Time Management for Home Business: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day
Hi everyone. Welcome to Day Two. Today, we’re still talking about time. Oh, did I say today? I meant tonight. For those of you in my time zone (or those of you who are stalking me) you’ll notice it is almost midnight. What can I say? Even for incredibly witty and intelligent home business gurus such as myself, time management is a bitch.
Up until the birth of The Smallest Business Partner (remember him? The one who needs glasses? I should set up a damn donation box), my method of adding an extra four hours to my workday was to stay up an extra four hours. This is a great idea and I completely recommend it for people who have no more than one commitment in their life.
For the other 99.837% of us, I offer these tips.
1. Identify time suckers.
We all spend hours and hours a week doing useless crap. Figure out what your useless crap is. If you can’t figure this out on your own, keep a time log. Actually write down what you do all day for a few days. Read what you’ve written and try not to vomit from the shame of it. Once you’ve identified the activities that have no value, move on to step two.
2. Be brutal. Then be brutaller.
Yes, I’m totally aware that brutaller is not a word so stop typing that nasty email right now. I know.
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris said that. Who is William Morris? No idea, but he raises a good point that can be related to time management perfectly.
If something is in your life (a frying pan, an email newsletter, a person) and it neither critical nor delightful, slash it mercilessly. Methodically go through the things in your life that are taking your time and hack at them without remorse. I can’t tell you what’s taking up too much time or space in your life (Leo at Zen Habits has a lot of pretty neat stuff to say about this - check out Haiku Productivity) but I trust you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own.
In my case, today I slashed my RSS feeds (yes, of course I kept yours. Yours is totally the best blog I read.) It was really scary but I did it and I have a feeling tomorrow’s post will be published much earlier in the day than this one was.
3. Get it out of your brain.
There have been many wise words spoken on the topic of getting your to-dos out of your head and into something else. Paper. Backpack. An extremely expensive personal organizer. Personally, I like the Getting Things Done style. Getting Things Done is a really good book which I’m going to review in a few weeks, but for now all you need to know is that it’s awesome. (Feel free to purchase it from the lovely sidebar on your left. I might make forty cents.) The thing about GTD, though, is that it’s kind of a cult. It’s a good cult, I grant you, but it’s a cult nonetheless. Sometimes you can spend so much time surfing Getting Things Done websites that you’re not actually, um, getting things done.
The ever-cool and super-organized Susan from VoxFortis says:
“I’m a list maker. It actually helps me visualize and keep in mind my top priorities, because if I have too many things going on, I tend to flit from one thing to another and feel overwhelmed the whole time. But I find by just making a list, it organizes what I actually have going on (which is usually less than I think it is) and helps me figure out what I NEED to get done. Otherwise I feel like it all needs to get done right then.”
(If you ever need copywriting and you don’t want to hire me because I use too many brackets and I swear too much, go hire Susan. She rules.)
Whichever method you choose, pick one and use it. A stack of Post-Its that you use is far better than $400 worth of time management software that you don’t.
4. Batch your stuff.
Everyone has small tasks that they have to do repeatedly. (SEO articles, anyone?) Invoicing qualifies. So do responding to emails, catching up on your blog feeds, and folding socks. When you have tasks like these, put them in a batch and do them all at once. Don’t do them again until it’s batch time again.
I could spend hours at a time checking my RSS feeds. Hours. Days, maybe. Because of that, I’ve decided to designate certain times of the day to catching up on blogs and then I shut down my Bloglines until the next time. I’d like to do the same thing with email. If you know me, you’re laughing right now. Oh well, a girl can dream.
Leo talks a lot about batching, too. He’s pretty good at the whole productivity thing.
5. Rethink your leisure activities.
Trent over at The Simple Dollar has a lot to say about eliminating the unnecessary. He says it better than I do, so here’s a quote:
“Here’s an example from my own life. I used to follow a ton of hobbies: video games, baseball card collecting, golf, bowling, writing, reading, and on and on and on. I spent some serious time asking myself which hobbies were really valuable to me - or which aspects of each are most valuable. Now I have a few framed baseball cards in my office that I admire, I basically abandoned many of my hobbies, and now I mostly focus on reading, writing, and some video games. Those are the hobbies I focus on because those fulfill me.”
