We all know the situation, you are working for yourself, you are working hard but you just don?t seem to be getting anywhere. Could you be disorganized? If you are often late, miss deadlines, often stay late? Do you have a messy working environment and can never find anything you need? Yup you are disorganized.

This is the most common symptom of poor time management, and the one of the easier ones to solve. The chief problems the disorganized workers bring upon themselves is not being able to find information and meet deadlines. A side effect is not being able to react to changes in a timely manner.

* Are you never able to find things?
* Do you miss meetings or deadlines?
* Never seem to achieve anything although you work hard?
* Find your paperwork rules your office?
* Never seem to have enough time?
* Never have time off?

You need to approach your problem from two sides:
* An efficient working environment
* Plan and manage your time

An Efficient Working Environment
Phone calls, emails, documentation and unexpected callers the biggest time wasters there are, try and manage them, but not by compromising service.
* Phone Calls ? Allocate a time each day to make all your outgoing calls. Try and avoid telephone tag, by leaving a good time to call on voicemails and documentation.
* Emails ? Use a spam buster, avoid personal emails and file efficiently.
* Documentation - The 3 D?s: Do one of the following: Deal With. Handle paper once and then file. Delegate to the appropriate staff member. Ditch and throw it away.
* Callers ? discourage frivolous calls and make appointments for sales calls. Keep to the time that you have allocated.

Plan and Manage Your Time
By planning your time, you can review your time commitments and help yourself better plan in the future.
* Make and keep a ?to do? list.
* Keep a diary and keep it visible to all that need it.
* Link it with your ?to do? list.
* Plan realistically allowing enough time to do the important things
* Ensure you take regular breaks
* Plan some time for yourself
* Decide if you are a morning or evening person and plan important things for your period of greatest alertness.
* Keep at least ? day a week for admin ? probably more.

Master these skills and you should suddenly find more time in your business and life to do the things that you want to

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