Traveling at the Speed of Molasses

Sometimes to me it feels like time is traveling fast and what I am accomplishing is going at a rate of growing molasses. Unfortunately I know what the problem is and I can do nothing about it, at least for a while.

Here is the dilemma. As many of you know, I am not just trying to run a business but I also am attending college full time. This clogs my time up extremely between attending classes, driving time, studying, and doing homework. Having college be a part of my spectrum leaves far less time and energy for accomplishing my professional goals.

Here are the solutions I have been working on. I have been trying to develop ways to solve this dilemma and have come up with a few over the past couple of years. This can apply to having a job at the same time, going to school, or what ever else fills up your time and takes you away from accomplishing goals.

Time between time. Unfortunately school scheduling is not perfect so I often end up with an hour or two between classes. This is waisted time unless I can find a way to use it. An advantage for me is that a good portion of my work can be done on the computer. If that is not the case for you, I would recommend bringing a notebook along to plot ideas and take notes.

Go mobile. Having a mobile work bag that consists of anything portable really helps me get work done. My bag consists of my laptop and power cord, portable hard drive with plug-in cord, iPod charger and connector cord, and my business notebook. These are the essentials and only the essentials I need to accomplish tasks for my business.

The goal list. Not only do I have my goals written in big letters on my dry erase board but I also keep them mobile on my computer and in my notebook. If I am stumped and am not in the office I need this to keep me on track for what I need to accomplish.

Have a partner. This one is not for everyone because some like to be a lone wolf but I have found having a business partner really allows me to accomplish my company goals without all of the workload on my shoulders.

Keep organized. Organization is the key to time management. Being organized, which is a challenge for me, has saved me countless time and made me much more efficient. I know what I can do outside the office in a cafe’ or school and what needs to be done while at the workplace.

Separate tasks. When working at more than one thing like with business and school at the same time, I have found it easy to forget things needed to be done in one of those two categories. I have found keeping my lists of things to do separate with color coding for work and school makes it harder to bypass an important goal.

Schedule to start. Making the college schedule fit my week as opposed to fitting my week to my college schedule leaves much more room for efficiency. I have scheduled afternoon and evening classes to make sure my mornings are open to do my correspondence, meet with clients, and get work done. Keeping a business hour schedule for your networking, marketing, and client management is important for success. Clients don’t like to meet or talk at night in most cases.

Doing raw work later. After I get out of classes I will often do the business that needs no communication with others. This means the raw design work that keeps my business up and growing.

The most important rule to stress is time management. By filling in all the time that could otherwise be wasted I can get so much more done.