It’s great that you are moving forward and getting out of the grind. It’s really [...]]]> If you are one of the lucky ones who have been able to quit their day jobs and work out of their home, you might find you are spending too much time spinning your wheels. Does this sound familiar? :-)

It’s great that you are moving forward and getting out of the grind. It’s really good that you work from home, since you’ll find the doors are open to more income and being more in control of your time.

But that’s the point here. Are you really in control of your time? Or is it in control of you still?

Does the broken garage door call out to be fixed? Is the movie on television more interesting that the AutoResponder sequence that you’d promised yourself to set up by last night? Do you prefer to spend a couple hours on Facebook to connect with friends over writing up & publishing a few Web pages? Is watching other people’s YouTube videos more attractive than creating and sharing your own (and have others watch yours)?

You have to be careful not to heed those destructive calls.

Now that you don’t have to commute to that nine-to-five work place, and you don’t have to listen to your former top dog anymore, well… you might think that sleeping in is a true luxury now.

You might think you can take a break whenever you want, get outside and maybe go for a run. But then, when the end of the day comes, do you have everything done that needs to be done?

Those hours go by really fast. The next thing you know… it’s time for bed! And you have to finish some work obligation by early tomorrow. Can you do it in the morning? Maybe. But maybe not. What have you gotten yourself into?

Of course, you are no stranger to hard work. You’ve been doing it for years. But you had a shotgun to your head, so to speak, and had to be there at a certain time and get certain things done in certain time frames.

The point?

Discipline and Deadlines.

Yours has to be of the highest quality if you want to maintain your home based business. You can’t let those hours slip away.

The best thing to do in these circumstances is to make yourself a schedule. What will you get done in the morning? What will you get done in the afternoon? Do you have time in the evening to work on a project if you don’t get it done earlier? You have to figure these things out.

But it isn’t just making a schedule, it’s KEEPING one. You have to stick with what you laid out to get things done in time.

And if you allow for some personal time in there (like a reward for finishing everything), you will find yourself really sticking to it. You’ll fly through your work and feel like a success when you achieve what you planned to for the day.

Watch those distractions. Sure, the plants need watering, the refrigerator needs to be cleaned out, and then all those time consuming researches on the Net… But these minor, unproductive tasks are going to have to wait until you make your targeted actions for the day.

You have a unique opportunity to get more done, work smart and achieve great things when you are self-employed. Don’t blow it by wasting your time doing non-income related, unproductive actions.

Work smart. Stick to a schedule. Prosper.

—Marcus Hochstadt

This is a common excuse and everyone is using it. As I figured out over time, for our customers and colleagues, it’s exasperating to hear, and only highlights our poor time management.

When you bring up the topic of Time Management, it’s often dismissed as nonsense; business [...]]]> “There are never enough hours in the day.”

This is a common excuse and everyone is using it. As I figured out over time, for our customers and colleagues, it’s exasperating to hear, and only highlights our poor time management.

When you bring up the topic of Time Management, it’s often dismissed as nonsense; business jargon from do-gooders with too much time on their hands. Try working in the real world is the response, no one could possible understand or do their job in the measly 24 hours allotted every day.

Even if you start work every day with the greatest intentions, time management is constantly challenged. You are distracted by phone calls, e-mails, or that mountain of mail that arrives on your desk daily. After hours on the computer you are lethargic and cannot concentrate, or the demands on your time are causing you considerable stress.

Or here’s another scenario… The project you are working on commands more time and resources than you can possibly handle, but you are reluctant to delegate this project to a colleague, contractor or employee.

There Is Logical Reasoning Behind This

Maybe you don’t want someone else to take the credit for this project; you want the praise, or even want to play the martyr for completing this task alone.

Another—and equally misleading—reason for not delegating work is the fear that the other person may not be able to complete it to the same standard and you will have to waste more time putting it right. You know the age-old saying that if you want to get something done correctly, you are best doing it yourself.

How insane is that…

Of course, if you cannot produce services to an agreed deadline, people may look elsewhere for a more reliable source. The internet has made this even more demanding. As technology has advanced, human beings struggle to keep up.

Also, some folks expect instant responses to their e-mails. They can purchase goods online in seconds and they can instantly buy into any online service with very little effort.

Still, performing all tasks by yourself due to fear of rejection or imperfectionism is a surefire way to 24/7 busyness (i.e., all-nighters) and discarding freedom.

So, Now That We’ve Heard The Excuses Let’s Look At Fixing The Problem

A successful Project Manager knows that you have to organize every project into small easily manageable tasks. By breaking the project down into small pieces, you can assign a timescale and budget to each of these components and then delegate roles. Delegating administrative and less important tasks gives you breathing room and time for finalizing more important and/or more confidential tasks.

