Last week I got a good idea for organising my time from a networking meeting (actually coffee and chat) for people running small businesses. The suggestion was to have a day plan, and stick to it – that probably sounds fairly obvious as a time management tool, but I have to admit I hadn’t thought to do it!
The day plan that we discussed sounded a bit too prescriptive for me, as it involved actually mapping out the time for specific tasks, and stoppping after the set hours, whether or not the task was finished. I’d prefer something a bit more flexible, where I just work out roughly what hours I’ll work between on a particular day, and what tasks I’ll do, dividing the tasks into those that I must get done, and those that I’ll do if I have time or inclination. I’ll also set specific days for doing admin or marketing jobs such as updating MYOB, sending invoices, preparing quotes, writing a blog post, etc.
My aim is to be less stressed and more productive, so I’ll follow the plan for a month, and see whether it’s making a difference.