Are you a true entrepreneur with tons of genius ideas, but not well organized? Do you often miss your appointments, or postpone your projects? Don’t worry, we all do have the same problems during our daily busy schedules.
How do you keep track of your schedule? With your PDA, Outlook, or sticky notes? If sticky notes control your life, it is time to reorganize the way you keep track of your appointments. If you are well organized, you will maximize your time and profits.
Here are my suggestions for being more organized.
Reorganize your daily tasks and establish a schedule. What are your regular obligations at and outside of the work? Write down all of your daily tasks, and also estimate the time you spend on these tasks. Remember to avoid scheduling a long day. Try to keep your schedule within an 8 or 9 hours a day. As a small business owner, you will of course have long business days, but remember working more doesn’t always mean maximizing your time. Try to avoid your business life interrupting your off business hours. If you only think and do business 24/7, you will never have an optimized output.
Let the technology help you with your scheduling needs, if you are not already using it. As an example, I have been using Plaxo for my contact book and calendar needs. I can easily import/export my contacts from/to popular software’s such as Outlook. It keeps me being more organized. There are several paid and free software’s out there to help you keep in track with your daily schedule. Since I carry my laptop everywhere, I don’t use a PDA for my calendar needs, but I know many people who cannot spend a business day without their PDA’s. Also, if your small business software is all in one type, it may be your choice of contact, and calendar management tool.
Another very important part of a busy schedule is developing scheduling policies. How many times have you found yourself waiting for a client to arrive, but he or she is late. That throws your entire schedule off. What you must do is develop a scheduling policy. This is necessary if you see other clients on that particular day. If you are consistent about your scheduling policy, your clients will also be trying more not to be late for their appointments with you.
Regardless of what kind of small business you own, experiment to find the best way to schedule your time.
Remember, Time is Money.