Ever heard of the “80-20 rule” or the Pareto Principle?

The Pareto Principle is a business model that decrees that we achieve 80% of our results from only 20% of our efforts. The model is based on the Pareto Index, a parameter outlined by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, when he proposed that 20% of the population owned 80% of the wealth.

New models have changed the percentages slightly over the years, but the 80-20 rule can be applied to many different areas from the laws of nature, to human and social behavior, such as our network of friends, recognized when we spent 80% of our social time with 20% of our friends (or that 80% of our sales is generated by 20% of our customers.)

When you apply this to Time Management, the 80-20 rule seems quite outstanding. How can you possibly achieve 80% of your results with 20% of the effort. Does that mean you only have to put in 20% of the hours?

Well, when you start delegating and outsourcing, yes, definitely!

Now you probably recognize that you work hard 20% of the day, while the rest of the day is full of distractions, breaks for coffee, needless conversations on the telephone, browsing the internet instead of working, and on and on…

Ha! I caught you. :-)

Think about how you organize your time. Break projects down into small manageable tasks and don’t be distracted by those 80% time fillers. Plan your week, plan your day, and use whichever method gets the best result.

If you can, only review and answer your e-mails twice a day and not every ten minutes, when the server drops down the latest batch of junk into your inbox (including that distracting sound alert, uh!)

The same applies to your mail. Organize as it arrives. There should be only three categories: Action now, File, or Throw Away. If you have to add an Action Later category, you will soon find that the contents will end up as junk as well.

Although many businesses have standards of correspondence, when you receive a letter, rather than spending time typing another letter in return, could you simply write your response on the bottom and send it back? It’s good for the environment too.

And as for all that paperwork – clear your desk. It takes only five or ten minutes at the end of the day. This allows you to further organize your work for the following morning and walk into the office without being confronted by a mountain of paperwork.

Write To-do Lists And Prioritize Your Time

Another tried and tested Time Management technique is to list the five most important tasks to do in each day, or maybe ten depending on your Internet business, but make that list and stick to it. Prioritize the list further by listing the tasks in order of importance. Then make sure you complete the most important task first thing in the morning!

This tip alone—if applied consistently—saves you another 1-2 hours each and every day. (Don’t believe me? Why not just do it and experience it yourself… ;-) So did I.)

Finally, delegate any tasks that you are able to, empowering your contractors to be fully involved in your internet businesses success. After all, you should be managing your business, not suffering under the stresses of not having enough time…

—Marcus Hochstadt

It is possible to accomplish more in a shorter amount of [...]]]> We all need more time in the day, but short of waving a magic wand to stop time or creating more hours in the day, the only thing we can do is run around in a mad rush to get everything done, right?  Wrong.

It is possible to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time – and all with less stress!  It only takes discipline, focus and learning to say “no.”

Discipline: to eliminate (or outsource) internet “surfing” —
Focus: to tackle tasks with efficiency — and
No: to extra things with no value that add to an already crazy schedule.

Without further ado, here are 10 tips on how to save two hours per day (while regaining your sanity)…

1. Check e-mail only at specific times — Of all the time consuming tasks each day, this one has to take the cake.  As I’m living prove, you can easily save 2 hours per day just on this one task by implementing a two rules: 1. Save the personal e-mails for off-work hours. 2. Establish set times to check e-mails, preferably twice a day max.

   Even better yet, hire assistants and have them filter your e-mail messages, only forwarding the essentials.

2. Use a daily planner — This can take a little getting used to, but it’s worth it.  Include everything in your daily planner… appointments, “to-do’s,” and phone calls.  Be sure to add travel times and an extra 15 minutes on the end of everything for a buffer.  You’ll be surprised when you have time left over at the end of the day.
3. Focus, Focus, Focus — It’s easy to get stuck in the trap of multi-tasking only to spend the entire day scrambling.  Concentrate on completing the tasks at hand until it’s done, and then move on to the next, again, until it’s done.
4. Avoid personal phone calls during work hours — We all love our friends, but we have to make a living.  At the end of the day, our friends don’t pay our bills, so reserve working hours for Internet business only and call friends after work.
5. Learn to wrangle in “needless conversation” — We’ve all been victim to the occasional rambling co-worker or employee.  Be tactful and courteous, while gently leading the conversation to its purpose and conclusion.
6. Consider different working hours — These days, people sit in traffic every day all around the world.  In case you still have and need to get to a day job, consider alternative times when getting to and going home from the office will not be spent in traffic.  Did you know the average person spends 38 hours per year in traffic?  Glad that excludes me!
7. Consider telecommuting from home — More and more people are working from home either full-time or part-time.  Eliminating the drive to the office just one day a week could save time and money.
8. Give up the TiVo — I talked about this a few times already… The tube is everyone’s friend : – ) but it also takes up valuable time.  Reducing time spent in front of the TV allows for the time to do so many other things—like building your Internet business!
9. Switch it up — Try a new routine. Talk to friends, co-workers, business associates—or better yet, a Mentor.  Ask them how they save time and balance life with a demanding schedule; they might just provide a gem of a tip.
10. Plan the next day the night before — Before going to bed, go over your daily planner for the next day.  The mind is amazing at accomplishing goals, and while you’re sleeping it will be working everything out to save even more time and increase productivity. This 10th tip is well worth a separate post as it can give you another 2 hours per day. So stay tuned!

There you have it.

Now, the goal is to pick the one that you like most and implement it. Don’t play with all 10 by “trying” here and there a bit. Instead, choose the one tip that you think brings the most rewards in terms of saving two hours per day and act upon it to its fullest.

Then and only then pick another one with the aforementioned approach.

—Marcus Hochstadt

Time is precious. Time is scarce. [...]]]> This is the second time I invited someone to write a guest post for my blog. This time it is Leisa Watkins, a passionated teacher, home-business expert and self-improvement coach. I encourage you to read and bookmark her post. It’s an excellent tutorial on small business time management.

Time is precious. Time is scarce. Time is money. One of the biggest challenges facing today’s internet professional and small business owner is time management. Online time management in particular.

Perhaps, like many small business owners and internet marketers, you waste valuable time on the internet in the name of business.

Many small business owners and internet marketers love the fact that we have a world of information at our fingertips. We love the fact that we can gain a world of business knowledge twenty-four hours a day in the comfort of our own home.

We search and study, looking for that edge, that trick, that tidbit of information that will help us drive traffic, monetize our website, and allow us to “have more time.” And we spend our time learning the tricks of effective time management.

For the small business time management means freedom. Freedom to do what we want when we want to. We love the fact that our time is not held hostage to a set work schedule and that we have control of our time, as we should.

But there in lies the problem. By combining our intense desire for time freedom and our sensuous appetite for information we become painfully aware of how much we don’t know.

We buy into the fear that what we know isn’t good enough. We fear that we will fail because we are missing that one piece of vital information that will make all the difference in the world.

So we try to eliminate the fear with more knowledge. After all we don’t fear what we understand, and we understand what we know. We believe the more information we have the more profitable our business will be. And the more profitable we are, the more time we will have.

It’s ironic, because in the end we’ve usually wasted the time. It’s wasted because we don’t take the time to quickly implement what it is that we learned. Perhaps it’s because we “lack the time” we just wasted away. Perhaps we gained more knowledge than we can act upon and now reside in a state of confusion.

It’s our actions that determine our success, not the information itself that determines our success. Success doesn’t come from a vast amount of information. Success comes from gaining some knowledge, comparing it to our experiences, and taking action.

Ask Yourself:

Are you attempting to become business wise by studying the same thing over and over again?

Are you spending to much time looking for that magic traffic bullet, and missing out on actually taking the action steps to drive the traffic?

Or are you the type of person who can quickly filter the information, and then act on what needs to be done?

With an action plan, your thirst for knowledge and the desire for freedom can fit into your daily life. The key is to decide on a daily course of action and stick to it.

Here Are Some Time Management Tips For Online Entrepreneurs:

• Select a couple of business mentors you really like. Visit their sites daily, check what’s new and then move on to the next task.
• Select a couple of forums to work. Limit the amount of time spent in them each time you visit. Keep a tally sheet. Once you’ve made a set number of comments, perhaps five, get out of that forum. Do the same thing on some blogs.
• Resist the urge to check your email fifteen times a day. Set a specific time, or two, to check your email each day. Quickly handle what needs handled and dump the rest.
• Stick to a couple of online business networking sites. Limit the amount of time you spend there and then move on.
• To satisfy your curiosity set a time limit on the amount of time you’ll spend surfing the web, and discovering new sites. Set a timer. Quit once the timer buzzes.

About the Author

Owning her own business at age 16, Leisa Watkins knows the ins and outs of developing a home-based business. Being known for her ability to teach in a fun, exciting, and easy to understand way, Leisa receives great satisfaction from helping others create and begin to recognize within themselves some of the creativity she believes everyone possesses. Visit her blog at http://blog.LeisaWatkins.com for more inspiring and captivating advice.