Social Media Strategy, Training & Management for Small Business
Stuck in the middle of a project and things just aren’t going the way you want them to? Or have you been trying to focus, but find your mind wandering to any idea but the one you really need to concentrate on?
What you need is a break from the task at hand!
Do you ever fall behind schedule or lose sight of your goals in your home office? Maybe you planned on spending 5 hours a day in your home office, but at the week’s end you are frustrated because the To-Do list is still a mile long? Whether it’s the kids, unexpected repairs on the house or the “back-to-school” bug the kids bring home…the busyness of every day life can interrupt your well-intentioned home office hours.
So how do you get back on track,feel productive and get out of your slump? I recently heard a great piece of advice about spending 30 minutes totally focused on only one task at a time. Focusing on one thing at a time is not a new idea, but in today’s world of cell phones and social media…sitting down for 30 minutes to work on one thing and shutting everything else off sounds like a novel plan!
Don’t get me wrong – I believe multi-tasking is an important skill and as a mom of three, I know first-hand that there are times when you must be able to juggle many things simultaneously. But finding 30 minutes to work with laser-like focus on one task can sometimes seem like an impossible dream!
But when you think about it – 30 minutes: the time it takes to watch a sitcom, the waiting time in a doctor’s office – is not an incredibly long time to devote to something. I’ve spent 30 minutes in the waiting room at my daughter’s orthodontist doing things for business – writing postcards, reading reports – and since I cannot be distracted there by social media, phone calls (if I turn my cell phone on silent) and laundry (!), by the time we leave, I’ve checked a few things off my To-Do list!
So, I’m making it a point this week to schedule time-slots of 30 minutes throughout my daily schedule to work on just one task. Some projects are going to require more than one 30-minute block and that’s fine: the result is a finished project!
The real test to get back on track – can you sit at your desk and focus on just one task, without checking email, logging on to social networks, responding to instant messages…? Well, drawing on my “mom” experience, I figure that if I can focus on helping one of my kids with homework for 30 minutes and put everything else aside to give her my undivided attention, then I can definitely spend 30 minutes working on the most important tasks in my home office.
Sounds like a new goal for the week: How many 30-minute focused blocks of time do I spend on my business? I’m going to start with 4 a day! How many can you do this week?
We are starting our back-to-school preparation in my house since school starts in just 3 weeks. Getting my kids back into the daily routine of the school year is always a challenge, no matter how old or (seemingly) independent they are.
As I watch my kids get back into their daily routines for school, I’m reminded of how important it is to establish routines for a home office – instead of just waking up with no plan or no schedule for the day. Our kids perform better and are less stressed when they know what is expected of them every day. And that works for us too.
The importance of establishing routines in your home office is huge: with no one but yourself to measure how much work you get done each day or how long a lunch break you take, every little work habit (good or bad) is going to have a dramatic effect on your business success.
The task of sticking to daily routines and habits is the challenging part – everything looks so much easier to implement on paper than in reality.
We’ve heard many times that it takes 21 days (or attempts) for something to become a habit. So make that your first goal: get your calendar out and put a target date on it. Keep track of yourself as you stick to your daily business routines for 21 days (or attempts).
Everyone’s routines will be different depending on your home business, but breaking down your routines or systems on a monthly, weekly and daily basis can help you keep it all organized and do-able.
1. Assign specific tasks to certain days of the week.
For our business that means that accounts are invoiced on Mondays, payroll is done on Fridays; blogs posts are assigned certain days, the newsletter is sent the same day every week, and so on.
2. Tackle the most challenging tasks at the time of day when you are at your “peak performance”.
For me this means that my most difficult tasks (or the ones I like least) are done in the mornings. I’m not a night-owl and would never tackle a complicated spreadsheet after 8pm – getting those more difficult tasks done early gives me a sense of accomplishment that adds momentum to whatever else I work on that day.
