It’s not exactly a secret that I am a huge 80s music junkie. That said, it should really come as no surprise that when I began working on today’s post, I drew inspiration from Boy George and Culture Club.

I realize that George O’Dowd is not exactly someone you’d typically think of for offering sage business advice. After all, he’s known for his technicolor tresses and eyeshadow — not for his business savvy.

Even so, Boy George was right on the money when he crooned, “…time won’t give me time…”

Efficient time management is essential in business. We know we can’t cram more hours into each day; our only option is to make the best use of the time we have each day. Those “big name” marketers make it look effortless — but what they aren’t telling you is that many of them outsource entire facets of their business to others. They may be employing virtual assistants, copywriters, and webmasters to handle functions that you are trying to juggle all by yourself.

You can still join the Culture Club of savvy internet marketers — all you need to do is establish a plan to work more efficiently each day.

Create a Clean and Chaos-Free Environment
Your work environment is integral to your productivity. Take steps to eliminate clutter and distractions. It doesn’t matter how big or how small your working space is — when you keep it clean and organized, you will be able to accomplish much more. Even if you have no home office and are only working on a computer, make sure your files and documents are well organized so you don’t lose precious time searching for important documents and files.

There’s Power in a Plan
Having a well-conceived plan for your day will eliminate the possibility of becoming sidetracked and distracted. You have many options at your disposal — from day planners and PDAs to simple applications like Outlook’s calendar function — these tools can help you view your day at a glance, and mark off tasks as they are completed.

Set Priorities and Deadlines
Arrange daily tasks in order of priority. Begin with tasks that have the greatest impact on your bottom line. For instance, taking care of client calls early in the morning will free you up to tackle marketing tasks such as submitting articles, creating newsletters, and posting to social media sites later in the day. You might want to close your email client while you are working on time-sensitive projects, in order to prevent distractions. Tasks such as automating your article submissions and tweets may require an initial investment, but can pay big dividends in the time saved on these activities.

It takes a fair amount of discipline to create and adhere to deadlines that you create for yourself, but it can be done. Creating a checklist that you can refer to each day will provide you with a visual reminder of what you need to complete — and, it will provide you with a sense of accomplishment after you mark each task off the list. For those who work on client projects, having a written schedule to refer to will enable you to schedule your work, and quote clients a realistic completion timeframe.

We can’t add more hours to our day, but we can use the time we have to our advantage. And THAT should be music to your ears.

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