There are hundreds of theories and self-help articles concerned with time management when working from home:

Write a Book

While Waiting for a Bus

How to Run a Business While Coaching the Under-Tens

Meeting Deadlines While Baby Sleeps

Taking Your Work With You, (the Vet Won't Mind)

We live in a busy

society. Multi-tasking isn't an option. It just is. Think

about it. How often do you do only one thing at a time?

• You're cooking

  dinner and helping with homework and trying to keep up

  with world events.

• You're walking

  the dog and talking on the phone and watching a wobbly

  child without training wheels.

Even in the car:

• You're trying

  listen to the funny noise in the right rear tyre and

  avoiding the truck that's barrelling toward you on your

  side of the road and listening to a new swear word your

  preschooler learned at recess.

When you work at

home, timesaving tips and multi-tasking are necessary.

Try this:

• List the days of

  the week across the top of a piece of paper. Break the

  days into thirty-minute sections.

• Now fill them in

  with your weekly/daily pastimes: Getting kids ready for

  school, driving to lessons, domestic duties, etc. Some

  people can clean a house in ten minutes; others are more

  thorough and take a couple of hours. I am of the ten

  minute-variety, but that's just me. Don't forget to

  include time spent with family and friends.

• Once you have

  filled in your chart, count up the amount of time that

  you spend on each, including free time.

• What you have

  left is how much time you can devote to your young

  business. You will find, when broken down this way, that

  you have much more time than you realised.

Once you understand

that you really do have enough time to work, make the most

of it. The following timesaving tips may help:

General time

savers:

• Write a to-do

  list. Keep it handy and prioritise your work. Complete

  your most important tasks when you are the most alert.

  Revise this list daily.
  

   

• Be realistic

  about the time a project takes. An edit of a non-fiction

  picture book. 200 words. How long can it take? Half an

  hour? What about correspondence with the author? What

  about checking facts, bibliography?
  

   

• An article due

  each week. Two hours? Have you allowed enough time for

  research, interviews, follow-ups and the dreaded brain

  block? Writing the article may take two hours, but the

  development and preparation of the article may take six.
  

   

• Break your time

  into segments. By allotting specific tasks a certain

  amount of time, you will be more likely to focus

  completely on that one job for the prearranged time

  without allowing distractions. When you focus, you work

  well and more quickly.
  

   

• Take your work

  with you. How many hours a week do you spend waiting? In

  line? In a doctor's office? At the bus stop? On the

  train? Don't waste that time. Plan ahead. Make sure you

  have pens, paper, an unfinished manuscript, an article

  to edit, a letter to draft or even a list of numbers and

  your phone. Don't get annoyed or stressed. You've been

  given an opportunity. Use it.
  

   

• Clean

  up as you go. Return pens to the pen holder, white out

  goes into the top drawer. Files are filed, garbage is

  tossed. Leaving tools and papers where they land as you

  work means an extra half an hour at the end of the day

  to tidy up, or worse, an extra half hour in the morning

  before you start. It can also mean valuable lost time in

  the middle of a project. "Where's my…?

Telephone:

• Use

  sparingly. Never use the phone when an email will

  do. A business call can easily take three to ten times

  longer than an email. 'On hold' is a killer (keep some

  work close to the phone) and chats can be pleasant, but

  can also last forever.
  

   

• Be prepared.

  If you do have a business call to make, have a list of

  your questions, points and comments that must be

  addressed. Keep a pen and paper handy so that you can

  write down any pertinent information. This will remove

  the risk of another call to clarify what was said.
  

   

• Don't answer.

  There seems to have been an increase in telephone

  soliciting lately. These calls are not only annoying,

  but also time-consuming. The callers are getting brazen

  enough that they actually argue with you when you say

  'not interested'. Use an answering machine. Screen your

  calls. If it's solicitation, they'll hang up. If it's a

  friend for a chat, they'll call back (or you can call

  them after work). If it's an editor offering you a

  three-book deal … you may want to pick up.
  

