Whenever possible try to have advanced notice of something that you need to do to keep your business running smoothly, and then go for it. You never know what may happen between now and the deadline for this issue. It could be anything – lots of little things or some that will be time consuming and may prevent you from being on time.

If you can handle doing things ahead of time even in increments, you will be ahead of the game whether or not anything out of the ordinary happens to delay you. Best case you can sit and feel prepared and on top of things. You may at this point even be able to identify something you could have done better – and even do it that way either this time or next time.

The point is there are things that do need to be done all the time with a home business. It may not be as apparent but you know what they are. Putting things off is a terrible idea for many reasons including deadlines and becoming overwhelmed when too many things stack up.

Making lists is of course very useful in staying organized – however you don’t want to have too many of these going on either. Lists may be critical but they are only instrumental in assisting you to keep track of what you need to do. They do not actually do anything to influence your bottom line.

When it comes to keeping lists it is helpful to have a few that reflect different time periods. You want to be able to see your target goals clearly. Mixing up what you need by this Wednesday is hardly relevant to what you need next month except maybe indirectly. The point though is you end up with a big scribbled mess that could hardly help you feel organized.

You should have at least 3-lists. One that reflects what you need to do in the short-term – today or this week. Another that has mid-range goals as may be necessary within 30-days. Then you can have a ‘master plan’ that reflects your long-range plans and might cover 6-months to a year so that you will remember what your long-term target goals are.