Tag: time management

Find Time to Learn a New Skill (With a Busy Schedule)

Make time for learning new skills

You may have the desire to learn something new and know it will make a difference in your business (or life), but with your busy schedule, how do you find time to learn a new skill?

If you start a new job or work at a larger company with established training programs, then a system is already in place for you and time is built into your workday for training. That training program ensures the time, focus and action necessary to master a new skill.

So as a business owner or entrepreneur, develop your own training program! It doesn’t have to be anything complicated; just a simple system that you follow when you learn a new skill. Your time is valuable! By setting up an organized system that you put into place when you learn a new skill, you won’t feel like you’ve wasted time (or money) trying to learn something that you never use again.

So what would a simple training program look like? Follow these steps each time you want to learn a new skill in your business:

(1) Schedule “training” time into your weekly schedule. Don’t think you can just squeeze in the time to learn something – by putting your training time on your weekly schedule, you are making it a priority. It might mean you get up an hour earlier each day or stay up an hour later each night – but we can all find an extra hour here and there in our regular schedule.

(2) Take immediate action with each new skill. The best way to retain something you’ve just been taught is to take action.  If you are attending a teleseminar on how to upload a YouTube video, practice that skill as soon as the event has ended.  We see this with our kids all the time – you show your child how to tie her shoe and immediately ask her to try it – if she watches you but never participates, trying it on her own later is going to be more difficult.

(3) Teach someone else how to do it. Do you find that one of the best ways to learn (and retain) information about a subject is to teach that subject to someone else?  If I have attended an event or watched a video on how to deal with new Facebook changes (creating Custom Lists for example); then showing one of my clients how to do it is going to guarantee that knowledge sticks with me.

(4) Give yourself credit. If you are in the process of learning a new skill and it’s slow-going or a bit frustrating, keep yourself motivated.  Acknowledge the progress you make each step of the way. Have you written down the steps necessary to learn the new skill? Then also keep track of what steps you have completed along the way. Do you use goal posters? Make a “What I Have Learned Today” poster as well.

As business owners or entrepreneurs, we may already have so much on our plates that the thought of learning a new skill sounds too stressful. But with a system in place, we can find time to learn new skills, put them into practice and see the positive results in our business (and ourselves).

“Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.”
Anthony J. D’Angelo

This article was originally published League Computer Solutions, Inc.

photo credit (derived from): Oleh Slobodeniuk via photopin cc

Volleyball, Thunderstorms and Time Management

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.

 

Time Management Tips for a Home Office

5 Time Management Tips for a Home Office

Does it seem that whenever you have a “quiet” day in your home office, when you think you’ve got lots of extra time to get things done….at the end of the day you realize you actually got LESS done than you would have on a time-crunched, hectic day?

It sometimes seems like the more time you have to complete a task, the longer it’s going to take to get it done.  Or as this quote points out:

 “The surest way to be late is to have plenty of time.” Leo Kennedy

Do we get into a relaxed state of mind on those quiet days and move at a slower pace? I find that I’m most productive on days when I’ve got too much on my To-Do list; it’s that sense of urgency that pushes me into serious action-mode.

So how can you keep that energetic, urgent pace alive every day in your home office? Here are 5 tips that may help:

Tip #1: Make a To-Do List by Priority

Start with the things that must be done (income-producing activities); then work on the less urgent tasks. It’s easy to fill up a To-Do list with things that won’t help you meet your business goals. You can spend a lot of time on “busy-work” that won’t mean much to the success of your business in the long run.

Tip #2: Set a Timer

Twenty minutes checking email or social media sites somehow turns into an hour before you know it; so set a definite time limit for those activities.

If you think you’ve got some extra time on a quiet day to work on a project around the house, set the timer – I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve lost on a “quick” project that should only take 30 minutes.

Are you as bad as I am on judging the time it takes to complete certain tasks?  If you think it only takes you 30 minutes to answer emails, set the timer – you might quickly discover that it really takes an hour.  Then you can adjust your schedule and set aside more time for that activity.

Tip #3: Keep Chore Time Separate from Office Time

This is a constant challenge with a home office, especially if you’ve got little ones at home. If you’ve set a timer and know how long it takes to complete a task, then you can schedule household tasks around your work time.

Do you know how long it takes to do a load of laundry? Or clean a bathroom? If you do, then you can set your schedule accordingly: for example, my schedule might be: 8-9am laundry and cleaning bathrooms; 9-12 office time.

If I can’t get the household tasks done in the time I’ve scheduled, I still stick to my office time (the laundry will always be there waiting for me or my kids to finish later).

Tip #4: Avoid Personal Phone Calls During Office Time

This sounds like a simple thing to do, but it can be a challenge to ignore phone calls from family and friends. Unless it’s an emergency, those phone calls can wait until after work hours. Of course if my kids are trying to reach me, I put everything on hold…that IS one of the perks of being my own boss 🙂 .

Tip #5: Reward Yourself When You’ve Done Your Job

Just like I tell my kids “no fun time until the homework is done”, if I follow that same advice, I feel a great sense of accomplishment in my home office and can then enjoy doing something fun in the evening.

Time management is a constant challenge in my home office, but following these tips helps to make my days – whether they start out as hectic or quiet – much more productive ones.

“Your greatest resource is your time.”
Brian Tracy

image courtesy of dave/Morguefile.com