3. Don’t give up when the unexpected happens.
Many times, I’ve put a brand new business system into place only to miss the deadline when something unexpected happens with the house or the kids. Because my office is in the house, it sometimes seems much easier to just “give up” on establishing business routines – “What was I thinking? How can I make any routine stick when the washing machine breaks, the kids get sick or family drops by?”
Just remember that no routine in your home business is going to be perfect overnight. That’s probably why it takes 21 days (or attempts) to turn an action into a habit. So if you didn’t stick to your new routine this Thursday, that’s okay! Plan to stick to it next Thursday. By plugging away, little-by-little, day-by-day, the routines you are establishing in your business will become second nature…but only if you keep on doing them!
When you establish and stick to daily routines in your home office, your productivity will benefit. With systems in place, you eliminate the stress from planning and reacting to the same issues every week – you are now in the habit of getting those tasks done at the assigned times. You can then find time to be more creative – to set higher goals and reach for bigger dreams.
“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”
Mike Murdock
photo credit (derived from): markus spiske via photopin cc
I thought I was organized this summer. I felt like I was on top of the family / career scheduling game. But it took an unfortunate turn in the weather to make me realize that I’ve got a long way to go STAY on top of the time management game.
My youngest daughter has been playing beach volleyball this summer for the first time. She loves it and we love watching her play. But the time commitment from a family is a big one! Her beach volleyball tournaments are on Sundays. Only 1 day a week….but it’s an entire day.
In my part of Florida, beach parking is at a premium on a normal day. But when a local beach hosts a volleyball tournament, the only way to get a relatively good parking spot is to arrive HOURS before the tournament begins. Because when the tournament is over, no one in the family, especially the exhausted volleyball player, wants to walk a mile to the car!
So for us this summer that means we get up at 6 am to arrive at the beach by 7:30 am. The tournament starts at 9:00 am and depending on how well a team does and the pace of the tournament….we can be there until any time between 2:00 – 5:00 pm. I heard from a veteran parent that at one tournament last year because of delays, they didn’t leave the beach until 8:00 pm! Luckily, we haven’t spent 12 hours on the beach yet this summer!
What that has meant for me this summer so far, is that on beach volleyball Sundays, that is pretty much ALL I devote my time to (other than the daily chores: laundry, meals and extra laundry from the beach). I purposely don’t put much on my “To-Do” list. And that’s fine because the time we’ve spent at beach tournaments has been great family time!
Unfortunately on this last tournament day the weather did not cooperate. We got up and drove to the beach as normal, through rain and thunderstorms, hoping they’d clear up in time for the tournament. So we waited, and waited and waited…but by 10:30, with no relief in sight (and even more thunder and lightening), we came home. It was disappointing, but out of our control.
But then something strange happened in my home office. I had a whole day ahead of me that was suddenly wide open – nothing was on my To-Do list! So I spent 3 – 4 wonderfully productive hours in my home office getting so much done! That one unexpected afternoon of productivity motivated me like nothing else has all summer!
My unexpected “free” afternoon has taught me several things about being productive in a home office:
Time management only works when we make a schedule and stick to it
Without an overloaded To-Do List and nothing else to distract me from an afternoon in my office, I accomplished a lot. So when I schedule a few hours in my home office, I need to streamline my To-Do List and then stick to it. (And not let anything, especially email and social networks distract me!)
Summer means getting creative with home office hours
Even though my kids are now teenagers, I spend a lot of time during the day driving them places, attending their sporting events and just enjoying their company. So with my kids home for the summer, I have to find ways to carve out the necessary time in my home office – if that means getting up earlier several days a week or putting a sign on my office door “Mom is working” for a few hours – I have to be diligent but flexible in scheduling my office hours.
Plan for the unexpected during the summer
The weather in Florida during the summer can be unpredictable to say the least! If it’s not the weather but other surprises – cancelled appointments, sick kids, home repairs – it can mean you are suddenly going to be home when you planned otherwise. So if I have special projects set aside (maybe not the most pressing in importance, but things it would be nice to get done), I can work on those items when my schedule takes an unexpected turn and I have several free hours available.
And as always, the better my time management skills get, the better quality time I can give to my family.