Online Business and Productivity: Simple Time Management Tips
Today, I’ve been working on a few websites of mine and it gave me an idea to write about online business and productivity, and share simple time management tips that I use myself.
Without doubt, time is the most precious resource of every human being.
Have you ever had times when you had a bunch of things to do?
You gotta do this, you gotta do that, but you simply just can’t make it or you don’t know where to start.
Your head is spinning and the worst part is that all these things are important to do!
I am sure everyone experienced that at a certain point in life.
In this article, I will talk about how you can use your time effectively, how to prioritize things, and how to plan these things.
The information I am about to share will sure be useful for everyone.
Of course I am not perfect and definitely have my lazy days (and even weeks) but these time management tips are definitely something that help me stay on track.
In the last years, I kept myself busy with university courses, part-time work, then got involved with freelancing, blogging and website management.
A lot of people ask me how I do this.
The answer is quite simple.
Personally, if I want to accomplish everything, I abide by the 3 main principles:
- Plan your matters.
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Take responsibility.
If you follow these 3 rules, then you will be 90% more effective.
Let’s examine each one individually.
In the end, I will talk about factors that affect our efficiency.
Table of Contents
Time Management Tip #1: Planning
Right now, this particular moment, take a piece of paper and write down all the important things that you need to do, that are long overdue and are a burden on your shoulders.
I know the feeling when I want to do so much, but keep leaving it for later.
As a result, nothing is getting done, only the words and thoughts:
“Tomorrow, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow…”
So, you created the list of things that you need to do.
Now you need to prioritize them in order – what must be done first, second, and so forth.
Mark with numbers.
By the way speaking, I encourage you to read Brian Tracy’s book “Eat that Frog!” on time management.
Amazing book – not surprised why he’s successful.
Anyway, once your prioritized each of the things you need to do, make a plan for each individual matter (what are you going to do, what days/hours, how much time you plan to spend on it etc).
This part is extremely important!
If you wake up in the morning and you don’t know what you will do that day, then most likely you will not do anything at all.
I truly believe that planning is 50% of success in every matter!
Moving on to the second principle.
Time Management Tip #2: Focus on One Thing at a Time
The second principle is the following – focus on one thing at a time.
It’s simple.
This is probably contrary to the popular opinion but do not multi-task!
For example, one of the main things you need to do is write an article for your blog/website.
You’re sitting on your laptop and creating your post.
And then you decided to check your Facebook page and you see a new message from your friend.
What happens then?
Right, you now have a conversation and your focus is lost.
Then, for example, you receive a message on Skype, then you decided to watch a video, then you decided to download a program, then you decided to go on your website and check how much money you earned on affiliate program, and so forth and so forth.
It has started…
This what happens in most cases.
As a result, you keep bouncing from one thing to another, and everything slows down.
And that is how we do not get things done.
My advice to you: If you started doing something, then focus on it and on nothing else.
That’s it!
You aim at one thing and nothing and no one should distract you.
Keep reminding yourself: “I am doing one thing at a time, I am staying focused”.
Now, let’s move on to the third principle.
Time Management Tip #3: Taking Responsibility
The third principle is the following:
Take responsibility for your actions.
I think you already know what that means.
Take responsibility for every thing you need to accomplish, whatever your deadline is.
Whatever the outcome, you do not blame circumstances, your spouse, your party-animal friends etc.
You, and only you, are responsible for your life.
Pretty straightforward.
By the way, don’t forget to reward yourself for your hard work!
Personally, I love rewarding myself with a nice bath time with a book 🙂
Use these recommendations and get your things done faster.
More importantly, with everything in your life, don’t forget about the important stuff, about your life goals.
Productivity and Time Thieves
It is my guess that if you landed on my blog then you have high ambitions in terms of creating an online business and living a laptop lifestyle.
However it doesn’t matter your type of profession, you have things to do, right?
Right.
In order to complete each task, you plan and give yourself a certain period of time to complete it.
That’s correct, that’s how you should do it, but do you really finish all your tasks on time?
Not always.
In most cases, you end up spending more time to finish each task.
Why?
You don’t use your time rationally.
In my opinion, I think there are two main factors which affect our efficiency.
- Laziness
- Time Thieves
Factor #1 is pretty straight-forward.
Laziness rules the world (unfortunately).
Rather, let’s talk about the factor #2.
Time thieves.
What/who steals your time as an entrepreneur?
- the lack of clearly defined goals for the day (you need a lot of things to do but you keep postponing).
- e-mail messages (bad habit to check inbox every 10 minutes)
- social media (checking Facebook every time for new updates)
- Skype (it’s the worst – long, never-ending conversations)
- general procrastination (jumping from one thing to another, not doing anything purposeful)
Familiar situation?
I am sure it is.
Not to mention other life matters and friends calling you out to chill and drink.
These are time thieves, which will interfere with your productivity and will create a whole workload to do.
It’s time to act differently.
Just get rid of these time thieves.
You have a task to accomplish?
Plan it on a certain date and the amount of work that you will put, while working on your laptop.
Once you sit down to do work, simply turn off everything around you.
Personally, I completely turned off all notifications from social media and I only check it when I want/need to.
Forget about your phone, your Skype, your e-mails, whatsoever.
Forget about everything that might distract you and focus on one thing only.
Don’t get distracted.
You have a certain goal – accomplish a certain thing.
That’s all, no more other stuff.
Thanks to the ability of getting rid of time thieves, you will increase your efficiency, will work better, and will manage to complete many tasks that were LONG overdue.
I hope you will find these simple time management tips useful and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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About Author
Zarina
The main purpose of this blog is to share my experience and guide you through the make money online process (mainly affiliate marketing and investing). View my #1 recommendation by clicking here.
Hi Zarina,
I can really relate to the points made in this article. I am the queen of procrastination! I am also very good in multi-tasking i.e. bouncing from one thing to another. It’s not uncommon for me to open 20 tabs at a time on my laptop and checking on ‘stuff” every now and then. I really need to stay focused and shut everything else out. But sometimes it’s impossible as I have small children wanting my attention. I will try to implement your tips as much as possible. Thanks for sharing!