As an online business owners, one of the major issues you face is using your time effectively. After all, there are a lot of tasks to do every day – and if you’re a new business owner you are the only one to do them all. That’s why it’s critical that you create a schedule for your work.
Here are three easy steps to building your work schedule.1. Decide what you need to do on a weekly basis. Make a list of those tasks. And remember to include maintenance items, such as backups, as well as your marketing tasks.
Now don’t panic when you see the list! There are a lot of tasks involved in running a successful online business. That’s why you’re taking the time to schedule them – to be sure that nothing is left to chance.
2. Move all of these tasks to your time tracker as a list. For each, you’ll want to add the day of the week you work on it. It may be something you do daily or only on Mondays.
One of the best approaches is to set aside one day a week for each work category – one for content creation; another for recruiting affiliates; another for product development, etc. For each of your major task categories choose a day that you’ll do that each week.
Finally, add a time estimate to each task so that you have a benchmark against which you’re working.
As you’re setting up your schedule, be sure to consider your work style. If you are most productive on Mondays, then schedule that day heavily. If you have used up all of your fresh ideas by Friday, schedule mechanical and maintenance tasks for that day.
3. Adjust your plan. No plan is perfect. It’s only through reviewing it regularly that you can make it more effective and more efficient.
As your business continues to evolve, you’ll need to update your work schedule with new tasks – and take off those that are no longer relevant or that you have outsourced. This gives you the starting point for your schedule for success.
To see how to set up your own time tracker, visit Organize Your Online Business
Hi, Jeanette,
Over the past six or so months, I have been getting more and more organized and keeping a more and more detailed schedule. I have realized in the last few weeks that I have a lot of time in my schedule to complete my client’s tasks, but not a whole lot to complete my own tasks. I have recently thought about setting aside a day just for developing my own products, a day when I don’t look at emails from my clients at all. Reading your post confirms that this is a good thing to experiment with and I’ve put this Sunday as the first of those days.
I will, of course, adjust and tweak how I do this, but I appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
Thanks!
Geoff
H Jeannette,
thank you for these effective and motivating steps. They are important not only for online businesses, but for any entrepreneur who has to do a lot of the daily tasks herself.
Getting organized is the most important step and hurdle to a successful business.
Your system is wonderful. Thank you!
Ingrid
So glad you’re finding it helpful. All of us who work for ourselves have to really control our time and tasks, so I spend a lot of time focused on that. Besides, I enjoy time management!