Home Business Help: Learning Time Management

Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide

Feeling overwhelmed? Too much to do and never enough time to do it? You are not alone – in today’s fast paced world, I challenge you to find someone who manages to do it all. And as home business owners, many of us are “in the office” every day (and night).

Learning time management is crucial to our business and our well-being. Realizing that we will never be able to do it all and then having a plan to tackle what we can do helps cut out time-wasting activities and eliminates the stress and sense of overwhelm. There are many courses and lots of information about time management on the internet.

I recently got a very detailed overview of “Eat That Frog,” by Brian Tracy since I’ve heard that it has really made a difference in so many people’s lives. I haven’t read it yet but I wanted to share just a few simple concepts that already make a difference in my life and that this book also promotes.

Brian starts off by emphasizing what we already know but sometimes don’t want to admit. . .that there never is, or will be, enough time to do the things we have to do. In this modern world things come at us fast and furiously. He lays it out simply… “get over the notion that you somehow can get it all done… you can’t.”
The book’s title is a reflection of this quote by Mark Twain. . .

“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” -Mark Twain

Putting this into the perspective of learning time management, our frog is the hardest thing that we have to do –the one that we always tend to put off. So, as advised by Mark Twain, get it done first so that you don’t have to worry about it.
This advice will help you overcome procrastination and become much more productive. Always worrying about that thing that you keep putting off is a huge emotional drain. Getting it out of the way sets you free.

Which brings us to the second quote featured in the book, again from Mark Twain. . .
“If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at it for too long.” -Mark Twain

These concepts seem very simple but sometimes analogies like these help to bring the point home. I’ve always considered myself pretty good when it comes to learning time management, prioritizing, multi-tasking, etc. But I do catch myself sometimes putting off the hard things (my frogs) for later and do the easier, quicker (and often less effective or totally unecessary) things right away.

Brian has 21 points throughout the book to challenge you and help you with learning time management – I’ve basically just listed them here and added brief comments to any that don’t make sense on their own:

1. Set the table – figure out what you want to accomplish. This could be the most time consuming but makes the rest of the steps easier.

2. Plan every day in advance – make a to-do list.

3. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything. This principle says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results, even when all your activities take the same amount of time to do. The activities that give you the most return on your investment are your frogs.

4. Consider the consequences.

5. Practice the ABCDE method continually – this is all about prioritizing.

6. Focus on key result areas.

7. Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency - "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."

8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin.

9. Do you homework.

10. Leverage your key special talents.

11. Identify your key restraints.

12. Take it one oil barrel at a time.

13. Put the pressure on yourself.

14. Maximize your personal powers.

15. Motivate yourself into action.

16. Practice creative procrastination.

17. Do the most difficult task first.

18. Slice and dice the task.

19. Create large chunks of time.

20. Develop a sense of urgency.

21. Single-handle every task.


If anyone else out there is learning time management and comes across this "Eat That Frog" book, let me know what you think of it!

Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .