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How can you take advantage of everything?

• Get up extra early so that you can get the absolutely necessary work done before breakfast.
• Organize your “to do” list so that the priority items are on top.  When those are done, you can play, then get to the not so important items afterward.
• Before being lured away from work, make a commitment to stay up later that evening to make sure everything is done.  Then stick to it.
• If it’s an “at home” business, get family members to help you wherever possible so you all can…get the Christmas tree, go shopping, attend a party, wrap gifts, make the caramel corn.
• Work efficiently and don’t permit distractions when you are working, so your tasks will be accomplished faster.

(I must leave for the day at noon.  Thus, I’m up earlier than usual on my “sleep in” morning, so I can get this post written, along with others.)

How do you organize to get your necessary work done and have the rest of the day to do other things…with family, with colleagues, by yourself…on a lovely day?

What

Post from: My Organized Biz

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Instead of promoting your business hit and miss, collect these tips and organize them for effectiveness. 

Then check them off as you use them.  Or rate them as you find they’re effective or not.  Remember though, that is often takes some time before you know whether promotional tactics work.  Even then, you may never know which ones were most effective.  However, you can’t sit by and refuse to take any action because you’re uncertain what would work best.

So collect, list and organize your tips as you find them, learn from friends what they found worked well, adapt it to your business.  By writing them down, you at least have begun a plan of action for your business promotion.

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Some people say they take time Sunday afternoon or evening to plan their week.  You’ll know, if you have an outside the home job, when you’re working, unless it’s an “on call” type of position such as the substitute teaching I do.  However, I make my plans, leaving the flexibility for getting called.

What goals do you have for your job or your business?  Are there special events happening?  Do you have project deadlines?  (I just e-mailed a newspaper column that’s due every Monday.)

I have some fixed business appointments and plans on my weekly schedule.  I have to allow flexibility for stubstitute teaching.  I have a fixed schedule for a second outside the home job.  I have deadlines for my blog and column writing.  I have certain activities I need to do for a business with my husband.  Then there are family commitments.  It’s a juggling act, but is easier if I have some planning done Sunday night or early Monday morning.

How do you organize your week?

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I’ll check out some of these over the next few posts at My Organized Biz to help you see about organizing your office and business in a “green” manner.  I’ll also try to find some “green” web sites that assist with this.

If you’re using “green” and recycled supplies that you find especially handy, do let me know.  Also, if some of the green supplies don’t hold up so well, we should know about this, too.

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• Become aware that some businesses are seasonal or are better at specific times during the year.
• Arrange promotions for these times. Some businesses organize sales during “off” seasons.
• Plan to adjust your home and business budgets accordingly.
• Look for new lines to add that don’t greatly increase your expense but will increase interest in your business and sales.
• Find an parttime job that will help bring in income to tide you over. This doesn’t mean your business is failing, just that you need extra capital.
• Find another business with which you can coordinate promotions and sales.

How do you organize for coping with “down” times, such as you might be experiencing now?

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I use files similar to these stacked one on another until they’re bookcase height.  My husband and I use them for flyers, catalogs, boxes of printer stock, customer records, and miscellaneous materials.  This has been a good way to have these items at our fingertips.

I need a better arrangement for outgoing mail, which includes the whole family.  I recently saw a wall organizer that we could place near the bulletin board and appointment calendar (a wall one).  Then anyone (in our family of six) could pop their outgoing mail into it.

What do you find handy for your organizing?

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 I also enjoy having my readers letting me know about any that were their favorites.

For July, we have:

Time Management in an Instant Book Tour

13 Ways to Be More Effective

20 Minutes to Organization

When Organizing Becomes an Excuse

Organizing Can Yield “Treasures”

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Since I don’t have a “walk in” business, I didn’t need to have a shop open this morning.  I can sit at my computer and plan.  Or go over with my husband what needs to be done in our joint business, then make phone calls and e-mails.  And get this done in the six hours I have before I go to my job away from home.

So, when you’re going to be away:

• Try to prepare in advance as much as possile. Make sure deadlines have been met and that you’ve planned for future or immediate others.
• Go over your “to do” list for the coming days, as I did last night after arriving home.  This can include personal and family “to do’s” so you can coordinate them with your business.
• E-mail editors and coordinate.  (One editor has set up a weekly reminder, to let me know I need to get my column to him.  We’ve found this works great for both of us.)
• E-mail or phone people I need to interview.

How do you organize and plan when you have to be away from your business?  Do you have some tips to share with us?

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I’ve been keeping at the 20 Days of Organization project, even when I’m not sure I’m getting anywhere.  Sometimes it yields “treasures.”  Not necessarily money or valuable items, but those that mean a lot to me and have potential for income.

As I describe at my Blisstree Arts and Crafts post, Finding Artistic “Treasures,” I came across a box holding samples of cards and notepaper I designed and sold many years ago.  These in the box were my masters, ones I can utilize today.

So this has given me the incentive to see what I can do with them by scanning into the computer and printing off postcards and note paper, at least for my use.  when I designed before, it was pre-computer days.  So I sketched and painted each note and card by hand!  I never reached the point of sending my designs to a card company.  I had a great deal of fun doing what I did.

What “treasures” have you turned up in your organization?

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