Use DayViewer to make the most of your time every time

Organisation and collaboration in business brings quality by managing time effectively and sharing expertise and best practice. With your startup business you will want to make sure that your team, however large or small, can share their ideas and their experiences whether they are sat next to each other or rarely meet. You will want to make sure that everyone (or just you if you are staring on your own) is organized and ready to operate to their fullest potential. The idea behind this is that you can all get on the same page without necessarily being in the same room and that all resources are properly allocated to the correct tasks.

This can be difficult to achieve when there are so many time pressures on your business and on you the startup owner.

One great way to ensure that your time is planned, your team is organized and everyone is working together to the same ends is DayViewer.

DayViewer is a great productivity tool. It is a system for professionals and teams or offices. It enables organization, planning of resources with time and task management a major feature around an online calendar. It's essentially an online office diary and planner that will promote productivity whether this is for your team or whether you work alone.

By having a grip on the time you and your team spend on certain tasks you get control over your business. You will know what resources are being allocated to certain tasks and how cost-effective that task is to your business. You will be able to see which members of your team are working where and have a thorough knowledge of what you need to achieve today, tomorrow, this week and this month.

You can make sure that everything you do revolves around the online diary management tool that DayViewer offers and this will means that you can work efficiently and manage your team to do so as well. This means better productivity and more time to spend with customers and doing the things you do best. By having complete control of your time you can make more money by making sure that you are spending the right resources in the right areas.

Time management became a buzzword in business some time ago. Effective management will always be a part of successful businesses. Get your startup in touch with DayViewer today.

I'm back for a little while longer

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Just a really short note today to say that the operation was postponed as my surgeon had a ostient in with a higher priority. No idea of the new operation date, so watch this space.

On Thursday, the lack of operation have me the gift of time again, so I tried to out it to good use.

I've made alterations to my website to counter the effect of 'mobilegeddon.' This is where Google have changed the way they rank your website in their searches. It is related to how mobile-friendly your website is, so I've increased the font size and increased the spaces between the links. This makes it easier to use on a smartphone, so it should help me in terms of my search ranking.

I also came across a site called Twitterfeed, which I thought would create an RSS feed from my blogs and automatically upload blog entries into Twitter (and LinkedIn.) It was set for 3 uploads every half hour, but I've just checked and it uploaded the first 3 and nothing since. So I'll get on to them and see whether I've missed something out or whether I've misunderstood what it actually does.

Updates to follow!

Too many balls to juggle - what to let go?

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As the snow has set in to my part if the world this week, and I'm almost half way through the 245 days, it's become clear that I need some fresh impetus to be able to move forward.

The home office is more organised and is set up to take the next steps in weatherproofing, but the sealing needed on the roof and the painting on the inside have completely stalled when the weather is like this. With a few major other jobs to do around the house to get that up to scratch, I've struggled to make the time to get anything else done in the road to opening my estate agency.

I listened to a radio interview on BBC Radio Five Live a couple of weeks ago with the author Emma Healey. She spoke about dedicating your energy to one thing at one time. She said that if you are writing a book then put losing weight or any other long-term goals on the back burner as writing a book takes enough energy and concentration of its own. At the moment I've possibly got too many balls in the air, including-

Writing five different blogs

Writing a self-help book for home buyers

Attending a college class in photography

An Open University course on creative writing (with a view to writing a novel)

Mystery shopping, where I aim to conduct 10 shops per week

Expanding my Amazon and eBay selling accounts to generate income

As well as trying to set up the business, work part-time and live as part of a family of four with two children aged 8 and under.

I'm probably biting off more than I can chew and I need to look at everything I'm doing and decide what is important.

Watch this space.

Changes are afoot with my employer (again)

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As we fire headlong towards Christmas and every moment of time seems like it's at a premium, I've negotiated changes at work that I think will help me move forward with my ideas and create that commodity we call time. I'm taking me working week from 5 full time days to 3 full time days in the new year. Plus the job role I'll be conducting will be more flexible in terms of the exact hours I need to be there. As a result I'll be able to make the massive strides forward I need, rather than the tiny, though productive, steps I'm currently making. The idea is that I'll split the extra time between making some money to bridge the shortfall in hours, and setting up the business. Having full days to be able to devote to the business will mean far more than the odd hour here and there and I believe will start to see the fledgling ideas that I've started to share in this blog turn into a solid, viable and exciting business.

I've decided to go down this route to get moving forward quickly. As you can see from the day count at the top of the page, the click is ticking quite quickly at the moment. Granted it's an arbitrary number I've picked but at the same time it's the target if all my efforts.

In terms of earning the money to bridge the shortfall, January is actually good months, as there is no council tax to pay in February or March. I'll fill in the gaps with income from mystery shops. At the moment I do the odd mystery shop in my lunch break or after work. With having four days a week without work opens up the possibility of full day mystery shopping trips. I used to go out for a full day and conduct 10 to 12 mystery shops and earn a couple of hundred pounds in a day. I can go out and do this again, ensuring that I keep the relevant records for the tax man.

All in all, I believe that the time will allow me to earn in the way I want to earn and get my business off the ground.

I need to enjoy family time without thinking of all the tasks I have to complete

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It's difficult at this time of year to find time to get everything done that you want. There are extra time pressures, such as Christmas shopping, Christmas meals and events and the weather and light closing in. This has the effect of making me think that I have little time to focus on all the business activities that I want to get done.

I have stalled a little on business grants, garage conversion and social media presence over the last fortnight and I think it's starting to take it's toll. I'm also doing fewer mystery shops and finding planning things like family days out a strain. My emails that need action are building up, as the surveys I need to conduct generally require a desktop or laptop computer rather than a smartphone screen.

I think that this is a natural thing at this time of year, but I'm finding it very frustrating. I want to be able to enjoy my time with the wife and kids without having a list as long as my arm at the back of my mind.

It's time to go back to the diary and to reassess what can be done in the time I have, and what can wait until the new year.

Downtime helps the mind focus

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I've been wrestling with the amount of time I spend on setting up my estate agency business. It feels that alongside a full time job, two other small business interests and a family, the work put into setting up my estate agency means that I gave little or no downtime. I'm not talking about hour after your watching TV or playing video games, but some time spent doing not a great deal, and this helps me to reflect on where I am, decide on next best steps and do things like this - writing my blogs. I'm actually typing this whilst on the bus on the way to work (park and ride has changed the face of many cities) and therein lies the problem - every spare minute is filled with activity. Now this blog can be quite therapeutic, and I'm able to use it as a sounding board for me, as much as it provides an insight for you - the reader.

Ill blog again into lunch break, and probably again on the bus on the way home, and possibly again tonight whilst I'm back on the PC.

However, there needs to be more time spent on playing with the kids, family days out, quality time with my wife, etc to ensure I keep a focus on why I'm doing all this.

Don't think that this is a moan about how things are going, it's just me putting down some thoughts and fears about how it's going.

Presently I've got about 100 emails needing some action - the vast majority are surveys, which bring in Christmas spending money. I carry out loads of mystery shops, as I looked at in yesterday's blog. Yesterday afternoon I had 3 jobs to sort out in the bathroom and there's a couple more to sort out in the house.

In all, I need to carry out the following-

*get all the jobs in the house done and straightened our before the business starts

*decide on whether I will continue with surveys and mystery shops when I start the business

*set aside times for certain tasks, such as surveys, emails, time with the kids - in other words, plan my time (I'll get a diary today)

*decide when the best time to stop my full-time job and start full-time in the business is

Looking forward, not backwards.