Time Management and Productivity Tools to Kick Off The New Year

We all tend to start each New Year with a few resolutions. As we ring in the New Year its a time to reflect on the previous year and to look ahead to the coming year with renewed hope and commitment.

Aside from the common resolutions we have all made one year or another such as, spending more time with family or getting fit, in this article I want to get specific to home business related resolutions.

For those just starting their online business, one of those resolutions may look something like this:

New Years Resolutions:

Actually make some money in my business this year!

or…

This is the year I finally Fire My Boss
and Go Full Time Online!

With the right planning, commitment and tools you CAN do it. It starts with organization and knowing how to manage your time.

Here are a few tips and suggestions to get you started organizing your home office, improve your time management skills and increase your overall productivity.

Home Office Design and Organization

We tend to spend as much time in our office sometimes as we do the rest of our home- and there are days when it seems we actually live in our office. Since so much time is spent here it just makes sense that it should be setup and organized right.

• If you’re just setting up your home office, you’ll want to put thought into the right location. Number one it should be in a quiet area. If you have a spare bedroom this is typically ideal but if not, you just need to get a little creative in finding the right area of your home to work. Think outside the box- something completely unconventional may be the perfect solution such as an area under the stairs, using a screened in porch etc. Your home office location may change too over the years as your family changes.
  

• Make it comfortable and set the mood. From your desk, to your chair, to the paint color on the wall…make this space you. Hang pictures, add candles, plants. Do you work better with a little music in the background or do you need complete quiet?

• Make sure you have everything you need in a convenient location. If you find yourself constantly moving around hunting for things, this is a good sign that you need to rethink your organization and where you keep things. The first step to organizing is to make sure you have plenty of storage space. There are three ways of getting more space. You can increase the amount of storage space ( move your office to a larger room), use the space you have more efficiently (by adding a bookshelf, file cabinet or overhead cabinets) or reduce the amount of things you store in your office.

• The best organization and time management investment you can make for your business is a good desk. This doesn’t necessarily mean an expensive desk. Just one that is comfortable and offers plenty of built in storage space. When I first started my business, I was using a make shift desk- an old dining table in fact. It had absolutely no storage space and things were all over the place. Several years ago, I purchased a complete set of office furniture- desk with built in drawers and shelves, matching bookshelf and hutch…the transformation in productivity was amazing. It’s also a little subliminal in that you just ‘feel’ more like an entrepreneur with the right office furniture and setup.

• I also find that by taking an extra few minutes to straighten my desk at the end of the day or at the very least at the end of the week, I start each morning off better and tend to be more productive throughout the day.

Time Management

We all have one thing in common- we only have 24 hours in every day. By the time you deduct sleeping, eating, taking care of your family, working out, and your day J.O.B if you have one, we can only carve out so much of this 24 hours for actually accomplishing something in our business. The portion of the time you have set aside for work should be spent on income producing activities. You have to learn to identify the time stealers and eliminate them as much as possible.

• Focus on the current project- Don’t let all those great new ideas distract you

Stop trying to juggle 10 projects at once. So you’ve got this great new idea or strategy and you can’t wait to implement it. Now may not be the right time. Instead keep all these great ideas written down in a notebook. Once you’ve written it down it’s now out of your head but not forgotten. Now get back to the current task or project- complete it. You always have your notebook of new ideas to refer back to when you have the time to tackle them.

• Set a schedule and time limits and stick to it

Map out a Daily Method of Operation. Organize your week just as you would your office space. For example: You’re going to spend Monday going over numbers, stats, and planning. Tuesday is for writing articles and blog posts. Wednesday you work on product development…. You set a limit on reading email, your social media responsibilities…even phone calls. You can break each day, or each month down. Take some time and draft out a tentative schedule. You may have to adjust as time goes by but the important thing is to get something down in writing now.

Important: Repeat after me… NO. Learn to say no more often.

• Get Inspired

I also recommend scheduling in some time for some inspiration- whether its a few minutes at the beginning of every day or some time during your week. We all need a little kick now and then to stay focused and motivated. Read a good book on personal development, listen to a motivational podcast, or watch a video on YouTube from a great coach or leader in your industry.

• Use our Time Analysis worksheet

Analyze your time and energy busters. Are your truly productive or just busy? Download this free Time analysis worksheet and find out. Complete one sheet per day for one full week. After doing so you will get a better understanding of where you are wasting your time, what you struggle with, what you hate doing and what you enjoy doing, what makes you money and what doesn’t.

There’s no need to be a one man show these days with all the great and affordable outsourcing resources. Learn to delegate more and stop wasting time on things you struggle with or just hate doing.

Productivity Tools

• Brainstorming and mind maps. bubbl.us is a free service that lets you create mind maps online. You can share them with your colleagues, print them and embed them in your blog or websites.

