Charting Work Hours for Work-At-Home Efficiency

Working at home is a monumental exercise in time management and one that I’ve recently tackled here at After Nine to Five. I want to talk about it a little more because I received such positive response about the topic and because it is so crucial to working at home! I previously discussed {briefly} the need to chart the hours that you work so that you know how many hours you are truly working and what that means for your work-efficiency. Today, I want to elaborate on what this entails so that we can all effectively implement this technique and reap its benefits.

Why chart your work hours? Many people who work from home think they are being productive without realizing how many things cut into their work. Others aren’t sure where the time goes, but finish their day without having gotten much done. Determining what the actual problem is allows you to find a solution.

Microsoft Word and countless other programs and online sites provide calendar templates that are automatically tailored for each month. Print one out, keep it accessible, and mark down how many hours you work. Note when you get up for breaks and how long you spend away from your desk. At the end of each day, see how well you did. After each week or each month, see if you make progress at being more efficient.

By keeping track of how many hours a day you work, you start to notice your trends. Some of us are plagued by phone calls because friends and family know that we’re at home and available. Others of us are constantly popping up to answer the doorbell, work on dinner, or attend to kids or pets. When we chart our work hours, we can see how many times we really get up from our desk for unproductive, unnecessary reasons. We can then see where and how we spend our time while at home, and numbers don’t hide the truth – they keep us accountable.

Charting how much time you are working can give you a goal to work towards. If you are working 8 hours a day at home, can you tweak your habits to make those hours more productive and only end up having to spend 7 hours working instead? Decide what your goal number is, and then make changes to help you achieve it.

Consider what you are doing during each of those hours you log. If you are spending a disproportionate amount of time answering emails or doing unnecessary busywork, make adjustments. For example, if chatty clients constantly call, put them through to voice mail and send them a quick answer via email instead. If you realize you end up surfing the internet when you should be working, keep your laptop closed to remove the temptation.

Sometimes no matter how organized and efficient we are at our work, household duties just can’t be avoided. For many people, these responsibilities fall on your shoulders whether you like it or not. Look at your time chart and decide whether it would be worth it to delegate or outsource the time consuming tasks. If you can’t ask a spouse or housemate to pick up the slack, consider hiring someone to help out. If you make $20/hour working but can pay an assistant $8/hour to sort through mail, make copies, and file paperwork, it is well worth the expense! More people are hiring outside help to do tasks from organization to errands to web design, especially in this financial climate. Take advantage of these opportunities!

Charting your work day can be enormously beneficial, but take care to be honest with the hours you log and make an effort to make changes based on what you learn. Try it out and let us know how it helps you to keep your days working from home streamlined and as efficient as possible!