From the category archives:

Time Management

Work at Home: Don’t Get Overwhelmed

by BlondieWrites on March 8, 2010

Work at Home: Don’t Get Overwhelmed

When working on a big project, it’s easy to look at it and think “there’s just no way I can do that”. But a big project becomes a lot more manageable if you break it down into smaller pieces - you just have to know how to divide it up.

Before you dive into breaking up your project and making a plan, you need to figure out exactly what needs to be done and when the project needs to be done by. This may be very easy if your client has a clear idea of what they want and a solid deadline, but they may be more flexible and want you to fill in the blanks, it which case this might take a bit longer.

Either during or after figuring out your full goal and deadline, break the job down into exactly what needs to be done. Break the job into small pieces. Don’t worry about the order yet, just make sure you have a list of all the tasks involved. Also make sure to put next to each tasks who needs to be involved and what tools and equipment will be needed to complete it.

The next step is to organize all the pieces into an order. You can do this based on several criteria including:

* Client needs. No matter what your preferences, to run a successful business, you need to put the client first. If your client needs certain parts by certain dates, then that’s going to be the first determinant of your schedule. Once that is decided, you can fill in the other blanks from there.

* Chronological considerations. While certain parts of projects can be done in any order, some activities require other portions to be done before they can be finished, or sometimes even started. Once you are done organizing things by firm deadlines, they can be ordered in this way.

* Availability of people and tools. Generally, you’re going to need certain employees, outside contractors, specific equipment, and other items. These are likely going to be different for each part of the project. Organize your timeline based on who is needed for each part. For example, if you need a certain contractor for several steps, it’s easier to do those steps one after the other instead of spreading them apart. And if a person is working on a part of the project that will take up all their time, they obviously can’t work on another project at the same time.

Once you have a general order set up, you’re ready to set up a more specific timeline with dates that specific parts of the project need to be done. Unlike the previous step, this one may be more difficult (and you may have to redo the last step). For your timeline, you need to take into account not only when things are due, but when people and equipment you need will be available.

Once you have your final plan, you’re ready to get started. But, don’t let you’re planning be done there. We all know that nothing goes exactly as planned. Re-evaluate your plan every so often to make sure it still lines up with client expectations and how things are going. That way there won’t be any surprises later on.

Popularity: 1% [?]

{ 0 comments }

Work at Home: Everyone Needs a Day Off

by BlondieWrites on March 8, 2010

If you want to get stuff done at work, you need to take breaks. Our brains and bodies aren’t meant to go non-stop. The longer you go without taking a break, the slower you’re going to be working. By taking breaks, you’re going to increase your productivity and probably get more done in the long run. Occasionally, you’re going to need a day off, or even a full vacation.

When you work in a regular office, you have specific vacation time that you can take to get out of the office. When you work at home, it’s easy to not only skip vacations, but also to work through weekends and holidays too. If you try to take a day off at home, you’ll often end up working through your break. To really get a break, you need to get out of the office and the house.

You’ve probably heard of people or media outlets talk about office burnout. This is when you get so stressed out at work, you just don’t want to do it anymore. You’re tired, angry, and disinterested in your work, or sometimes anything else. This not only decreases your productivity, it also can be dangerous to your health.

Don’t have time to take off? You’ll get too far behind on your projects? Before you write off taking a break, sit down and think about why you started working at home to begin with. Chances are it had something to do with your family. Whether it was to make more money for them or to spend more time with them, it’s probably about them. If you work yourself so hard you’re having physical and mental problems, how is that helping your family?

When we’re used to keeping going and going, it’s hard to figure out what to do on a day off. However, there are plenty of things you can do for any interest. Like learning? You can go to a local museum. If you like nature, go to your local zoo or park. If you prefer adventure you could take the family canoeing. If you just need to relax you might look into your local day spa. There are endless possibilities to fit every personality.

Just because you take a day away from the office doesn’t mean you necessarily need to stop working. One great way to do this is to go to a seminar. The beauty of seminars is not just that you meet new people and learn things, it’s that they’re often in fun, sometimes exotic places. You can build useful business relationships, learn new techniques and ideas, and have a relaxing vacation all at the same time. If there are no useful seminars, you could just go on vacation with someone in your field. You can brainstorm, trade ideas, and relax at the same time.

The important thing to remember is that if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else. Taking the occasional day off is a great idea to recharge and refresh yourself so you can get back to being the best version of you.

Popularity: 1% [?]

