Before I go to bed each night I plan what my day is going to look like. This one action makes all the difference in my home business, and has a positive effect on the rest of my life too.
I was a school teacher for many years and one of the worse feeling for a teacher is when you show up totally unprepared for the day ahead. I learned from experience that "winging it" seldom has that spontaneous, wonderful result I hoped it would. In fact the more I can identify what actions need to be taken the more control I have over how I can manage them.
These actions can easily get ahead of you if you fail to plan for the obstacles that are inherent in a home based business. Specifically, these are all the other duties that happen to be demanding your attention under the same roof and 24 hours. Some examples of these would be, meals, food shopping, animal care, laundry, house keeping, and the list could go on. You also have to take care to nurture the people who live in that same space including yourself.
Between your business work and your domestic work, it's understandable that coming up with and planning a strategy to keep from becoming overwhelmed is essential. Believe me, it can be done, and you can still have time for those activities, like golf, that you enjoy and can enrich your life along this journey to success.
Time management of course plays a huge part in how you manage your home business, but perhaps task management may be even more relevant to being empowered in all areas of your life. You need to keep in mind the big picture and then break it all down to manageable tasks. The time you take to thoroughly identify and prioritize the activities that make up your total life will be well worth it.
One of the keys to doing this is breaking down the big things into small workable steps. It is much easier to estimate how long you will need to accomplish an incremental step than the whole project. By taking the three most important small steps that you have decided to get done in both your business life and home life you can avoid that dis-empowering feeling of guilt that we all can feel when no matter how hard or long we work there is still more that could have been done. Anyone who has run a household or a home-based business knows that this is a fact of life.
It takes practice to learn how to daily identify the three actions you will take in your business and your household. For my business, I use the rule, "if it's an income producing activity and can be done in an hours time", it's a good choice. For my household, I use the rule, "if it must be done for the house to run smoothly, supports the health and well being of the people living here, and can be done in an hours time" it is a good choice. It is amazing how good you feel when you get all this done before lunch, then anything else I get done is gravy and gives me the feeling that I've had a very good productive day.
There is an exception to the business "do three activities". On three days a week I schedule to do my three income producing activities, but I must complete all three in one hours time, and I try to have them be the first thing I do on those days. As far as the ho use-hold duties I plan a day two times a month to really tackle the place so the rest of the time is pretty much just maintenance and I get a lot of meals ready and stashed in the freezer.
Remember to break big projects down into manageable bites and to pat yourself on the back for taking control of and empowering your life. I did a video to show one of the techniques I use to daily manage my time and tasks. It may not look pretty, but most of the time only my eyes see it. I hope it gives you some helpful ideas.
As you heard in the video it's those Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time that will cause you to see a Radical Difference.
Miriam Gruber is an enthusiastic network marketing consultant, and business owner. She coaches old time network marketers to get started on the internet. She trains them in the art of monetization and attracting the perfect prospects for their opportunity. She uses step by step tutorials to guide each person at their own level of expertise. She strives to make a difference in the lives she touches and loves to connect with others, who also would like to impact the lives of others.
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