use it, the more efficient you will become. Choose a brand and style that will work for you. If you’re specifically interested in the Franklin Covey Planner, click here to save 20% on a day planner.

2) Secondly – Make “To Do” lists. When you think of something that you need to do – write it down! If you’re anything like me, you’ll think of something that you want to do the upcoming weekend, but then once the weekend comes… oops; you forgot! I try to make an ongoing list. If the task needs to be done on a certain day, then I enter it into that specific date on my planner. (That way I don’t have to see it looming there on every date before hand.) When the task is something that I want done today, I make a list on today’s date. I try not to have too many items on each date’s “To Do” List. The reason for this being that if I have too many things “to do”, I get overwhelmed on where I should start or think too much about how I can get everything done. If I don’t have enough on my list, then I feel like a slacker. I would suggest having about 5-6 items on your daily to do list. Obviously, the number of items, depends largely on the length of time each item will take to complete. Don’t overwhelm yourself; be realistic with your list. Any items that you’re not able to complete at the end of the day, forward to the next date, adding them to your list. You’ll have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, being able to visually see what you’ve completed and manually checking tasks off your list will be liberating!

3) Thirdly – Prioritize! I like to prioritize my items in my planners’ “To Do” list by using a letter & number combination code. (I picked up on this system through a course that I took with a Franklin Covey Planner instructor). I use the letters A, B, and C to rank the importance of the task, and then an additional number to further help me prioritize the urgency of the item. For example, if my “to do” list looks like the following:

Pick up laundry at the drycleaners

Obtain 5 potential customers

Mow the lawn

Playdate for lunch at Susie’s

Grocery Shopping

Ship package at post office for David’s Birthday

Clean Refrigerator

I would label these items as below:

Pick up laundry at the drycleaners

A1 Obtain 5 potential customers

C1 Mow the lawn

A2 Playdate for lunch at Susie’s

B2 Grocery Shopping

B1 Ship package at post office for David’s Birthday

C2 Clean Refrigerator

Labeling my tasks to be done with this system allows me to visually see what needs to be done in the order of importance without having to re-write my list every time I think of another task. As you can see, Obtaining 5 potential customers is my number 1 priority today, and cleaning the refrigerator is the last thing that I’m going finish today. If I don’t finish it today, then no big deal… I’ll just move it to tomorrow list. I would caution on doing this more than 2 times. If it’s on your list for 3 or more days, you’re just procrastinating, and nothing will feel better than getting that job done and crossing it off your “to do” list.

I hope these small, easy tips will help you to manage your time more effectively; I have a feeling that you’ll have a whole lot more time in your day than 24 hours! Also, If you have tips on little things to make your day more manageable, let me know! I LOVE a good time-saving tip!