What You Need to Know About Time

How Work Fills the Amount of Time You Give It

Did you know that smart people have studied the idea of time and work to come up with a law that you should know about? It’s called Parkinson’s Law and essentially states: “…Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”

Sure, some things do take a specific amount of time. You’re not going to bake a cake in less time than it takes, but much of our work has arbitrary time limits and deadlines that you can work with to become much more productive.

If you’ve ever been accused of procrastination, and that is a biggy for me,  it might be due to this law or with creating deadlines that are too long.

Another problem is not understanding in advance what done means. You must know how to set clear time boundaries for yourself and for anyone you outsource to. You can challenge yourself and your team by creating incentives built into the calendar to finish projects early.

To set up your business processes right, you always need to know what happens first, what happens next, and what happens last – plus, what constitutes “done” for any one project.

Break Down Your Tasks into Chunks

When you have a deliverable due on a specific date, make sure you break down that project into smaller chunks that you schedule to work on from today until the due date.  By making smaller chunks with their own deadlines, you’ll avoid waiting until the last moment (which I have been known to do), which can cause bottlenecks and a feeling of always working.

Don’t Multitask

The worst thing society has ever tried to make a thing is multitasking. No one can do it, but many people claim to be able to since it’s often seen as a positive.

Not even computers truly multi-task – they just divide the processing power between tasks so that it    appears to be multi-tasking.

The truth is, studies show it’s impossible for us to multitask.  Even when we think we’re multitasking, we’re spending about 30 percent more time than we need on tasks due to the divided attention.

Describe What Done Means for Each Project

One issue with not getting done with things is that many times, you don’t know what done is.

Define and describe for each task that you chunk down what constitutes done.

Describe and define what the finished product should look like, too. That way, you have a real stopping point.

It may seem like a lot of work upfront before anything gets done but it will save you much more time end.

Set Clear Boundaries Around Your Time

Often, people work from home on the internet tend to forget the time boundaries they’d have if they went to a job. At a job, you’re not getting paid to surf online, mess around on Facebook, and play Words with Friends.

This is not work!

Set up your calendar to support the things you like to do but remember to fully engage in the elements rather than dividing your time or trying to convince yourself you’re working when you’re playing. It’s okay to play. Just schedule it in.

Create Incentives for Finishing Early

If you’ve blocked four hours today to write 10 blog posts, give yourself some incentive to finish early. If you finish before the four hours is up, instead of moving on to the rest of the work you planned for the day, take that extra time and do something for yourself.

Being food motivated, I will use a favourite snack as a reward for finishing early.  Feels a bit like training my dog but, for me, it works.

Know What’s First, Next, and Last

The biggest key to remember here is to know what is first, next, and last when you are doing any project.

This means that you must write down what everything is supposed to look like as a finished product. For example, if you are writing blog posts today, what does a completed blog post look like and include?

Make a checklist to keep you on track for anything you’re working on, so you know when it’s done and what’s next.  If you need checklists, look on my resources page to find some great online business checklists.

The main thing is to understand who you are and how you work best. Once you know how to set better deadlines for yourself, you’ll get more done in less time. Not only that, once you manage a team, you’ll be able to plan a project so that it gets done promptly – no matter how many people are working together to make it happen.

Flying by the seat of your pants does not help create a sustainable online lifestyle business.