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Today I start a new habit and this habit is to help me simplify and organize my workload while improving my productivity and efficiency during the day. I am not an early riser so my new habit involves making an effort to wake up at a time that is structured rather than any time is fine. As freaky as it sounds I managed to wake up at 5:45 a.m. today. This is the first time I have managed to stick to the early rising routine for the day. I’ve actually tried various variations to organizing my day and some have helped me and some have not. In today’s post I would like to focus on the most valuable asset that you as an Entrepreneur currently possess and that is TIME. We have been through the steps of How to organize your Business Plan? Now the next course of action is to simplify our life to maintain a balance between work and living your personal life. Here are a few tips for organizing your day.

Image Credits: Nicholas Todd

How to Start Organizing Your Home Office?

I recently moved from one house to a different house, so for me it was an opportunity for a fresh start. If you are the type of person who cannot let go then decluttering your office space may be a mission. I practice minimalism but my husband loves his stuff and we share our home office. So it was important that we respected each other’s space and at the same time enable productivity. In the past both of us would either be annoyed with each other or just put up with the office clutter. The move helped us to get our act sorted. Here is the short exercise that we went through to get ourselves organized. So the big question you may have is How to organise your workspace?

The first question you need to ask yourself is the following – How do you spend your time in your office?

• Make a list of all the tasks that you need to perform in your home office daily
• Bundle these tasks into categories such as General Paperwork, Computer work, Financial stuff, Thrash, Writing Work, Reading, Storage of Electronic Items such as CDs, software, To Do, Etc
• Next identify what physical structure you would need for these categories, an example could be a CD case where you place all the CDs, a box which has all the invoices, a box for all the bills, a box for all Reading material, a space for all your writing needs, etc.
• When placing them in the box make sure these items are necessary items and not “oh I would love to hold on to that”. This is crucial in home office organization

Image Credits: BenjaminThompson

• Now once you have the necessary equipment to place your categories, the next stage is to find the physical space within your home office where you could place these boxes.
• If after doing this you find that there are a few accessories that are old but they don’t fit in to the Must Have category then you have a choice to either put it all into one big box and store it in your garage or to do the right thing and sell or give away the stuff that’s not required.
• The next task is to identify what furniture is required to setup your home office. This could include a Table, a chair, a waste paper basket, a book shelf, etc. If you already have some of this furniture then ask yourself if this furniture will make you happy or is it furniture that will make your office look and feel shabby. If it makes you happy then there are no problems but if it is furniture that won’t be practical please get rid of it.
• By now we have a clean well spaced and structured home office plan but how do you keep it this way?
• Each week put aside an hour to go through your home office and see if all your categories are in the right order. Any item that is lying around place it in the right category do this during that hour.
• Each day when you see your workplace you should feel good about it. It should be your favorite place that you want to spend time in. If you already have a home office take a step back, walk outside breathe some fresh air and walk right back in, see what emotion you feel when you enter your home office. Is it anger? Is it forced? Is it annoying? Is it peaceful? Listen to your emotion and then alter your home office to suit your needs.
• Add plants – I am not a good outdoor person but there is something about nature that makes me feel alive. My Home Office is not a big one so space does play an important factor. I have decided to get myself a small lucky bamboo plant to keep me company. Add some fresh indoor plants in your home office. Plants help in clutter control.

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• Make your Home Office smell pleasant – I use insane sticks to keep the air smelling fresh and invigorating. I open the windows and allow the fresh air to flow in each morning. Each one has their own personal choice but make sure you add freshness in your workplace. It keeps you motivated.
• Relaxing soothing music – This one is so important when you get busy with administration tasks play some music to get you feeling happy. Of course when you need to focus on tasks that do not need disturbance you can turn the music off. It’s about creating that perfect blend to keep your thoughts flowing.

How to organise Desk Clutter?

