Introduction: What is Time Management?

No longer will you find yourself rushing through breakfast in order to get out the door on time, fighting your way onto the commuter train, or weaving through the rush hour traffic, only to arrive 10 minutes late. With a stay at home internet marketing job, all these things are a thing of the past.

And, yes, of course, working at home is more relaxed and you get to spend more quality time with your family.

But (and this is one of life’s immutable truths) as soon as you get rid of one set of problems, another set always comes along to take its place, and working at home, marketing on the internet in no exception.

It actually doesn’t matter whether you have to charge out of the door every morning, or whether you work at home in shorts and a t-shirt.

There is a common problem, regardless of whether you work at home on your computer, or have to go out every day (or, even worse, every night) for your shift in the factory or office.

Getting a grip on time and becoming its master is a daily struggle for each and every one of us.

Do you overstretch yourself?

Most of us have crammed our daily schedule full of all sorts of activities.

Despite cell phones, the internet and every other advantage that technology gives us, it still seems that the vast majority of us never have enough time to take care of business, ourselves, our friends and family.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, I’m sure it seems that you are always busy.

Busy, but the big question is, are you productive with your time?

This question is especially relevant if you work from home, because the only person who can really judge this is you. Unlike working in an office or factory, there is no-one else, no third party, to say whether you are doing a good job or not.

Thus, it is particularly critical, as an internet marketer, that you are aware of, and apply, sound time management tactics at all times. Otherwise, there really is a fair chance that you are just wasting your time.

Why is Time Management important?

It is absolutely vital that you learn and apply sound time management techniques to all of your internet marketing activities if you want to be successful (and you wouldn’t be doing it otherwise, would you?).

The first step towards proper time management is realizing that there is nothing else on the face of this planet that offers so many time-wasting opportunities as the World Wide Web!

Whatever activity it is that you are involved in, there will always be times in your life when you are extra busy (finishing off an important project, dealing with finances, getting websites back on line when they go down, and so on).

However, learning the skills to manage the time you have wisely and efficiently should help alleviate much of the stress and frustration that can lead to burn out and fatigue.

Time Management is a skill that you MUST acquire!

One advantage that working online has over a desk job is the flexibility of doing what you want, when you want.

This, however, is not always a good thing.

Of course, you know that surfing around the net all day is not particularly productive.

But, have you ever considered just how much time is wasted on the mundane little tasks that you do every day? On those things that you simply HAVE to do?

You will be shocked to find out how much time is wasted just checking your accounts with the likes of PayPal, Clickbank and AdSense.

The simple act of opening and closing your e-mail inboxes is another activity that is a voracious time-eater as well!

To put this into some kind of context, imagine that you work in a busy office.

Would your boss be pleased if you refused an important assignment if you said “I cannot do it right now because most of my day is being eaten up with checking my email and my online accounts”?

I think you know the answer to that question.

So, why should the proper management of your time when you are working on the internet for the most demanding boss in the world (you) be any different?

Developing the necessary time management skills (and discipline) with the help of this guide will show how to determine what tasks need doing and when you should do them, in harmony with your overall goals in your working life and in your leisure time.

Last minute decisions are not all bad ones!

Having good time management skills means that you must learn to recognize which activities really do need to be done now and which can wait, so that when a last minute decision needs to be made, you are able to make it with judgment and wisdom.

If such a decision involves making a choice between two options, you will know that the judgmental abilities that follow from good time management will give you the confidence to give your answers (even if it’s ‘no’) without questioning those abilities.

If you do say no to a task you will be able to furnish an explanation as to why you are making that decision if need be.

A new purpose to what you do

While applying good time management is a skill that needs to be used every single minute that you are sitting in front of your PC, it can also help you to reach your long term goals as well.

It is critical as well that you understand that it is an absolutely basic rule that you must have a long term plan as well as one for the here-and-now.

It is only by incorporating these long terms goals into the ‘why’ of what you do every day that you will manage to accomplish them while actually enjoying what you do.

Even the drudgery of staring at the screen each and every day can be made less tedious if you know that doing it is moving you ever closer to achieving your long term objective.

In fact, knowing the ‘why’ will make these chores an identifiable part of the overall plan, and thus a choice rather than a burden.

Chapter 1: How Much Is Your Time Worth?

