Last Updated on March 29, 2024 by Dennis
Time Management
Whether you are currently working a full time job, retired, or a stay at home parent, there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done. Is time management the answer?
So, how in the world can you find time to build an online business? Let’s look into this.
You might be tempted by so called “Gurus” that claim to have the secret to “push button profits” where you can build your business by working less than 30 minutes a day. Just buy their software or training course and they’ll show you how make $100, $500, even $1,000 a day just by clicking their “magic button”.
Don’t you think that if they could make $1,000 a day like they claim, they would be focused on doing that instead of sharing their secret to you for only $9.95?
As we all know, “there’s no such thing as a Free lunch”. So, why would we think that making money from home would be any different?
Building your business takes time. It takes work. It takes consistent effort.
Now, how do we find time to build our business?
With a whole slew of different time management courses available online and all the different methods to “find more time” to make better use of the time we have, I’ve found that keeping it simple works best for me.
It all boils down to 4 what I call Pillars of Time Management.
- Write down your goals
- Write down your daily activities in the evening for the next day
- Use the Pomodoro method to help you focus
- Remember, “Perfect is the Enemy of Good”
Write Down Your Goals
When you are just getting started, you may not have any idea what your goals should be. Just start with a simple long term goal, like “I want to make $3,000 per month within 12 months”.
Goals are different from vision statements in that goals are SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound). Even the simple goal above meets these requirements.
- Specific: I want to make $3,000 per month
- Measureable: $3,000 per month
- Attainable: Making $3,000 per month within 12 months is certainly achievable even for someone just starting out. Compare this to: Make $10,000 starting next week, which unless you’re already making over $8,000-$9,000 per month already is darn near impossible.
- Relevant: Needing to make more money is certainly relevant to most people
- Time-Bound: “within 12 months” sets the time when you’ll achieve $3,000 per month.
As you build your online business, you’ll think of more goals, primarily shorter term goals. As you do come up with additional goals, write them down, too.
Note: You may find that your goals change. Don’t feel bad about changing them. Just be sure to replace an obsolete goal with a new, more relevant one.
Plan Your Next Day’s Activies
This is an easy one. And one that has made a dramatic difference in my business.
At the end of your day, review what you have accomplished and write down what you plan to accomplish tomorrow. By doing this, your business is still fresh in your mind and you know what you want to get done next. It’s a simple matter to expand on that and come up with a list of tasks for the next business building day.
If you wait until the next day to do this, you will have to catch up with where you were and where you were going in your business building actions. This can be especially difficult if you work a full time job and then work to build your business after hours.
Or, if you’re like me, it may take a cup or 2 of coffee to get the brain to engage in the morning. By planning your tasks the night before, you can get started while your brain is still trying to wake up!
The Pomodoro Method
The Pomodoro Method is a time management technique based on 25 minute stretches of focused work broken by five-minute breaks. Longer breaks, typically 15 to 30 minutes, are taken after four consecutive work intervals. Each work interval is called a pomodoro, the Italian word for tomato.
Now, when I say focused work. I mean FOCUSED! No answering the phone, no watching TV, no Facebook surfing, no YouTube videos, no getting up to refill your coffee. Stay focused on getting the work done.
This method is especially effective if you can break your tasks down to bite sized pieces. Something that can be accomplished within that 25 minutes of focused work. Or ideally, something that would normally take 35 to maybe even 60 minutes. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done in 25 minutes.
That brings us to the 4th pillar of Time Management.
Perfect is the Enemy of Good
According to Wikipedia: “Perfect is the enemy of good” is an aphorism which means insistence on perfection often prevents implementation of good improvements. The Pareto principle or 80–20 rule explains this numerically. For example, it commonly takes 20% of the full time to complete 80% of a task while to complete the last 20% of a task takes 80% of the effort. Achieving absolute perfection may be impossible and so, as increasing effort results in diminishing returns, further activity becomes increasingly inefficient.
Combining the Pomodoro Method with the understanding that Perfect is the Enemy of Good, is why you can complete something in 25 minutes that used to take you an hour.
I used to think that most people would appreciate reading an article, email or eBook without any spelling or grammar errors. Boy, was I wrong!
In this day of cell phones with tiny, little keypads, the average Joe has become accustomed to reading and skipping past any spelling errors. And without having a heart attack, too.
I learned that the important thing is what you write, not how it’s written. The content is all that matters. If it’s good enough, people will read it, no matter how many spelling or gammar errors it contains.
Now, I’m not saying that you should produce crap. You should still strive to do the best you can, but don’t obsess over a few errors. Nobody cares.