   

• Return to the

  scene. Even if you don't answer a call, it will

  distract you, at least momentarily. When the phone

  rings, scribble down some reminders so that you can pick

  up where you left off.
  

   

• Talk to the

  machine. If you need to make a call and you get a

  machine, be ready with a short script. Name, number,

  reason you are calling and when you can be reached.

  Sometimes it's preferable to get a machine if you're

  merely supplying some information. There will be no

  return call necessary and you don't run the risk of

  getting a 'talker'.

Email:

Email is a great

time saver as it nips the telephone-tangent chats in the

bud. Beware! It can also waste minutes here and there and

whittle away an entire morning.

• Check

  email at specific times. Decide how often you need

  to check your emails. Once in the morning to make sure

  an offer from overseas hasn't arrived, once in the

  middle of the day and once before you log off. Unless

  you are expecting something urgent from a client or

  editor, three times a day should be plenty. Give

  yourself a half an hour in each session to answer urgent

  mail and file or delete others.
  

   

• Deal with

  emails once. When you do check your mail, it's very

  easy to glance at an email and file it in the 'do later'

  box. Eventually, you will have to open it again, and

  very possibly delete it. This is called double handling,

  a big time-waster. Open an email and be realistic. Will

  you really enter that contest even though you've never

  written sci-fi before and the deadline is in a week?

  Doubt it … Delete it. Urgent mail, answer immediately.

  Still have time? Answer the emails that you must

  eventually answer. Still have some of your 30 minutes

  left? Read one of your marketing newsletters and add

  some guidelines to your list, read an article on agents,

  add your opinion to a discussion with one of your

  writing groups. Time's up. Move on…
  

   

• Use your

  drafts folder. If you must send an email, compose

  the letter and place it in your drafts folder. When you

  check your emails at one of your designated times, go

  into your drafts and click send on each. You can deal

  with all of your correspondence at the same time and

  remove the risk of distraction.
  

   

• Be Spam-free.

  Possibly the biggest time waster of all. Dozens of

  unwanted emails popping into your box each day. It takes

  precious time to delete and block all senders. Find a

  reliable spam filter and use it.

Computer:

Take time now.

Spend some time each week learning some shortcuts on your

computer. Autotext and signatures can save hours. You

can type a heading on a letter or a signature with the push

of a button. Learn to use templates for invoices, CVs

business letters, etc.

Clean

your computer. Ensure that your computer is running at

its best. This means faster performance. Each week perform a

disk cleanup, defragment and error-check on your computer.

Click:

• Start

• My Computer

Right click:

• Local disc (C:)

Click

• Properties

On the general

tab click:

• Disk cleanup

This should clear up

some space on your computer.

On the tools tab you

will find the error checker and the defragmenter. The error

checker can be programmed to start up the next time you turn

on your computer, but the defragmenter will start straight

away. You can continue to work while defragmenting is in

progress.

There

are hundreds of timesaving tips and devices for

home-workers. I haven't even touched the domestic timesavers

like wiping the bathroom mirror as you're brushing your

teeth or cleaning the shower tiles when you're conditioning

your hair, making meals once a week and freezing them, and

my personal favourite: getting the kids to do the laundry.

The main thing is to

be focused, organised and realistic. It takes time to save

time. Plan ahead.

Next month … Finding

work

© copyright Ann

Harth 2005. Comments and suggestions for specific topics pertaining

to writing, editing or working from home are welcome. Please

contact me at

annharth@writing4success.com

Ann Harth is a

freelance manuscript assessor, copyeditor, proofreader and

ghostwriter as well as a published author. She writes in all

genres of children's fiction from picture books to young

adult novels as well as adult fiction and non-fiction. She

has successfully completed several text-editing projects for

university students and authors, and is the assistant

fiction editor of www.moondance.com, a  literary on-line magazine. She is

also on the creative writing staff of

www.storydog.com, a website for children.

More information on the freelance services that Ann Harth

offers can be found on her website at

www.annharth.com.