{ 0 comments }

Photoshop Actions to Create Software eBox Covers

by BlondieWrites on March 8, 2010

Photoshop Actions to Create Software eBox Covers

If you are looking for an easy and quick way to make sofware ebox covers for your digital products, then I have just the thing for you. You can create professional looking ecovers with Photoshop Actions using this inexpensive method.

Photoshop Actions are easy to install and easy to use, allowing you to make professional looking graphics. It’s a fact that more sales are made when using professional looking covers for your ebook covers and software ebox covers. Photoshop Actions …

And, to make this an even sweeter idea… you can make covers for clients and charge them $25, $50, $100, or more! Covers are in demand! Have your own online ecover business using your Photoshop and this Photoshop Action.

Check out the samples below. Get the full details here:

http://www.thewahmagazine.com/softwareboxecovers.html

Popularity: 1% [?]

{ 0 comments }

Work at Home Internet Marketers: How Managing Your Time Can Save You Time

by BlondieWrites on February 6, 2010

Do you rely on your skills as an internet marketer to generate income? You may sell your services to others or use your skills to drive traffic to a website you monetized. Regardless of how you make money as an internet marketer, you must not only have good marketing skills, but good time management skills. Why? Because managing your time can save you time.

Managing your time can save you time. That sounds like a neat and catchy phrase, but is it really true? Yes it is. Unfortunately, many individuals look at good time management as nothing more than a useful skill. Yes, it is, but it can be so much more. It can be transformed into a time saving and moneymaking tool. How?

An important component of time management is knowing how your time is spent. For example, how do you market a website for yourself or a paid client? Do you submit articles to directories, submit websites to directory lists, or you buy advertisements? If so, you are on the right path, as you are getting work done. But, are you using your time to its fullest extent?

One of the many pitfalls of working as an internet marketer is that you work from home and on the computer. There are many benefits to doing so, but many cons as well. One of those being rampant distractions. Every time you turn around, you may find a distraction. These distractions could include an incoming phone call from a relative, a sink full of dirty dishes, an interesting website you found online, or computer games. Are you avoiding these distractions, eliminating them as an issue, toning them out, or falling victim to their allure? If falling victim to their allure, you are not making full use of your time.

But wait! Above, you stated that you are getting many internet marketing tasks done throughout the day. Yes, this is good, but you are still not making full use of your time. Even if you send an email to a family member, you are wasting time. It doesn’t matter whether you spend 30 seconds or three minutes sending that email, it is still wasted time.

When your workday involves more than just working, you get less done. By eliminating distractions and improving your time management, you can get more done. This is nice, but look at it from an opportunity standpoint. When you finish your to-do list quicker, you can do something else. If you are an avid internet user, your newfound free time many be spent focusing on researching new internet marketing tactics, but it could also be spent with your friends or family.

In addition to saving you time, properly managing your time can also help you generate income. In fact, it can prevent you from losing money. When an internet marketer, you generate income by either selling your service or marketing a product you sell. Regardless of which category you fall into, time management is vital to your success and your high earnings. By eliminating distractions and doing nothing but work during business hours, you distribute more links over the internet and complete more paid projects.

In short, time management is more than just a nice skill to have. When properly used, it can be a moneymaking and time saving tool.

Popularity: 3% [?]

{ 0 comments }

5 Reasons to Create an Internet Marketing Schedule

by BlondieWrites on February 6, 2010

Do you operate a website or blog that generates income through the sale of a product, service, or affiliate links? If so, you not only need to be a webmaster, but an online marketer.

As a website owner who uses a website to generate income, internet marketing is important to your success. For that reason, you need to implement it. If this is a new step for you, you may be looking for guidance. The first step is to familiarize yourself with popular internet marketing techniques. You can easily do this online or by visiting internet marketing forums. Once you know how to market your website or blog, you start to implement the techniques you learned. Unfortunately, this is where many new marketers make costly mistakes.

To ensure you get the most out of your newfound internet marketing knowledge, you need to create a schedule. When properly complied and used, a schedule will increase your productivity. Remember, the more traffic you drive to your website or blog, the more your earnings potential increases. If that isn’t enough reason to create a schedule, continue reading on for five more.

1 – It Is Easy to Make a Schedule

An internet marketing schedule is essentially a detailed to-do list. What you do is start with times. Set aside blocks of times, like in one or two hour increments. For each time slot, write a task or two. This is what you want to do. For example, do you want to submit an article to a directory or send advisements to your followers on Twitter? If so, add to your schedule.

2 – You Have Many Options

Not only is making an internet marketing schedule easy, but you have many options. You can compose a schedule by hand, in Microsoft Word, or by spreadsheet. You also have the option of creating daily, weekly, or monthly schedules.

