Make Your Home Business Run Smoother by Doing a Little “Busy-Work” Home Biz Families.com

I had an “ah-ha” moment a few months ago while I was trying to avoid organizing my tax paperwork. I literally spent an entire day doing “busy-work” so I wouldn’t have to think about crunching numbers, sorting receipts and all of the other vile things that go along with the dreaded tax season.

For once, my procrastinating was actually beneficial. I completed all of the“no-brainer” tasks that I rarely have time for. A week or so later, I realized how efficient my business had become…all because I was avoiding Uncle Sam.

Here are a few “busy-work” to-do’s that you may want to work on to make your home business run more smoothly too.

Organize your inbox. Rather than reading the same e-mail messages over and over again and trying to decide how to respond…sort them out. I took a lesson from time-management guru Stephen Covey and sorted my e-mail into “urgent” and “non-urgent” files. I make sure I respond to “urgent” messages within twenty-four hours and I check the “non-urgent” messages once or twice per week during my slow times. I also have a “free-time reading” file where I sort funny e-mails from my dad or ideas I want to implement into my writing.

Add all of your contacts into your cell phone or put them on auto-dial. Again, this probably a simplistic tip if only we would take the time to do it. I spent more time looking for my address book every day than I would have spent simply entering and categorizing numbers into my cell phone. If you have a cell phone, you can save a tremendous amount of time by responding to calls and making business contacts while you are running errands or traveling.

Create a binder or computer folder with information you frequently search for. How much time do you spend everyday looking for the same phone numbers, passwords or addresses? Jot down any information that you are constantly looking up like business card information, favorite shopping sites, phone numbers, addresses and other business related information and put it into one convenient (yet secure) place. You will be amazed at home much time you will save when you are not searching phone books, or “Googling”, the same phone numbers and contact information over and over again.

Add your contacts into your e-mail account. Alright, I’ll admit…this might seem like another “no-brainer” for many of you. However, it took me almost a year of searching for e-mail addresses on my corporate business site before I took the time to transfer that information into my personal account. Had I taken the time to do this simple task months ago, I would have quite literally saved several hours of time.

Do you have any additional “busy-work” tips to share with us? Post them in the comments section.