Sometimes all you need is to break these projects down into smaller tasks, and just get started! I think everyone has experienced the syndrome whereby you procrastinate and put-off completing certain projects – it’s all too easy to think ‘I’ll start it tomorrow’. Well, as the old adage goes, ‘tomorrow never comes’.

You can make the project seem much less daunting if you just actually start it – say to yourself that you’re just going to work for one hour on a project and actually work. Turn off Skype, unplug your phone, turn off Wi-Fi, eliminate every distraction possible for that one hour alone. Then if you’re aiming to complete just one hour, you’ll find that once you’ve started the task already you will feel a lot more comfortable about completing the rest of it. In fact, once you’ve completed the one hour of work, you might even feel like carrying on with the project for two or even three hours.

Then you’ll feel more involved with the project and less daunted by it as you’ll have already got a hold on it. In many situations after using this technique the project is likely seem easier than you thought it would be. Once you’ve done this you’ll also feel like scheduling the rest of the task – just make sure not to leave it too long or your motivation will have decreased again!

Tags: prevent procrastination, break tasks down, time management tips, small business blog, small business owners

Stop Paying Your Inbox More Time Than Your Customers

Unsolicited bulk email, or spam as it is commonly known, plagues the majority of internet users nowadays. If you are a business then even more so, as you have probably listed your email address online in a variety of places. Not to be pessimistic, but over time the problem will only get worse as more and more rogues get their hands on your email addresses. If you’re regularly having to sift through inbox to manually filter out spam then it’s time to look for a better spam filter or email service! Ideally you want a filter that can ‘learn’ and teaching it is as simple as clicking “Report spam” when a spam email slips the net. That way it will adapt its filter and become more effective in keeping your inbox clean. We provide Microsoft Exchange 1Gb and 2Gb email hosting packages which have effective spam filters – please contact us for more details.

Forever Filling In Forms?

If you’re the type of person who’s always doing a million things at once, and having to sign up for dozens of things every week then you’re also probably spending way too much time entering your personal details over and over again. Many online registration forms require much of the same information (eg: name, address, phone number etc..), and so there are applications out there that can do the legwork for you. RoboForm is one such example which is a relatively inexpensive application and saves your ‘profile’ so that you can get it to enter all your information at the click of a button. These programs are also extremely useful in link building campaigns, which require similar information to be entered repeatedly.

It’s A Date!

There are some tasks which we really should do every week, or daily if you prefer! Data-saving tasks such as full virus and spyware scans together with full system backups should be performed regularly. The importance of creating regular backups of your work onto CD, DVD or an external hard-drive really shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s probably happened to all of us when we’ve been writing an article or document for hours, only to later discover much to our dismay that it didn’t actually save. Backup programmes (and even external hard-drives) can be bought quite cheaply, and many antivirus and backup utilities come with a scheduler installed. Rather than having to manually run a virus scan or backup it would save time and be more efficient to set the scheduler to run at a certain time every week (or day) – don’t forget to also have your antivirus program set to automatic updates.

Part 2 Will Follow On Tomorrow…

Tags: time management, business time management, softare, automate tasks