Time Management - Using the Calendar

I am fast approaching the first anniversary of going self employed.  I had always wanted to get away from having a job and to become the master of my own destiny.  I was always planning to do it in about 5 years time from whenever I thought about it.  The thing that always held me back was the fear that I would not find enough work to keep me going over the initial period.



I finally took the leap when I was made redundant with a modest, but nonetheless large enough, pay off.  It was then that I realised that I had totally misunderstood the situation.  Far from having difficulty finding work, I have been overwhelmed with it, getting typically an enquiry every day.

It turns out that the problem is not shortage of work but shortage of time.   Since about week 3 I have been more or less continually behind on jobs for people and have been working hours that I have never worked before in my life.  I now have less free time than I used to have when I had a full time job.

So to my surprise, the key to making a success of my new consultancy company is my long time bugbear of managing my time effectively.  I have never been very good at this, and without even the dubious support of a management structure to work in, and failing badly.

Basically - if I don't manage my time I am looking at the opposite of financial independence.   I am looking at continual drudgery or the humiliation of going back to work.  It really is that important.  So my first step is to get a thorough grip on my calendar and at the very least monitor where the time is going so I can see where I am getting it wrong.  I think the real breakthrough will be when I am able to prioritise more effectively.  But I don't think I am going to be able to do that without hard data on where the time is going.

This post took 15 minutes to write.  I will log it on my calendar now.  Logging and categorising need to be my passion.  I'll use Google Calendar's colour codes to keep track as that will give my a visual indication.

Categories.  Google only has 11 colours, so that is the limit on the number of categories I can have.

Green - Planning, logging and organising
Blue - Voluntary Work for business association.
Grey - Unavoidable Distractions
Purple - Tea Breaks etc, and why not enjoy them?
Pale Red - E-mails, unavoidable drudge but avoid using it as a to do list
Bright Red - Billable Hours, the stuff I need to do to keep the food on the table
Yellow - Business development, the kind of stuff my future self will thank me for doing now