Time Saving Tips for Site Owner
For many of us a web site is not a primary work. Sometimes we
can spend a lot of time for a website, while other important
tasks remain incomplete. But another time we have a lot of other
work and can forget about site for weeks or even months. Thus to
get everything done we are working other time and can't bother
about anything else. We can't take a rest, can't spend more time
with the family and friends, we can't do anything other than
work. This leads to stress and unsatisfied life.
But wait. There is a way to make life better. We can find a time
for everything we need. Really few time management principles
can bring our lives to success and improve site ownership to
really profitable and fascinating work.
Set up your goals: long term and short term To make life better,
first of all you need to know what is "better" personally for
you. Where do you want to be next week, next quarter, next 2
years, or even next 20 years (if you young enough :-). You must
decide for yourself what are you wanting from your life, and why
you are still where you are.
Do not lazy planning Napoleon told what only properly planned
things can produce the desired result. Don't ignore this
principle and invest time for planning. Remember, mussing is not
planning. I like classic citation: "Sometimes I sit and think
and sometimes I just sit". Usually this phenomenon can eat much
of our time. If you found yourself mussing, switch to another
work, look at the window or simply relax your eyes.
Update your plans according to reality regularly.
If you can't plan, just track Watch for yourself if you can't
plan anything this time, you will be able to comeback to
planning later. Just track what you are doing on paper, excel
sheet or using task management software. Update at least hourly,
not at the end of a day. This will help found common
interrupters and recurring tasks, thus you can plan these things
in the future.
Look at your time journal and try to find things that don't
really need to be done, things what could be done by someone
else, work what can be done more effectively or quickly, actions
what wastes others' time.
You can download a simple time tracking template here.
Reuse others experience or mimic their steps in achieving
similar goals Huge part of promoting and maintaining websites
seems very similar for most site owners. It includes search
engine optimization, public relations, some sort of paid
advertisement, keeping original content and many other things.
If we decided seriously engaging in this business we need to pay
attention to every detail. It is not possible without proper
planning. Why not go on the road what others web masters went?
We can reuse experience and "go in their shoes" to success,
simply reusing proven plans widely available on the net.
Collect all tasks in a to do list Sometime we don't have
anything to do, but later we remember a lot of important tasks,
which automatically became urgent. To avoid such situations the
only way is collecting tasks in the to-do list. Add tasks to a
list whenever it comes from your mind or colleague. If you can't
access computer, don't remember the task, write it down on a
scratch or any other media. Transfer it to the main list when
possible.
Estimate every task, set deadlines for yourself. This will help
you to avoid doing things at the last minute.
Adjust priorities Drucker Dictum told: "Doing things right is
not as important as doing the right things". In web development
or promoting a site it is possible to spend a lot of time for
tasks what produce insufficient value or even do not produce it
at all for achieving desired goals. There is no silver bullet
what can shoot all prioritization cases, but few tips can help:
Rate tasks in a matter of distance to achieving most important
goals. Reflect on things what you doing at a moment. Is it worth
time spent? If someone else dependent on specific task then do
it first. For equal tasks set priorities using task difficulty:
routine tasks first. Delegate when feasible If you know people
around you, who is available to take a part of your work, do not
hesitate to delegate it. Give objectives, not procedures,
require responsibility, accountability. Describe task clearly.
Provide an example of satisfied result.
The following rules can be used to determine delegate specific
task or not:
Will he/she do it better or quickly than you? If yes, no doubt,
delegate it. Will you commit a task to somebody if you have more
important tasks to do? If yes, delegate it. Is available person
can complete a work without your assistance when you are out of
office? If yes, delegate it. Perfect is not better than good
When writing an article, for example, it is more important to
finish in time than worry about perfect words. Get the whole
picture done and you can add or improve details later.
Split difficult tasks in bite-sized pieces People usually avoid
difficult tasks. Break them down into small steps. Complete
manageable chunks and soon you will notice what problem
resolved. Very helpful approach is adding "how to test" to each
task. This will setup a micro goal and will allow determining
task completion.
Identify your time wasters Usually we deal with people around
us. This can be our colleagues, friends or kin. They are
bothering or gladdening you in various ways. They can contact
you directly or via phone, instant messaging or email. This
leads to interruptions as well as time spending. Interruption of
6 - 9 minutes will take additional 4 - 5 minutes of recovering.
Five interruptions will shoot an hour. You must reduce frequency
and length of interruptions. But you can't firewalling yourself
or ignore others. For example ignoring wife phone calls will be
over really badly for you ;) The only way to reduce such time
spending is investigation of repeatable time wasters. If you
know the whole picture you can decide where to save and where
you don't.
Plan times for relaxation and recreation Keith Frayn, professor
of human metabolism at Oxford University, told TV Plus: "Any
normal person could survive for up to 60 days without food on
just water." Without sleep people can break much quickly. In
1964 high school student Randy Gardner attempted to break the
Guinness Book of World Records for the longest time awake - 260
hours. Stanley Coren describes the day-by-day impact on Randy in
the book Sleep Thieves, as documented by John Ross of the US
Navy Medical europsychiatric Research Unit in San Diego. Randy
had trouble focusing his eyes on day 2, hallucinations on day 4,
and slurred speech and a short attention span by the last day.
Do not expect high productivity if you tired. Sleep recharges
our brains and helps us think more clearly. Plan your day
adequately, do not save on sleeping.
Web site owners are usually sitting 8 hours a day and more in a
work place near computer. This leads to emotional and physical
diseases as well. One of our exposed organs is eyes. Looking to
the monitor for a long time, even expensive one, will ruin our
eyesight. To reduce pernicious influence for our eyes there are
many techniques of eyes training. Type "training eyes" in google
and find suitable training for you. Schedule it daily, just
before a dinner, or to any other convenient time.
Reward yourself We are all expecting a reward or praise for
completed work. Lack of reward will kill our desire to work what
leads to reduced productivity. This is why we prefer working for
others than doing something for ourselves. Promise yourself a
reward for completing each task or finishing the total job. For
example let yourself watch an interesting movie when you finish
developing page or new promotion plan.
Conclusion This list of time management tips is just a starting
point to the new improved life. Leading by these principles from
day to day will show a way to successful career, robust health
and welfare.
My university teacher always told me, what every detail is
important. In most cases if we did not achieve something, this
happens due a little, but important thing, what we forgot or
skipped. Help yourself reaching your dreams. Avoid chaotic
motion, plan and manage your life time.
About the author:
About the author Alexander Fedorenko is a coauthor of AcePlanner
- professional time management suite, and other interesting
Internet related products and websites.