Once you have your home office in order, you know you can get more done. What if your desk is always cluttered with items that you need to act upon? This can get a bit daunting after a while. Here’s how I organize my desk:

Image Credits: julian.romero

1. Get rid of pens and pencils that do not work. I have 3 pens and 2 pencils. Each month though I don’t know how my pen holder gets filled with a variety of pens that either me or my husband pickup when we meet clients. Now I consciously make sure that the pen holder remains with only the pens, pencils, scissor, stapler that I require.
2. Have a place for all your pocket items such as mobile phones, post-it notes, blue tooth ear piece, your wallet, etc. I have a small shelf next to my table which looks after these items, any unused items go right in the bin.
3. Move all electronic Items that are not required daily out of sight – Here I plug all the wires that are required to charge my mobile, camera, the cables for the computer, the modem etc all under my table so that this does not clutter my mental space.
4. Go Paperless – I know this can be a huge task and I hate paper, so now I have a box when I get a bill which is not in electronic format it goes right into the box which is the financial category. If it’s some kind of invitation for an event I book it in my calendar, if I am going for it along with all the details then it goes right into the waste paper basket. If it’s some information related paper then I have a box called To be sorted and it goes right into that box to be dealt with in my 1 hour each week slot. All post-it that I write small notes for me or for my husband sit on my table in a corner till they are actioned. If on my one hour each week day notes are not actioned a choice is made whether it’s important or it’s past the due date.
5. Make sure you have a calendar preferably an online calendar where you can action all your to do tasks by date. If you prefer the traditional dairy then have it around you often not in some corner which then tempts you to leave small notes around the place.

How to organise your paperwork

Once upon a time I had to deal with a lot of paper work, now paper work for me is a breeze. I used the following method to make sure that I have less paper in my life. It’s called the F method

Image Credit : isaacbowen
Finish It – This is the work in progress category. Here the paper is usually client related documentation. I usually work with only a selected group of clients that pay me well and allow me to be stress free. If a client is too picky or not worth my effort I prefer to walk away from the deal then to actually keep swimming with the client hoping things will change. So since I have only X number of projects that I work on each week the paper work is minimal as I place the documentation in my box category To Do – Folder Client Name X. Once I have finished with that specific piece of document and feel that I won’t need it, I scan the document during my one hour each week moment and file that document away. The document then goes through my shredder and out into the waste paper bin.

File It : We have gone through this category above, here the papers go in the respective category boxes such as bills, Invoices, General Paperwork, etc

Forward It: These are pieces of paper that you need to send to someone, such as ACC form or your Annual taxes, or some medical claim where the company needs you to fill a piece of paper because they don’t use online forms. These pieces of paper need to leave your space as soon as possible. Each week you need to make sure it’s gone.

Flame It: This is the paper that needs to be shredded and thrown away.

How to Organize Monthly Bills:

Now this depends on how you get paid if you get paid weekly or monthly that’s not an issue. But if you get paid adhoc and your income is up and down then you need to plan your bill payments more carefully. I usually have all my bills setup through by banking account where it’s either a recurring automatic bill such as the accountant’s fees, internet bill, gardening, etc or I have a direct debit setup for bills such as Electricity, Telephone, Mobile, etc. I usually have the bill payments all setup to come out on specific days if I can choose. Where there are different billing cycles such as electricity, etc I make sure that direct payments are setup, so there are no late fees and penalties.

Image Credits: amagill

But this is all ok if you know how much is coming in monthly to plan and setup a more automated process, but what happens when your income stream is irregular? Fear not there is a way to get this process sorted. Choose 2 days in the month that you will use to process payment. The 1st day could be during the 2nd week of the month and the 2nd bill payment day could be the last week of the month. In this way when you receive your bills you pile it in the To Do box. Mark your calendar with the Bill Payment Days and when the day arrives you choose which bills you can clear and which bills you need to postpone to the next bill paying date. Always try and have your bills paid during the month. Don’t operate on credit especially if you are an entrepreneur starting out. This helps in paper organizing and clutter control

Once you have paid your bills immediately place the bills in the Financial Category box so that you avoid clutter.