• Pick up a copy of “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. You’ll learn a lot about how to get your life organized. You may also want to check out, Propelr.com which is a web based productivity application based on David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD) methodology.

• RescueTime is a free time management software application that you download to your computer. It tracks your activity and gives you a birds eye view of how you spend your time.

• Time Driver is a free appointment invitation system. It makes it easy for clients and customers to connect with you and no more phone or email tag. We’ve been using this in our business for a couple months now and love it. You can check out how we use this tool here.

• Remember The Milk takes the To-Do list to a whole new level. With this free task management application you’ll never go back to sticky notes again. Also available as an iPhone app, Blackberry, Gmail and Twitter.

• Google Docs -create, store and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations and online forms You can work on your own or collaboratively. You can also import docs from MS Office and Open Office. This is a tool I use daily.
  

• Social Media Status Updater: With Ping.fm you can update Twitter and a plethora of other social sites such as Facebook, Friendfeed, MySpace and Pownce all at the same time. This is a great time saver and it’s free!

• With Mobile Apps like Twittelator for your iPhone (download from the Apps store) or Twitterberry for your Blackberry you can keep up with your Twitter peeps even while you’re on the go.

• By far the very best online Project Management and Collaboration tool is Basecamp HQ. We’ve been using this in our business for the past 2 years and it has been an invaluable communication and organization tool for us and our clients. Its simply brilliant!

• Billing and Invoicing is a drag but a necessary task. Freshbooks takes some of the sting out. Allows you to create and send invoices, track time and expenses and more. Several plans to choose from and range in price from Free on up to $149 per month.

• Need a new contract or legal document? Try Docstoc.com, a community for people to find and share professional documents. Find free legal documents and free business documents.

• WP Contact Manager. Rather than being a WordPress theme to help create a small business website, this is a theme that can help create a more productive workplace, by providing a common area to keep everybody’s business contacts up-to-date. You just install the theme, and then start posting your clients’ contact details to keep them in a central repository. (Free)

• Inspired by Twitter and made for WordPress, Prologue is a group blog theme designed for short update messages. Small teams collaborating on a particular project could use Prologue to effectively communicate about who is doing what and when. (Free)

What has worked well for you?

Any tips to share?

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Welcome back! Be sure to grab your free Social Networking Guide.
Your comments are always welcome- Rhonda Crosby

Working Part Time with A Full Time Mentality

One of the biggest reasons why people fail at starting an online business (or fail to break out of their rat race) is because of a flawed mindset towards their new business.

Yes, it is true that you have to spend the remainder of the hours you have left after work to work on your business part time. But that does NOT mean that you will adopt a part time or half-hearted mentality towards your business.

Imagine this analogy…

Let’s assume that an airplane takes off at 150MPH. You will need to ‘drive’ at a certain speed before the plane develops enough speed to take off. Do you think the plane will be able to fly itself off the ground if you are only traveling at a 100MPH? Of course not! It will not take off even if you are flying at 140MPH!

Starting an online business is just like this. You will need to work at a certain momentum before you:

• Develop the necessary knowledge to build your business (you can’t really ‘drive’ far if you are constantly locked in 2^nd gear).

• You need to show others that you are committed enough before they are ready to take you seriously. This applies to customers, clients and potential business partners.

• You need to build your reputation strong enough because it will lessen your promotion work – the speed of trust between you and your customers is very crucial.

Your commitment to Online Success is the key to finding it. Commit to enjoying the journey. Someday in hindsight you will realize the journey itself produced your life’s dreams. The ups and downs are just brush strokes on your life’s work.

The Internet is a place that is filled with endless possibilities. It is very easy to find a business model that makes money for anyone as long as they put in the effort to learn and work hard.

All that it takes is that you believe in yourself and believe that you will be able to free yourself from the shackles of your 9-5 job and you will be able to find the means to achieve it. Break through your mental barriers. The only thing that is holding us back is ourselves.

Expect Success,

Rhonda

This is an except from one of the chapters of my book, Escaping Your 9 to 5.

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The First Steps In Creating An Online Business Begins With You

The first step to creating an online business is Planning and Brainstorming. What kind of business can I start online? Choosing the right one for you will save you months, even years or frustration.

One bit of advice I always give clients that are searching for the right type of online business is to find your passion and get paid to do what you love. I stand behind that advice however there is another piece to this that many miss.

In your research, be sure it’s a something that people are willing to spend money on. Just because you love something does not necessarily make it a profitable online business model.

A few years ago, I personally discovered that one of the fastest ways to get started making money online is to make money freelancing.

Offer your services as a freelancer based on your current skills, experience and knowledge and earn money immediately by cashing in on your expertise! There are already thousands of other internet marketers looking to outsource certain aspects of their business to freelancers. It’s a ready market.

In my book, Escaping Your 9 to 5, I provide some suggestions and tips to help examine yourself and see what your best skills are.