This is insanely valuable advice and you should listen to it.
6. Choose a time and make it distraction free.
Do not negotiate on this. Do not bend. Find a chunk of time and eliminate all of the things that distract you. Shut down your email or lock up your kids or get out of Instant Messenger or turn the TV off - whatever it is that’s stopping you from getting your crap done, junk it for a period of time. If you take nothing else from this article, take this tip.
So that’s it, folks. That’s what I’ve got for today. If you have tips (and I’m sure you do - YOU’RE not the one posting at practically midnight), don’t be stingy. Leave a comment for the whole world to read. (Jamie’s suggestion is to move to the 28-hour day format. He’s a very linear thinker.)
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Overwhelmed? Freaking out? Borderline hysterical? Click here to get your own micro-business marketing plan. It’s not scary, I promise.
[...] Original post by IttyBiz [...]
[...] IttyBiz wrote an interesting post today on Time Management for Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your DayHere’s a quick excerpt Hi everyone. Welcome to Day Two. Today, we’re still talking about time. Oh, did I say today? I meant tonight. For those of you in my time zone (or those of you who are stalking me) you’ll notice it is almost midnight. What can I say? Even for incredibly witty and intelligent small business gurus such as myself, time management is a bitch [...]
Fantastic! Thanks Naomi!
Actually, I do happen to be posting to my blog at midnight. But now you’ve caught me browsing other blogs, so I guess that just proves that I needed this advice today. I especially like the part about cutting down on RSS feeds; I nervously did it a few weeks ago, and it was liberating! My time-saving tip: Subscribe to Tivo. I’m not even kidding–this beautiful little box has given me serious control over my discretionary time.
Hi Nancy - TiVo is amazing. Sadly, we only have TiVo’s poor and unappreciated cousin in Canada, the PVR. Not the same. SO not the same. I was doing research on the features of the TiVo for an article and I was blown away. I am SO jealous.
Great post with some really good points.
But, for the record, William Morris was a very influential artist and social thinker from Britain in the mid to late 1800s. He was one of the main founders of the Arts & Crafts movement. If you have the time, you can read about him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris
Sorry, had to provide the info. He is one of my favorite people.
Ack, I’m blushing!!!
And I use too many brackets. I also use too many of these: ……
But other than that, I’m great. :D
@ Michael - Thank you! I am definitely going to read up on him. I’ve heard the name quite often before but never made the time to go and look. Now there’s a handy link, all I have to do is click. That’s great.
@ Susan - Don’t say that on the internet! Your grandkids will be reading this and saying, “Nana’s alright, but man does that chick ever use too many ellipses.”
Hello, Naomi,
This is a great post. We entrepreneurs all struggle to find more time. Particularly if you are running freelance gigs, the more time means more gigs, more gigs means more money.
Here are awful things I do to create time, probably most of people would not want to deteriorate their lifestyle, but….
1) Don’t cook at home
I spotted decently healthy hole-in-a-wall places in my neighborhood that are very cheap. Actually, if you carefully look for them, you can find 8-10 of them, easily, and all of them have good vegetarian or relatively healthy menus. I actually tested if it costs me more to eat out at these places, and surprisingly, it actually saves money, when you consider the waste of ingredients you generate in your fridge. And furthermore, you will cut the time for grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning your dishes.
2) Hire a maid to clean your house
Yes, it costs a lot, but if your freelance gigs will earn you $30 per hour, and if your maid asks for $15 per hour, you are saving money
3) Get your garbage system in your house - - put garbage box everywhere, and throw away things as soon as they became useless. Once a week, you collect the whole garbage out. This way, you avoid the clutters.
