Productivity
No commentsIt’s essential to your success. Seriously! You absolutely need to learn how to manage your time.
Prioritization is the key
Since your time is limited, you’ll need to learn how to focus your efforts.
Moms, you no doubt already have this attribute nailed.
The 80/20 Rule
In order to run a successful home business, it’s important that you understand the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto principle). Basically it states that:
* 80% of work in a company is done by 20% of the people
* 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your customers
* People spend 80% of their time with 20% of their friends
* People wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time
This rule applies to just about everything.
So… In terms of your home business, you’ll want to eliminate the 80% of work that makes little impact and focus on the 20% that does.
Focusing on the 20%
So, how do you find the 20% that matters?
Well, I suggest making two lists.
First, a list for your daily routine - arrange your tasks in order of importance: E.g. Process payments, Package orders, Check email, Check web stats.
This way if you only have 15 minutes available one night, you’ll know which items absolutely need to get done, and which can wait until tomorrow.
Second, take 15 minutes each weekend and make a list of items - other than those in your daily routine - which you need to accomplish in the following week.
Applying this rule
So… If you’ve decided to dedicate 2 hours each night to your company, you’ll start at the top of your list each night and work your way down. When your two hours is up, you’ll stop working. And that’s it. It’s that simple.
Breaking down larger tasks
Learn to break every project into small achievable tasks.
Instead of tackling one huge task, break it down into ten smaller tasks.
Then prioritize those ten small tasks, and get to work. Before you know it, you’ll have completed all ten.
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Micro Essentials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.