How to Clear Your Inbox:

I recently went through this exercise with my husband and trust me if he can do it, you can too. It’s an amazing feeling when you have an inbox that’s empty or rather have all the messages as unread How do you get to making life a breeze in this digital age? Well here is the plan we both went through so hopefully you can get some pointers out of this for your own inbox.
A Flooded inbox not only stresses you but it’s over whelming, your brain is constantly in coping mode and not resting mode.

Image Credits: Kinologik
It’s better to have your company mail setup with an application such as Gmail. It’s a brilliant Email tool and I don’t think I can survive without Gmail. If you want to have a corporate account Google Allows entrepreneurs to have a free Google Apps account where Email is one of the many features.

Create a Folder or a Gmail Label called “To Action”
These are emails which you need to work on but cannot get to them at the moment since you are working on something else.

Prioritize your emails:
When you wake up and decide to log in to check your emails skim through all the emails that you have received and prioritize which email you will open first. Do whatever action needs to be taken on that specific email before clicking to open the next email. Use the following actions
1. Delete
2. Reply quickly – when I say quickly this means no more than 10 sentences
3. Mark to Action – this is if you need to think and work on this email in greater detail
4. Long Catchup emails – These are emails that you need to write to friends or clients who may have randomly decided to catch up with you. Action these at a designated time of the day so that your complete productive day is not going into being a social worker.

Create an Archive Label or Folder
Once you have read the email and you want this email for reference then mark the email as Archive and have it off the way.
Practice writing shorter emails:
I need to practice this myself, till now I have not mastered the art to write shorter emails. I know I will get there but if you can master this art your life will be so much simpler.

Newsletters or Blog articles you have not read
If you don’t have the time to read a specific blog newsletter such as when I send you an email that’s fine you don’t need to stress about it. You can either mark this as read or delete it from your inbox to avoid clutter. If the newsletters you have subscribed to are unmanageable then sadly you will need to block time out and make a conscience decision whether you want to receive emails from this person or you prefer not to. Based on this decision you have the option to unsubscribe. Less sometimes is good.

How to organise your Daily Tasks

When scheduling your daily tasks, make sure that you have a maximum of 3 Must Do tasks for the day. You can of course have other tasks as well but these Must do tasks have to be completed within that specific day no procrastination. Here is how I practice this skill:

Image Credits: sachin_sandhu

The 3 Cannot Survive Task for the day:

1. Goals Driven Task: Drive an additional 1000 visitors a day so here my cannot survive task for the day would be to submit my RSS feed to 10 additional RSS aggregators.
2. Cannot Put Off: Say there is a pending bill that is overdue that’s the first thing I need to have completed so that I don’t get distracted.
3. Education task: Say I am learning about Video marketing and the benefits it has within the social media space for entrepreneurs then my day task would be to research a specific area within Video Editing

This has now allowed me to be more focused and move through my tasks in a more structured and prioritized manner. Give this strategy a go it may help you achieve your options faster.

Resting One Day Each Week:

As a small business entrepreneur at times we have to do a lot of tasks to manage our business goals. I can perfectly understand this phase, where you are trying to balance a full time job and at the same time trying to get your business off the ground. Every minute that you spend on your business is worth a lot. I use to think that working day in and out I would achieve my goals faster but the reality was the opposite. Last year my husband and I made a conscience decision to take regular rest days so that we refresh ourselves and keep the passion alive. If you believe in the power of the universe then trust what your body is telling you and give yourself a break each week.

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Many famous personalities have said this before and there is a reason why they said these wise words:
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer” Leonardo da Vinci
“If you toil without rest, fatigue and weariness will overtake you and you will be denied the joy that comes from labour´s end” The Buddha

Maybe you cannot afford to take a complete day off but each week at least take half a day off to begin with. During this time don’t indulge in any kind of work that includes house work, office work or helping friends. This time is entertainment and quiet time for you and to spend with your loved ones. Last but not the least embrace a lifestyle that focuses on your values, not your possessions. Enjoy the moment and see how your small business blossoms and grows to a very productive business

I hope that the steps provided in this post will help you make that leap of taking time to understand your own self.
Here’s to every entrepreneur’s success. If you enjoyed this post and feel that other’s would benefit from it, please retweet it to your twitter friends.
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