Five Keys To Home Business Success!

Do you think you can manage time better? Well you can’t! Time management is a myth. Time is time, and that is a fact. What you can do is manage yourself in time better! Here’s how…

1) Manage Your Physical and Mental Energy:

Physical energy is important for producing at your peak. Ever feel so tired that you can’t even think about starting to work or execute? Or a headache that does the same? Well you have to put yourself first. This means working out regularly, eating right, getting enough sleep, etc. I know I know, this sounds like some 1st grade stuff here, but adults all too often overlook it. Every notice how top producing, energetic people are also fit and stick to strict regimens like this?

Mental energy is equally important to peak performance and doing better with yourself in the time you have available. Focus your energy on the dedicated task. Do not be reactive! This is key. Be in control of your activities in your time you have set aside for this activity. Have something to show for your time and efforts at the end of the day, so you aren’t asking yourself “what happened to those 8 hours, and what did I do?” And be sure to plan every day.

2) Tackle Overwhelm:

To start, overwhelm is better than underwhelm. Overwhelm means growth. Underwhelm means stagnation. Remember this the next time you are panicking with lots to do or too much information being thrown your way. It takes this feeling of overwhelm to grow and achieve, so get used to it and tackle it. To do so, you must schedule time to manage information, such as studying and learning. Again plan. Set appointments like you would any other appointment. You wouldn’t miss a doctor appointment or a dinner meeting would you? Also, when managing your information, disconnect from distractions such as your phone, email, instant messenger, twitter, and even family. It is imperative to have creative days to focus and think and manage this new information. It can not be a small 10 minutes on the run between meetings. Plan and set aside time for this and overwhelm won’t seem so overwhelming!

3) Know What Steals Your Time:

As mentioned, be aware of distractions taking you away from working at peak performance. This means cutting out actions that do not align with your goals and objectives. Ask yourself, “is this a high yield benefit of my time?” And be sure to set up rules and boundaries when you are working. Again shut off the phone and email if you have to write a sales letter or create a presentation. Then schedule time for distractions! Yes, that’s right. But do that at the end of the day. Schedule your most important tasks in the morning and the distractions or less important things at the end. You will accomplish more by noon than most do all day by planning!

4) Importance of Your Environment

Your environment sets the stage for productivity. A certain cramped table or office can significantly reduce your efficiency and creativity. Find different environments for different activities even! Get on the computer in one room, and be creative or write in another. Or work in your home office for some, and go to a quiet local coffee shop for others. Just know that if you are in a rut, change your environment and it may surprise you!

5) How to Place a Dollar Value on Your Time

Lastly, and most importantly, place value on your time. This formula was originally from Dan Kennedy and his explanation that you might be doing too much. If you knew what your time was worth, you may stop doing all of the lesser revenue producing activities and outsource them so you can focus on the creative, high-yield tasks. The formula works like this:

a) How much do you make (or want to make) this year? for our example let’s say $250,000
b) There are 365 days/year, but let’s reduce that to 250 working days/year
c) How many hours/day do you work? for our example we’ll use 8 hours, which comes to 2,000 hours/year
d) Your time is then worth $125/hour. BUT studies show only about 3 hours of those 8 are profit producing hours (so really that is only 750 hours of revenue producing per year). So your actual time is worth $333/hour!! (3 X what you originally thought).

Once you see this, you won’t want to waste time and/or procrastinate nearly as much as before. Go ahead put a dollar value on your time.

In summary, using these 5 steps will allow you to much more effectively manage yourself in time and beat the time management myth. You will be not only more productive, but more successful. And you should also grow with new time to do the activities you have continually put on the back burner in the wake of the day to day business and distractions you have put up with.


KINGDOM!!!

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