When you work at home and telecommute, you might think that all of your time management problems are over. Forget it ? they’ve just begun. Working at home brings a lot of benefits into your life (such as being able to take care of family, lower gasoline bills and working in the nude ? oh, haven’t you done that yet?) but it also brings a lot more problems.

Deal With Distractions

Because you are home without a boss over your shoulder, you can be more easily distracted from getting the work done that you need to do, especially if you need to do a task that you feel a certain amount of dread in doing. This cuts into your bottom line. The importance of time management for the telecommuter is that it can help you continue to telecommute and pay your bills.

Make A Plan

The most beneficial thing you can do as a telecommuter is to engage large tasks and break them down into more small-scale tasks. The importance of this time management pointer is to make your jobs less nerve-wracking to do. Once you are less stressed, you generally can be more productive and have an internal feel good sense of work gratification.

The importance of time management is to help prompt you of what needs to be done when. This freelance writer isn’t too keen on making to-do lists every day. But they’re great to make once or twice a week as reminders of what assignments are close to deadline, what projects to research and when I can wedge in time for doing the books and doing self-promotion on the web.

Most of the time management advice tells you to make a list of the half hours in your day and fill in the blanks with certain tasks. By following this schedule, you can theoretically get more done. The importance of this time management tip rests on how well you were able to handle class schedules in school. Personally, I didn’t too well at that.

But I am a reliable freelance writer who gets her assignments done on time. How do I manage that? I write down what needs to be done and then I do it. It’s that hard ? and yet that simple. Some people work much better when they are at the last possible minute to do anything. The pressure can make them produce spectacular results in sheer desperation. I often work this way.

The importance of time management isn’t adopting everyone else’s advice on the subject (including my advice) but sticking to the schedule you set up for yourself. Pencil in eating and sleeping, or you will be lured to skip over them in the illusion that they are time wasters.