Moonlighting Part II

that 80% of unfocused effort
generates only 20% of results and
the remaining 80% of results are
achieved with only 20% of effort.
Focus on the results you are wanting
to achieve and look for ways to work
more efficiently.

MANAGE DISTRACTIONS

No doubt your activity log revealed
an amazing amount of time taken up
with distractions. Distractions can
take many forms but let's look at
three major ones: email, telephone
calls and casual visitors.

=> Email

Check your non-work (i.e. non-job)
email only once or twice a day and
deal with each item only once. That
means reading it, responding to it,
filing it for later review or trashing it.
Don't leave it sitting in your inbox
once you've opened it or you'll

forget what it is and waste time
rereading it probably several

times over.

=> Telephone Calls

Be disciplined with telephone calls.
Have an agenda before dialing and
stick to it. Be clear in your own mind
the purpose of your call and the
outcome you want. It's also a good
idea to schedule "telephone time" if
you can manage it. This is an hour

or so every day when you make and
return phone calls.

=> Casual Visitors

Discourage chatty drop-in visitors
by getting up from your desk,
continuing to appear busy, not
having convenient visitors' chairs
(drape your coat over them or pile
them up with papers) or by saying
something like, "Joe can I get back to
you on whatever it is once I'm done
here? I'm under the

gun."

LEARN TO SAY NO

Get out of the habit of feeling bad

about declining requests from people
to take on tasks that will erode even
further the precious little time you
have available. Now, if it's your boss

and what you're being asked to do
falls within your job description, you
obviously have no choice, but do
you really need to be on yet another
committee?

USE DEAD TIME PRODUCTIVELY

Time spent waiting for an
appointment or when you're traveling
can be put to productive use. Use
that 15 minutes you're waiting in the
doctor's surgery to sketch out some
article ideas, write some classified
ads or answer email. Same thing
when you're traveling. If you're
traveling by air, try and get a seat
that will allow you to work. That may
mean an emergency exit or a
bulkhead seat, for example. Any seat

that will allow you to work on your
laptop comfortably is worth the
effort.

GET UP EARLIER

This one is a no-brainer. If you get
up just one hour earlier each day,
you effectively create another 365
hours a year. That's more than 45
working days. You could create a
brand new website in only 10
working days. You could write the
outline of a novel in the same time
period. At least think about it.

IMPROVE READING TECHNIQUES

Consider learning how to speed read
to save time on your business
reading. Alternatively, learning more
effective reading strategies to extract
the required information most
efficiently is another time saver.

These are just a few ideas to get you
thinking about how you can save
time and create time in your day. By
putting these principles to work and
constantly testing your activities
against the yardstick "does this make
a worthwhile contribution to my
work, business or personal

wellbeing?", you will quickly develop
a radar for time wasters and begin to

eliminate them from your life. By
simplifying your life in this way you
will be amazed at how much more
you are able to accomplish in the
time available to you and your dream
of

giving up your day job for your own
full-time business will become a
reality much sooner than you would
have ever thought possible.

Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-
Based Business Online ...

practical business ideas,
opportunities and solutions for the

work-from-home entrepreneur.

http://www.ahbbo.com