Having an online or ‘work from home’ business can be incredibly rewarding but it can also be very frustrating. To be effective in what you are doing your need to set some goals and prioritise your time.
One success principle which has stood the test of time is Pareto’s principle: the 80/20 rule. Successful people spend 80% of their time doing the things which are most important in moving towards their main goals. Of the things which you do in your daily routine only 20% of really matter in terms of your results. So the trick is to spend 80% of your time doing those things.
Unsuccessful people spend most of their time doing the things which they enjoy the most and give them the most amount of pleasure in the moment. In effect they are spending their time doing unproductive activities. It is a habit which tends towards instant gratification. Successful people know how to delay gratification and work on their goals first before rewarding themselves.
Prioritising your time is a successful principle which when put into effect will begin to make dramatic differences to your life over time.
‘To Do’ lists
One way to immediately springboard your success rate is to prioritize your ‘to do’ list. This is something which has been discovered in big business as a way to immediately improve production and performance. Rather than simply creating a random to do list with a huge amount of items which can lead to overwhelm and indifference, create only a list of 6 or less items – more than this becomes unmanageable.
For each item arrange it into order of priority giving priority to those items which will make a massive difference to your business and giving the lesser tasks a lower importance. Never move on to another item on your list without doing the more important item first. If something comes up which often it does, place it into your list in terms of its priority. That way you don’t become distracted and put others’ needs in front of your own. This strategy will help you to avoid the temptation to only do those things which you are good at and enjoy. This can be a problem when working for yourself from home as you have no-one to answer to but yourself. Rather than moving your business forwards you can simply fall into the habit of just having a ‘nice day’! You avoid the ‘difficult’ tasks for the easier or more enjoyable ones. As a result your business doesn’t move forwards.
Prioritizing your to do list on a daily basis will massively improve your productiveness and you will find your time is much better spent doing the most important tasks first which will have a greater impact on your business.
Don’t do list
If there is something on your list which, if you don’t do it, it will make no difference to your business, cross it off. Operate a ‘won’t do’ list and you will free up more of your time to do those things which have a massive impact on your business. Ask yourself regularly ‘Am I doing the necessary or am I simply distracting myself with the unimportant’.
Having a worthy goal
If you are indifferent about your list then you need to come up with a more worthy goal. You goal needs to be something large enough to get you out of bed in the morning but not so large that you don’t believe it is achievable. Without goals it is very difficult to generate momentum in your business and give yourself a meaningful direction.
If you are working on an online business by yourself and you don’t have goals you will most likely fail! It sounds harsh but how do you expect to get somewhere when you don’t know where that somewhere is! How can you hit a target when you can’t see it.