Here is a list of some example skills you may be able to offer to others and make some extra money while you are first starting out creating your online business.

• Computer programmer
• Data entry/processor
• Editor/copyeditor
• Virtual Assistant
• Web designer
• Writer/Ghost writer
• Telemarketer
• Sales consultant
• Graphic designer
• Accountant/bookkeeper
• Article and press release writing and submission
• Search Engine Optimization
• Blog setup and maintenance
• PPC and Google Adwords setup and management
• Customer Service/Support
• Professional Voice Over
• Creating Flash Movies
• Creating Camtasia Video Tutorials

There are people right now that will gladly pay you to work from home and provide services or skills to them that you may already have. I’ve given a few common examples- but there are many many more.

Freelancing can easily be done online with the opportunity to reach clients from all over the world.

• You can provide freelancing services in your part/spare time until you are earning enough to quit your fill time job.

• You can use Freelancing as an as-needed means of supplementing your income as you develop your product and business model and improve your marketing strategies.

• Instead of trying to create a product or service, an ebook, an affiliate program or membership site you just might decide that YOU are the best product to sell online and make freelancing and selling yourself and skills is your ticket to financial freedom.

If you are looking to start making money online quickly- freelancing is a fantastic option. Getting started and taking action is the biggest obstacle that you’ll overcome so make the most of today.

Expect Success,

Rhonda

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Are you a dreamer?

Personally I’ve always been a dreamer. I’ve always kept the visual picture of my personal and business dreams and goals. But I’m also a ‘doer’. That’s the key that you need to keep in mind.

Go ahead and dream… but just make sure you are also taking action to make those dreams a reality.

Let’s Dream a Little Right Now!

Write down your dreams! Pull out a blank sheet of paper right now and spend a minimum of 20 minutes writing down your dreams.

What are the things that you are passionate about? Is it:

To be home with your kids?

Traveling?

Providing for your parents?

Helping others with medical debts?

Supporting charities?

Sending your kids to college?

Owning your dream car (or cars)?

Paying CASH for your dream home (or homes)?

Visualize your dreams!

Create a picture in your mind of already being in possession of what you desire!

If its your dream home, picture yourself walking through the home seeing the furniture, the doors, the rooms, the back yard. If you have a pool in the back feel yourself jumping in on a hot afternoon while everyone else is at work.

Turn your dreams into a reality in your head.

IDEA: You could even go a step further and Make a Dream Board!

Collect pictures that reflect your passions and dreams. Paste them onto poster board and create a collage. Hang it on the wall in your office or somewhere in your home where it can be seen daily!

Now that you can visualize your dreams- what are you going to do about it today to make them happen?

Keep Dreaming,

Rhonda

Popularity: 13% [?]

Cool productivity and time management tool

A friend of mine recently turned me on to a free tool called Rescue Time.

If you’re having productivity challenges you’ll want to check it out: http://www.rescuetime.com

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Where did the day go?

Do you find yourself at the end of the day wondering what you actually accomplished?

This is a common challenge, especially in Internet Marketing. We have so many distractions. And if you’re working from home, even more.

Here are some useful tips to help you get the most out of your day.

You must establish a Daily Method of Operation. Remember that consistent effort over time is what will pay off BIG! If you do not have a clear picture of WHAT you should be spending your time doing than you will simply be spinning your wheels and getting nowhere!

Stay Organized: Organize your time and activities. Focus on the things that are going to make you money.

Too many people get caught up in the details. Instead of goofing around and fine tuning your site endlessly, do the things that will ultimately generate income. You want to be spending a good amount of time marketing your product or services.

Spend your time creating content for your websites or blog, writing articles, and create alliances and joint ventures with others.

Organize your week. For an example: You’re going to spend Monday going over numbers, stats, and planning. Tuesday is for writing articles. Wednesday you work on your website (SEO). Etc., Etc., You can break each day, or each month down.

Build a system and stick to it. Don’t get caught in the trap of hanging out in some forum. It may be a way to generate some income, but you can get so rapped up you stop doing other things that will make you more money in the long run.

Also organize your life, your office, your paper, your computer…. Pick up a copy of “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. You’ll learn a lot about how to get your life organized.

Take some time and draft out a tentative schedule. You may have to adjust as time goes by but the important thing is to get something down in writing now.

A special note on email: While the internet and email is an excellent marketing and communication tool, it is also the BIGGEST distraction and TIME STEALER! Don’t get caught in the trap of spending productive work time surfing the net and reading your junk mail. While a portion of your time will need to be spent answering your emails, make this a set time everyday. For instance you might set aside an hour in the morning or evening just for answering your emails. The remaining part of your day should be spent on other INCOME PRODUCING activity!

Hope this helps out,

Rhonda

Popularity: 12% [?]

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