3 – A Schedule is a Guide

When you are familiar with internet marketing tactics, it is easy to advertise online. Unfortunately, many run into problems with distractions. It is easy to go from using the internet to research to reading the news or the latest celebrity gossip. To prevent this from happening, use your schedule as a guide. You want to avoid distractions, but if an interruption happens, don’t spend time trying to remember what you were doing or were about to do, just consult your schedule and get back to work.

4 – It Serves as a Source of Motivation

As previously stated, a schedule is essentially a to-do list with times attached. These times are important as they add pressure and serve as motivation. When you track your time with a clock or beeping alarm clock, you know when time is about to expire or has. When most know they only have X amount of time to complete a task, they tend to put forth more effort and increase their productivity.

5 – You Can Extend Your Reach

In terms of internet marketing, there are hundreds of successful tactics. You cannot implement them all in one day, but get the process started. When doing so, don’t place all your attention on one marketing tactic. Unfortunately, if you do not have a set guide to follow, you may make this mistake. The best way to market a website, product, or service is to spread your reach.

Popularity: 3% [?]

{ 0 comments }

Home Business Time Management Tips

by BlondieWrites on January 15, 2010

Learning to master time management can make or break your home business. In the early days of your home business, you will still have a lot to learn and as you fill orders, work with customers and businesses; the hours can fly by very quickly. You will discover that there are not enough hours in a day to complete all of your daily tasks.

Efficiently managing your time will help you to create order out of chaos. If you wake up and simply start moving things around without some sort of plan in place, you can easily forget important jobs that need to be completed forget orders, neglect to call back clients and lose customer confidence in your fledgling company.

Plan Ahead

Have a plan in place such as a daily schedule. Follow up that schedule with a weekly schedule that fully covers all of your daily tasks. With this plan in place, you can quickly take stock of your time to figure out what needs to be done. This will help you to achieve your goals by completing important tasks first, and getting through simple tasks with time to spare. Get into the habit of checking, editing and updating this schedule as last minute plans may arise.

This plan will allow you to get your work done without creating a backlog because you accepted too much work in a short amount of time. When new requests come in, you can look at these schedules to see if you have the time to spare or if you should turn down the job due to lack of time. It can be hard to turn away new business or repeat offers but if you accept more work than you can complete in a comfortable amount of time, you will disappoint clients who will go elsewhere when they have new jobs.

Start Business Early

Some people will create a home business to sleep late and work whenever they want to. However, this is not likely to happen. If you sleep all day, no one is running your business and it will not be successful. If you have family as well, getting up early will allow you to take care of them and send off in the morning. You can then shower, eat breakfast and head off to your home office awake, refreshed and ready to work.

Separate Family and Business Life

Spending more time with your family may be one reason that you decided to open your own business, but you will have to keep the two separate to appear more professional and to keep everything organized. If you have young children, keep them away from your home office if possible. If you allow them to play in this room while you are working, they may feel that they can enter it when you are away. This can lead to ruined or lost paper work, schedules and important tasks that you need for your business.

Separating business and family is also a good way to help you to relax and get away from work. When you have completed your tasks for the day, you can simply close the door and go spend time with your family. This is hard to do if your computer and business is in an area that is accessible to the entire household. You want a personal space that you can shut away from the outside world when you are working and away from your personal life when you want to get away from the home office.

Set Priorities

If you do not have your priorities in order, you can end up doing a lot of work and have nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Completing a large amount of work one day, won’t help you if you have forgotten to complete an important and time sensitive job because you did not schedule your time correctly.

Popularity: 3% [?]

{ 0 comments }

Tips for Managing Your Home Business

by BlondieWrites on January 15, 2010

To manage your home business, you need to remove clutter and have a perfectly organized space that is easy to work in. No one wants to trip over wires, papers and boxes as they move about their day in a home office. Implementing these tips can help you to stay organized while you remove clutter from your work space.

Use Labels to Keep Things Organized

Nothing will waste time more than a home business owner who spends hours looking for one important file or paper. As your business grows, the paper work will grow with it. Your office should be organized at all times but this will be difficult if you don’t have folders and drawers specifically labeled to help you find items that you need instantly.

Use Your Organization Tools

When you have all the tools needed to keep your office organized, don’t forget to use them. This may seem simple but many home business owners will quickly become overwhelmed and begin to stack files and papers in one spot or another to quickly complete a task. They will then neglect to put the files in order when they get some free time. Spend a few minutes every week to make sure that all your files are put in their correct slots. This is a huge time saver because you will instantly find what you’re looking for if it’s in the right place.