4) Dress like men - - sorry, this is only for women. To dress like women takes more efforts - shopping, dry cleaning, make-up, etc. Find a way to look cool by dressing like men, then, you can cut off all these efforts. (In fact, I started wearing my husband’s jeans, and finally he sent me to buy my own…)
OK, I should stop before you start wondering about me, but you can create so much more time!!!
I look forward to reading more from this series. This is a great series, Naomi!
Hi Asako,
Thank you for mentioning number 2. I was reading somewhere the other day (Steve Pavlina? Yaro?) that we should be outsourcing our menial work-related stuff, but we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of outsourcing the household stuff too. I put off hiring a nanny forever because I didn’t want to spend the money. Jamie was finally like, “How much are you making? And how much are we paying her?” Seeing the numbers laid out like that, my mind was blown.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I also like number 4, but I’ve been doing that for years. Not out of some wise decision, but because I’m lazy. So lazy, in fact, that I shaved my head so I wouldn’t have to do my hair anymore. (I’m not really a butch lesbian, I just play one on my blog.) :)
[...] IttyBiz wrote an interesting post today on Comment on Time Management for Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day by Asako TsumagariHere’s a quick excerpt Hello, Naomi, This is a great post. We entrepreneurs all struggle to find more time … 8-10 of them, easily, and all of them have good vegetarian or relatively healthy menus. I actually … the time for grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning your dishes. 2) Hire a maid to clean your house [...]
[...] IttyBiz wrote an interesting post today on Comment on Time Management for Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day by Asako TsumagariHere’s a quick excerpt Hello, Naomi, This is a great post. We entrepreneurs all struggle to find more time … to deteriorate their lifestyle, but…. 1) Don’t cook at home I spotted decently healthy hole-in-a-wall … 8-10 of them, easily, and all of them have good vegetarian or relatively healthy menus. I actually [...]
[...] Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day . It’s a good cult, I grant you, but it’s a cult nonetheless. Sometimes you can spend so much time surfing Posted in Surfing | Trackback | del.icio.us | Top Of Page [...]
I love your article. Especially the part about locking up your kids . . . wouldn´t that be a great way to get some work done! And, by the way, I quite frequently post to my blogs around midnight, but I use time stamp, so no one knows . . . they just think I get up early to write. ;)
Great tips, love your style. I´ll be back.
Hi Genesis… sneaky work with the timestamp thing. I would use that, but I’m generally posting at midnight on the day I promised I would post, so if I backdate (backtime?) people know exactly what I’m up to. :)
Yes, locking up the kids. My ex-husband used to joke about the Velcro-’em-to-the-wall method of child proofing. I’m pretty sure he was kidding, but I sure did like the visual image of Michael tacked up to the wall, happily playing with his blocks. :)
(To all the screaming child welfare activists out there - I’m kidding. Get over it. Go ahead and unsubscribe, I don’t care.)
[...] offers six excellent tips for finding four hours in your day. Successful freelancers must balance their time as not working = not earning money. This is [...]
[...] witty and intelligent small business gurus such as myself, time management is a bitch source: Time Management for Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day, [...]
@ Asako - I liked your comment, specifically about not cooking at home. This is the kind of challenging assumptions that I think more people could benefit from. Most of us would assume that eating out would be more expensive than eating at home, but if you do the math you might be surprised (No Naomi, I’m not trying to get you to agree to go out for dinner more.).
[...] IttyBiz Time Management for Entrepreneurs: How to Get 4 More Hours In Your Day [...]
Good stuff!
1. Turn off the TV, or let them watch it and go in another room. That thing sucks more time than you realize. Better yet, cancel the cable and make the kids read a book.
2. Go to bed with everyone else, GET UP early. Real early. When everyone else is sleeping and the house is quiet you can really crank the widgets.
3. Yep, fo sho. Write it down. Or forget it. Literally.
4. Batch the RSS too. Read a couple of blogs on Monday, a couple more on Tuesday, and so on. Saves me a ton of time.
5. Yep, perfect!
6. Use the early morning as your distraction-free time. Do not check e-mail or RSS. Just get out that list and get some things done!!
[...] —from Time Management For Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day [...]