Get it Done While Working at Home – By Being More Organized
The last few weeks I’ve been sharing with you unique challenges we face when we work from home. Let’s consider another challenge to getting it done—lack of organization. It seems like you can spend all day being extremely busy, but, in the end, you have nothing to show for it.
Here are some common scenarios that you may relate to…
- You wander from room to room looking for lost items like keys, paperwork, cell phone…
- You try multi-tasking, jumping from one project to the next and end up not doing any of them well. Since the mind doesn’t switch gears that quickly, you end up wasting time instead of saving time.
- You’ve been working on a project when an idea for another project pops into your head, so you find yourself starting the new project rather than finish the first.
- You have a day where you check the emails, make a phone call, do some paperwork, check the emails, make a phone call, do some paperwork… It can feel like you going round and round and not getting anywhere.
- You leave home during revenue-generating working hours to run to the store, drop off some work or do some other errand. And then the next day you have to go out again because you forgot to do something the day before.
What can you do to be more organized?
- Take a day and go through your office and create a specific spot where everything belongs so you can find what you’re looking for easily. That even means cleaning the desktop of your computer and updating the filing system in it.
- Work in chunks of time so you’re more efficient. I personally color-code my calendar in small blocks of time for all different activities, from personal to professional to kid-related. The small chunks allow me to stay focused. If you find yourself easily getting off track, use an egg timer! For example block out "time to make calls" or "pay bills" or "journal" or "manage household tasks".
- At the end of the day, write out the priorities for the next day. You’ll wake up energized because you have a plan already for the day.
- Group errands so you can get them all done in one outing efficiently.
- Stay focused on the project at hand and finish it before moving on to the next one.
- When great ideas come to you while you’re working, quickly jot them down in your notebook, on a sticky note, in your computer (whatever system you have) and get back to work on what’s in front of you. That way you don’t lose your great idea, but at the same time you’re not sidetracked from the task at hand.
- Outsource all that you can. Don’t think you have to do everything yourself to save money. Let someone else be your courier, virtual assistant, or bookkeeper so you can concentrate on revenue producing work.
It only takes a few new actions to make a big difference. Getting organized will help you to accomplish so much more. You’ll see your business as well as you income grow because you’re being more productive during revenue generating hours. And this will make your working from home so much more satisfying and rewarding.
I’d love to hear what other suggestions you’ve got.
Tags: get more oganized, Get organized, working at home
