The intention to organize a business in a modern and ultra-comfortable ADU is very popular among homeowners in the USA. In the first stages, people have a huge motivation and are ready to give all their strength to occupy a specific niche and then the entire market. However, when it comes to a complex task, it turns out that not all of them have effective time management competencies, which are one of the main success factors.
Fortunately, today you will have a real chance to master time management skills because, in this review, we will talk about the top strategies for the productive implementation of different tasks, tell you what the difference is between a to-do list and time blocking, and give useful insights on how to harmoniously combine time management tools with ADU space.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that working and studying in a remote format has many advantages. However, each medal has a downside, and in this case, it is constant procrastination, long and inefficient execution of important tasks, as well as low work quality.
Nevertheless, if you decide to run your ADU business, then the principles of creating a daily schedule will suit you:
Successful people know in advance what they need to do to demonstrate high performance. Accordingly, to use time effectively, at the end of the working day, you can make plans for the coming day. For this purpose, you can install a special stylized stand or dashboard in your ADU, where you will write plans.
In time management, the worst thing that can happen is when you stumble upon funny videos on Youtube or click on a compilation of cute kittens. At this moment, you will join the ranks of time wasters, so it is critically important to isolate yourself from any distractions, e.g., the hum of cars, access to social media, or the barking of a dog. For this, you can install special sound insulation in ADU and isolate yourself from the outside world during work hours.
If we are talking about urgent tasks, then this rule will not be relevant since, in time pressure mode, a person needs to complete the task with any effort. However, if we are talking about routine tasks, it is crucial to set a framework for their implementation, e.g., you can ask the voice assistant in your ADU to set a timer so that after the time has elapsed, you can rest, gain strength and start new challenges.
Overall, this technique will boost productivity and organizational skills. However, this will be possible in the case of a systematic approach because if you create a schedule and abandon it after three days, then there will be no results. In general, the ADU workspace fits perfectly into the concept of the daily schedule organization, so there is every reason to raise the level of time management together with this methodology.
Plenty of time management strategies have become so firmly embedded in our lives that if you wake a person in the middle of the night and ask about their basic principles, he will easily give the right answer. However, there is a technique that not everyone knows about, namely, the time-blocking strategy. This method has several basic postulates; firstly, it is easy to guess from the name that the main principle is the division of the working day into blocks. Secondly, in the case of time-blocking, you always know what and when you will do. Thirdly, you will stay focused on time limits and upgrade self-discipline and, correspondingly, the quality of work.
A clear example in the case of ADU business is a technique authored by Francesco Cirillo. You ask your voice assistant to set a timer for 30 minutes, then for half an hour, you focus on one task, and after that, you take a break of 15-20 minutes. You can spend time in an outdoor living space or in a home gym, which you can organize in ADU. Then you repeat this move three or four times and then take a long break during which you can have lunch. This approach, its second name Pomodoro technique, permits you to perform various tasks with maximum efficiency.
There are irrefutable things in our world, e.g., it is impossible to survive without oxygen or fly without wings. Also, it is impossible to successfully develop a business adhering to the concept of multitasking, which has many serious shortcomings, in particular, deterioration of mental health and increased stress levels. Instead, if you want to achieve good time management performance, we recommend giving preference to the technique of prioritizing tasks.
This method will help you identify important tasks that you need to take up first, less urgent small tasks that can wait, and tasks that you can delegate and which you can delete. Having a clear structure, you can achieve progress very quickly, but the most important thing is that by prioritizing tasks, you will have a sense of self-satisfaction from increased job performance.
It’s time to talk about the most mundane and on par with this extremely effective time management strategy, which is associated with the competent organization of documents. You may ask, why is this important? We will answer because the order in the documents significantly reduces stress at times when you urgently need to find an important paper, decreases the time spent on performing a single task, and also eliminates the need for task switching. To properly implement a filing system for organizing paperwork in your ADU office, you can divide documents according to the categories, use the method of chronological arrangement, apply colors to mark important documents, and also get rid of unnecessary documentation that just takes up space.
Modern technologies are reaching such a peak of development that today, it is almost impossible to imagine a situation when you manage time without their help.
There are many applications. However, they all have relative importance, while the Smart Home system has a direct impact on business performance:
All in all, together with the Smart Home system in your ADU, you will find yourself in the future where technologies do all the analytical work, from calculating expected targets to selecting manageable tasks, and you just have to perform specific tasks.
Most inexperienced businessmen have an idea that if they do two tasks in parallel, it will lead them to greater productivity. This concept often gets uncritical support because any media, sports, or educational administrators will tell you that multitasking is a sure step to failure, as opposed to delegating responsibilities. Distribute tasks among colleagues, trust them, but do not forget to monitor the progress. All this will distance you from poor-quality performance and burnout and will also help to pump organizational skills and administrative effectiveness.
Time management claims that it is always necessary to maintain a balance between work and personal life. However, not many follow this simple rule and very quickly face burnout, family problems, and setbacks in the organization of a stress management system. We can justify such a situation in the case of an office worker, over whom the boss is constantly standing, but not a person who works from ADU because he can easily create this balance. For example, you can equip an outdoor living space, a place for yoga classes, a family recreation room, and much more, which will permit you to escape from the work routine and get positive energy.
Many people do not perform a task at a time not because of a loss of concentration or motivation but because of the banal lack of working hours they spend on the road or idle in traffic jams. Fortunately, we live in a technological world, and to solve most issues, you do not need to rush to the other side of the city to discuss the details of a project. You can do everything without leaving the ADU office, especially since communication systems not only allow you to organize an online call with each client in less than a minute but also improve time management organization.
As you may have already noticed, a certain part of time management techniques boils down to the fact that it is best to determine the time limit in your working day to perform a specific task efficiently and in a concentrated manner. In this regard, we decided to highlight the importance of the last point once again, especially since you have all the means to organize a workspace in ADU in which no one will distract you. To achieve this effect, you can install a massive door, dense blinds, or an additional layer of sound insulation, e.g., acoustic mineral plates. On par with this, you can customize each of these elements and complete tasks without losing concentration and outside distractions.
Every person with work experience knows that your boss can change project details right in the course of its execution, give plenty of smaller tasks, and set not quite realistic goals. We live in a rapidly changing world where new technologies pop up almost weekly, if daily; this also applies to time management techniques. As soon as you find the perfect time allocation method, you will need to make changes to the established schedule right away but do not be afraid of this perspective because if you have good time management experience, you will cope with any obstacles, especially since the flexible ADU space contributes to this.
There is no unambiguous answer to this question because each person chooses his own strategy to effectively manage working hours. However, if we highlight the top 3 ways, then it will be creating to-do lists to organize tasks by priority, time-blocking technique, and compiling a daily schedule.
Good time management skills open up boundless horizons; in particular, your business will begin to demonstrate unprecedented growth, you will have enough time for personal goals, and you will experience less stress. However, the greatest value lies in excellent time management behavior achievements in the format of a healthy balance between work and family or hobby.
ADU is an ideal project in the course of development of which you can fully apply organizational skills, e.g., install a Smart Home system for fast goal setting, equip the best sound insulation for high concentration, build an outdoor living space for recreation and physical exercises during breaks, as well as equip the space in your favorite style to experience fewer job tensions.