Remove Clutter from Your Office Space

Clutter builds up in every aspect of our lives, and it can quickly grow out of control if you don’t sit down and organize it. Old papers that are no longer needed should be shredded and tossed to make room for new files. As your business grows, you will receive large amounts of mails every day and you should carefully open and go through them to toss out the ones you don’t need, while you file away the ones that you do.

Throw away paper, boxes and other trash that may accumulate as you work. Allowing clutter to build in your office space can cause some home business owners to feel stressed and annoyed as they constantly wade threw anonymous piles of junk that needs to be in the garbage or filing cabinet.

Eliminate Unnecessary Waste

Along with clutter, another problem that can cause build up in your office space is holding on to objects that you don’t need. If you buy a new monitor, get rid of the old one by selling it or giving it to a family member or friend who can use it. Electronics quickly become outdated and as you upgrade, remove the old ones to allow more space in your work area. If you buy or have newspapers delivered daily, remove the old ones. Newspapers have a way of adding clutter because many readers will simply throw them in a corner until they begin to stack up to dangerous heights.

Acquire Decent Shelving Space

Shelves are a great way to get extra space in a small home office. High and against the wall, they offer you an extra setting to place important files that may not be needed at the moment. Other shelves can be placed in a specific area to allow you to grab files that you will need to use daily. Shelves are also low cost depending on the ones that you choose, and they can add more space to your office while keeping your budget low.

Let the Light In

Even though you work at home, you should let the sun in. A dark and gloomy office can cause some individuals to feel tired and sluggish even when they had a good nights rest. This can slow down your business and productivity and cause you to intake too much caffeine as you struggling to stay awake during your work hours. If your office does not have a window to let in some light or if you tend to work during night time hours, you can purchase good lighting or special items that mimic sunlight.

Popularity: 2% [?]

{ 0 comments }

Balancing Homeschooling and Working at Home

by BlondieWrites on October 13, 2009

A common reason for moms to homeschool their children and work from home is that the at-home lifestyle appeals to them. It sounds like an ideal situation – you’re home, the kids are at home, and everyone’s happy.

But juggling a home business with homeschooling usually doesn’t look as peaceful as it might sound. In fact, this is a more likely scenario:

You’ve planned to do a math lesson with your children at 9 am. Since you have a few minutes of peace while the kids are finishing breakfast, you decide to fit in a quick email check.

There’s an email from a prospective client, who wants a proposal from you right away, for a juicy contract. There’s still 20 minutes before you had planned to start your school day, so you start to reply.

Well, one thing leads to another… the computer is slower than usual, someone spills a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, the cat decides to throw up on the couch, and by the time your email is sent, it’s an hour later.

Still, not bad, you tell yourself, and you settle down with the kids to begin their lesson.

Halfway through the first page of math problems, you hear a new email coming in. Thinking it might be about the email you just sent, you tell the kids, “I’ll be right back.”

Now he wants to talk to you over the phone. Can you call him as soon as you get this email? You pick up the phone and start dialing.

In the next room, the kids are frustrated with the math problems and starting to throw pencils and erasers at each other. While the phone’s ringing, you call out to them to quiet down and just read a book instead.

Your call is answered, but it’s a little hard to hear the reply over the fighting that has ensued. Your children have suddenly decided they have to read the very same book, at the same time. Their arguing has gotten the dog riled up, and now he’s barking too.

You mumble something about needing to call back later, apologize, and hang up the phone. By the time you get the dog outside, the kids calmed down enough to focus on their lesson, it’s time for lunch and you need a nap.

There are a few steps you can do to be sure your days don’t end up looking like this.

Schedule time for work and time for school. When it’s time for school, give your kids 100% of your attention. Then when it’s time for you to work, give 100% of your attention to your business. Problems arise when you try to multi-task because you’re won’t be able to give proper attention to either your kids or your business.

Teach your children how to work independently. There will be times when you won’t be available for your kids because of your business. So, it’s important to give your kids opportunities to learn to work independently. If you have a phone call that goes long, or if you are busy with an important project, the school day won’t automatically fall apart. Even young children can work independently for a short time.

Enlist the help of other homeschooling parents. See if you can work out a childcare exchange, for times when you need the kids out of the house. Then you can return the favor when they need help.

Be flexible. No matter how well you plan your day, always expect the unexpected. Organize your day as best as you can, but be willing to change your schedule at a moment’s notice.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Work at home mom extraordinaire Michelle Shaeffer publishes The Muses Brainstorm, a weekly ezine with tips to help you balance, manage, and market your home based business. If you’re ready for inspirational guidance and bright ideas sign up free at www.thesmallbusinessmuse.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries