Time Management Skills
Thankfully, there are solutions to any problem, including perhaps your lack of natural time management skills. Here are a few tactics and systems I have (and/or still) use to make my day more productive:
- At the end of your work day, make a list of projects needing to be completed tomorrow.
- From this list, allocate a timeframe that you anticipate each project to take - adding at least 15 minutes to be safe
- Another option would be to assign these tasks to your computer calendar (such as Microsoft Outlook's calendar) and have reminders pop up on your screen at each new project start time. Personally, I am what they call "old school", and am more apt to use my pen and notepad to make my daily plans...
- Let your answering machine do its job! If your phone is notorious for ringing off the hook, that's great, but don't allow it to override your planned timeline for getting your projects completed. Set some time in the morning and in the afternoon to listen to your messages and respond accordingly.
- Close your email program - you will be less likely to get distracted and off-course (unless of course you are able to ignore the emails streaming in and are using your email program's calendar for your timelines!).
- A great program that I have been using for the past 5 years is TraxTime by SpudCity. This program allows me to punch in and out for each client as I move through my day. It also allows me to keep a detailed record of what I am doing for each of my clients and I can send them an update at the end of each month or period of work they are scheduled to pay me for. You can download a free trial version of Traxtime here.
The best advise I can give is to minimize your distractions and maximize on your focus. I find that having energetic music playing in the background also helps me pump out the work - give it a try!