If you work nine to five every day in an office and receive a salary at the end of every month, it’s pretty simple to work out what your time is worth. Money earned divided by hours worked, it’s a straightforward formula.

But, as an employee you also have the luxury of knowing that, as long as you satisfy the requirements of your job, then you will still get paid, no matter how you actually fill your time.

You want to spend 10 minutes by the coffee machine chatting about last night’s sports scores? No problem.

As long as you do what you are required to do, you will still get paid the same salary at the end of the month.

So when you don’t have a fulltime job, how do you calculate the value of your time?

Well, although most people might not think about it in this manner, there are, in fact, two ways of going about this.

First method is, as suggested above, the value that you put on your time in terms of the salary that you are paid. And, in truth, this is exactly what most employees would assume to be their value.

But, there is a second way, the ‘time value formula’ that applies to someone like you, working on the net. Simply put, you must know what an hour of your time costs YOU.

What does an hour cost YOU?

As someone who is running your own online business, it is even more imperative that you spend your time wisely and do not waste it by doing things that will not make money for you, your business or your family.

Every time you allow yourself to slack off, it will have an immediate impact on your income.

Imagine that you were in a position where you could actually bill your time out to other people, in the way that a lawyer would do, how much would you charge for an hour of your time?

Now, think of and write down (or - better yet - put into a document or spreadsheet on your PC so that you can refer back to it in the future) all the work related activities that you sometimes find yourself involved in, that are not directly creating income.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but these are some activities that never actually make any money in themselves:

• Web surfing

• Opening and closing your web browser

• Opening and closing your e-mail box (boxes?)

• Answering e-mail

• Logging in & checking your accounts (PayPal, Clickbank & AdSense)

• Writing articles, reports and sales pages

• Web page design (unless you are a paid designer)

• Web page creation (with the same proviso as above)

• Fixing problems on your webpages

• Posting to your blog (blogs?)

• Changing previous blog postings.

• Responding to blog post comments.

• Creating new advertising materials – banners, pop-up’s, pop-in’s and the like.

• Testing new software.

• Working on linking strategies

This is a list that could go on for a VERY long time, as the internet presents each and every one of us with innumerable new ways of using up time every day.

So, take a moment to think about this.

In the last month, have you any idea how many hours you spent doing each of these?

I’m assuming you don’t.

Imagine that you were to bill your time at $30/hour for your service but that, in the last month, you spent 15 hours maintaining your website or opening and closing your mailboxes.

That has just cost you $450 in fees that you didn’t bill to anyone.

It may also have cost you 15 more hours away from your family and friends, and that is time that many folks would consider to be literally priceless.

Time Management – the personal angle

The point here is that time management goes beyond knowing the monetary value of your time – your personal time also has value.

And, you must understand that each hour of your day does not necessarily have the same value. You cannot always use money or profits as the overriding factor when determining how much your time is worth.

Your life is made up of interests and activities that you do for yourself and for others.

Basing your time merely on the amount of money you might have made or saved is missing the big picture.

Have you ever heard someone answer the question “if you had 6 months to live, what would you do” with the answer “make more money”?

No, me neither!

Unless they had serious financial worries about their family, most people would acknowledge that time spent bettering oneself, spent with family and showing interest in others has greater value.

When your child has a school event he wants you to attend or you haven’t spent one evening all week to rest up and relax you need to determine the value of your time in the context of living a productive life – not just making money.

Working for yourself – drawing the line

Working at home on your computer has many, many advantages over the traditional drudgery of the nine-to-five, you know that.

But it is equally important to acknowledge that working at home offers the opportunity to work hours that are way too long, to never stop and get away from the slavery of the keyboard.

Thus, it is vitally important to ensure that you ask yourself if the time you spend on certain (non-critical) tasks is worth the sacrifice of time that could be spent doing other things.

While it can be difficult to make decisions about how you use your time when you feel the pressure to perform many tasks, it’s not impossible. Take the time to assess your goals and make decisions that reflect them.

In this way, you can find new strategies that make better use of your time.

You should try to identify areas where you should be delegating or out-sourcing the work, instead of trying to do everything yourself.

You could try reorganizing your day, centering your schedule only on the most important tasks you need to accomplish while fitting less important tasks around it.

Taking the time to understand the value of your time now is going to save you frustration in the future. The following chapters will help you identify goals, set a schedule and identify habits that may be costing you more than just time.