Time Management Tips with FREE PLANNER
/Time Management, when working from home in network marketing or direct sales is crucial as you have to balance your home-based business alongside running a home, being a parent and possibly working another business alongside this or even having a job which can be a constant juggling act if you let it.
You have to really be strict with yourself and your time and get into the habit of working towards a weekly plan to help you keep to the task which can be really hard with those everyday distractions.
Let me try and lighten the load with some ideas on keeping focus. There is also a FREE Planner at the bottom of this post.
HERE ARE MY TOP 5 TIPS ON TIME MANAGEMENT WHILST WORKING FROM HOME IN NETWORK MARKETING
Set a Schedule (with working hours)
If anyone neglects this one, it’s me. as many of you know I am on social media quite a lot so have to make myself work to a system and schedule to be most productive. My brain used to always have a running to-do list at all times and always would start something else. So why is it so difficult to stick to a schedule? Personally, I am afraid I will forget something important and I would end up multi-tasking and make myself dizzy, so I had to get organised, and when your business grows to a large size like mine, you need to be organised! My best bit of advice is to make that start now. Setting tasks throughout the day helps you keep on task, focused and moving forward. Start your week with a plan that you create on Sunday, including scheduling the week ahead’s social media posts so you can start Monday fresh and ready for action and stick to your working hours! My phone is never switched on past 5 pm, however, I am contactable online (when I check-in) Make sure YOU run your business and not your business running you.
Schedule Days Off & Time Out
While you’re creating your week ahead of plan, create at least one day where you take the day off COMPLETELY! It doesn’t always have to be the same day every week, but you need to take at least one day off per week to schedule time to catch up with family and friends or go get your hair done or have a day catching up with reading, going to the gym, just time for YOU. Work never needs to be a priority over those we care about. Relationships need time and energy, too. (you can always catch up later that day with messages and remember you should already be scheduling posts into your business pages, groups, and your team groups!)
Schedule your Social Media
I say this all the time and If you didn’t know already I am a huge fan of CinchShare for scheduling onto social media, especially onto my personal profile and into my training groups, it’s also a great platform for writing longer posts to ‘push’ onto Instagram in real time (it save’s my fingertips and squinting on my mobile lots of frustrations and typos)
I schedule 90% of my business page posts directly in Facebook because that’s how Facebook like things, so you have to play by their rules to help your engagement and why else give us that schedule button!
*Get your free 30 day trial HERE (depending on currencly conversions it is $10/£8 monthly thereafter if you choose to carry on)
Stop following everyone
I find this a huge distraction to many people and I’ve seen it grow over the past couple of years, all these ‘coaching gurus’ and here lies the problem – MINDSET!
We need to be coaching our teams to not get distracted and focusing on other people in your company where they then feel they need to find the magic key to success. Everyone’s journey is different and we find success through ACTION & DOING, not from following 20+ different people in 20+ different industries and in 20+ different groups.
Follow just 3/4 key people:
1) FOLLOW your upline leader who is succeeding and walking the walk
2) FOLLOW another person in YOUR company who is maybe in another team but is still succeeding then add your own twist on things and learn your skills
3) Then FOLLOW someone else in a totally different company but one who is also succeeding then mix it all together through PRACTICE & ACTION
SIDENOTE: Asking dozens of people how they do things will only confuse you, dilute your ‘doing time’ (see the next topic – faffing) FOCUS & ACTION can only bring results. We all have to learn our craft and the skills that will take us to the top.
Stop faffing & Have a Power Hour
I find the biggest waste of someone’s day is simply faffing, faffing about on Facebook & YouTube and being distracted. The more you faff, the less you earn!
Income-producing activities should be done as the main part of your routine and faffing can be done later (creating graphics also comes under faffing). How many people in your team or downline simply faff? Are you a faffer? ask yourself this question ‘Is it a business or is it a hobby?’ and let your sponsor know you are happy to simply do your thing and are not expecting higher levels or bigger income goals.
TIP: I batch and create graphics on an evening when I put my feet up and relax, this is the time I can store up images the week ahead, maybe Sunday is the day for you or mid-week, but SELECT the graphics day and stick to it and batch them, ready for scheduling out throughout the week where you will be focusing on income-producing activities like booking parties, promoting a special offer for the week, finding new team members, giving 1:1 coaching to your leaders and team members.
I find having a daily power hour really helps me get my tasks done. Breaking them down into 15-minute blocks will really help you progress. You can even do this at home. Spend an hour cleaning for example. Spend 15-minutes in a room, you could have 4-rooms done by the end of that hour then you can go put your feet up! Having a power hour for your business is no different. You just have to stick to it, be consistent and focussed to finishing those tasks.