| |
| |
|
Go Back | About | Contact | Web Design News | |
|
|
|
Work at Home Moms: Time Management Tips
"How do you DO it?!" If I had a dime for every time I heard that, I would be able to quit my home business. Just kidding. Seriously, time management is a serious issue for work from home Moms. You want your home business to be a success,but you don't want the rest of your responsibilities to fall by the wayside...especially your children, who are thereason you chose to work from home in the first place. While you're probably already doing some of the obvious things like taking advantage of naptimes and bedtime, I hopeyou find some additional ideas from the following time management tips to make things easier for you while working from home and caring for young children. Time Management for your Home Business Have a clear purpose when you go online Whenever you go to your computer, have a definite purpose in mind. It helps to keep a notebook by your computer always with your goals and to-do lists in it, all in once place. This helps prevent you from aimlessly checking email or surfing the net and getting lost. Know what you need to accomplish, write it down, do it, and move on to the next activity. Outsource as many tasks as you can affordConsider hiring a virtual assistant if you have a lot of administrative tasks. Or pay your kids to do things for youthat are age appropriate. This can even be a tax deductible expense. Check with your accountant. Analyze your activities Think about the steps you engage yourself in with your business and see if those tasks are really paying off for you. A lot of work at home Moms do things like join safelists, traffic exchanges and other activities that most internet marketing experts agree are not the best use of your time. Ask people who are where you want to be in your business how they manage their time. Just because something is free doesn't mean you should be spending time doing it. The best $20 you can spend on your business That may be the money you spend hiring a Mommy's helper to come over and play with your children for several hours. It's amazing what you can get done during that time. Plus, your kids usually get worn out from all the fun and take longer naps. Everybody wins! Think Assembly Line In other words, group similar activities together. Don't check your email all day, check it two or 3 times a day (at most)and answer all the emails at the same time. When you want to make changes to your website, list them all and wait until you need to make several changes at once. When one child asks for a story gather them all around. Same thing for snacks. Run all your errands at once. Utilize Technology Get wireless internet and a laptop if at all possible. This can make a drastic improvement in your ability to work online around your children. You can sit on the front porch and work on your website while your kids play in the yard. Or you can drop them off at a friend's house and head to Starbucks and get online! Use autoresponders, mailing lists and other resources to automate your business. If you find yourself typing out answers to the same questions over and over again, add pages to your website or create an ecourse or downloadable report that addresses those topics and refer your customers or downline or whomever to those. Household time management Simplify meal preparation and shopping That doesn't mean you spend a lot of extra money on convenience foods that aren't good for you. But do make simple meals that even your children can help you prepare. Use your crock pot. Collect recipes that require few ingredients and no elaborate preparation. Have a good routine for making menus and shopping. In the long run, extra trips to the store for that missing ingredient is costing you time and money. Most families eat the same 10 or so favorite dishes over and over. Enlist the help of your family to figure out what those favorites are, print up the ingredients into a shopping list, and take that to the store. Have the list posted on the fridge to mark things off as they're used up. Get your kids to help out around the house more. Here are more work from home Mom house cleaning tips General Mom time management tips Identify time wasters in your day It's a different thing for everyone. Maybe it's the TV, maybe it's friends calling to chat in the middle of the day. Maybe it's activities that seem necessary but that really aren't productive, like posting a lot in message forums. Whatever it is, identify it and eliminate it if possible, or at least manage it. Use your voicemail, and call people back when it's a better time for you. Figure out if watching Oprah or the Apprentice is really adding value to your life or just wasting your time. Make a timer your best friend A timer has so many uses. You can set it to tell your child when you'll be available for them. Young children have difficulty comprehending time, and the timer will set them at ease so they won't bug for you that entire period. It also keeps you on track and helps you finish up tasks more quickly. Use it when you're reading email, cleaning house, whenever you want to accomplish something fast. Have a Routine Having a routine for your household chores and business activities can really help Moms with time management. When you have a good routine, you can do things without thinking, and they always take up less time that way. Keep your routines written down until they're memorized. Use an organizing calender or digital system...whatever works best for you. Make sure everyone else in your household knows the basics of your routine so that things flow more smoothly. Set limits No one person can do everything. Your time and energy is valuable and you need to be firm in setting limits on how you spend it. Don't commit to things that you can't reasonably accomplish. Get enough rest. Learn to say No. Avoid negative people who like to whine. As Moms we're constantly working on time management, but with creativity and good routines, we can have a thriving business and a balanced life. Carrie Lauth publishes a free "no fluff" newsletter for work from home Moms. Get your free copy plussubscriber goodies at http://www.business-moms-expo.com/newsletter.html
MORE RESOURCES:
Time-Management - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Taking Time Out to Play - Summertime and the Living is Easy As the song goes, this is the time to relax, rest, rejuvenate and reward yourself for all the hard work you've been doing. As they say, all work and no play makes Jack & Jill a very dull boy & girl. Time Management is Life Management Many of the clients I work with in success coaching can relate to the following example.If you have ever been to the circus, you have probably seen the side show in which a clown or juggler puts a plate on a stick and spins it. Whats Keeping You At The Office (9 Tips To Get Home Quicker) "Work smarter, not harder" is a cliché that has darted in and out of the workplace for years. But it's still as true as ever. Time Management: How To Manage Your Time So Your Home Business Will Flourish If you operate any kind of home business, you must have become familiar about the difficulty in managing your time effectively.Here are some time management insights to help you succeed in your home business. Time is on Your Side - Manage it Wisely How do you manage your time? Or is the more appropriate question do you wish you had better time management skills? I have clients and friends who rely on everything from legal pads to brightly colored sticky notepads to manage their time and appointments - practically everything in their life. I don't understand why some folks place so little importance on something as important as time management!As a professional Virtual Assistant, I have numerous clients and tasks I must complete every day. Too Much to Do? Too Little Time? Hey - Did someone press the FFW button?Have you ever felt like someone just pressed the Fast-forward button on your day and before you know it the day is over and you are sitting there wondering what you've accomplished?I love to organize and with working Part Time outside of the home and FULL-TIME at home with my business, 4 children and Husband I really rely on a schedule and many time management tips to keep my sanity (ok, so some of you think I am already insane, I won't argue with that) but at least I am organized ;)Here are a few of my favorite Time management Tips:1. Meal Planning: Try planning 1 - 2 weeks worth of meals at a time and write them down on a calendar. Focus on One Thing at a Time to Get the Job Done All too often we can feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that we have to do and it is easy to get caught in the trap of trying to accomplish too many things at once and never completing any to your own satisfaction. Often there is a push to accomplish more and more, especially if you are focussed on your career and want to impress. A Fatal Mistake that Can Cost You Your Business ? And More Whether you're a new business owner or if you have been running your business for several years, one of the biggest challenges you face at one point in time or another is overwhelm and imbalance.How many nights have you dragged your weary body to bed only to lie awake for hours with nagging thoughts of what you haven't done or don't have answers to?How many of your children's' ball games and school functions were missed because you had business commitments?How many evenings did your partner spend alone because you were burning the midnight oil by speaking on the telephone or hovering over your keyboard, workbench or reference materials?Was this because you loved what you were doing so much that nothing else mattered, or was it because you felt you had to do everything alone?One of the biggest mistakes small and home-based business owners make is assuming they have to become the chief, cook and bottle washer and perform all of their related tasks flawlessly and concurrently. Prioritize Your Life for Success Today, it is hard to open an e-mail newsletter, a website, or an offline magazine and not see someone talking up the importance of time management.The time management gurus are going out of their way to teach us how to set priorities in our work week, how to organize those priorities, and then finally stick to our priorities to get more done. What Would Save You Time? We all get overwhelmed from time to time, and sometimes it seems as if 24 hours a day is just not enough to get everything accomplished that we would like. Let's consider this a brainstorming session. Boost Your Productivity with 10 Minutes at the End of Your Day Once you have completed your day you can boost your efforts for tomorrow with an investment of only 10 minutes. Apply these strategies at the end of your work day and you will definitely increase your productivity. Handling Procrastination "TIME CANNOT BE 'MANAGED.' THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF TIME MANAGEMENT IS A BIT OBSCURE. Giving Up the Cape "I find it interesting that the very cape I tried to use to fly, became so heavy it kept me grounded." --Brook NoelOne day I was racing around town, errand to errand, mission to mission. Keeping Time What keeping time really means is.. Sprint Through Your Workday, Even if Youre a Marathoner Whenever you have projects that can't be done in one sitting, they have to be broken up into steps. Some people are marathoners and work best when they can spend long, uninterrupted hours on their projects. What is "Life Balance" and How Can You Attain It? We all face decisions that involve doing things that affect competing priorities. We all have three different lives or worlds that compete for our attention, energy and activity. Living Life In A Time Starved World Recently I saw an advertisement for a time management booklet: "Shorter deadlines, competing priorities, endless meetings, interruptions and even higher quality expectations are just some of today's time challenges. And yet the number of hours in the day remains the same. Could you use a "Stop Doing" list? One of the tried and true organization and time-management tools is the trusty old "to do" list. I was trained to diligently put one together at the end of the day for the following day, and whatever tasks I failed to complete, to carry it forward. Decrease Your Sleep, Increase Your Energy! And Have More Time In Your Day! Many of the world's most driven and successful people sleep only 4 to 5 hours per day. Do you really need to sleep 8 or more hours? No, you don't. Time Management - How To Get More Done In A Day? Everyday, in life, we are bombarded with 101 tasks that are waiting for us to resolve it. This is especially true when we are involved in internet marketing where we had to check emails, respond to customer queries, set up product page.
|
ChicagoAnimation's Acquisitions: Market Polls - 1pennyStock.com
Sponsors: Paving | VTL's | Religious Statues
