Has your day not enough hours? Do you wear a lot of different shoes at any given time? Running a business and having a family takes good planning! Here are some tips:
Has your day not enough hours? Well then, we two share the same problem. At the end of each day, I used to ask myself, where my time went. I use to be clueless about it, but for years now, I keep on top of my time – at least most of the times.
Do you ever feel like you have worked all day but don’t know where the time went by and what you actually achieved?
We have to fill a lot of shoes each day; we are business women, entrepreneur, family manager, interior decorator, garden designer, party planner, social networker, chef, adviser, mumager, cheer leader, holiday planner, mother, wife, daughter, sister and girlfriend – your list may go on and on. And mine dos too! Can you believe it?
How can you manage your time better and really get the things done, you want to?
First and foremost, you have to priorities. Not things have the same importance and not all of it has to be done by myself. Of course, as a young mum and working women, I had not the means to get a team of ppl. to help me run my life and even though I have wonderful help now, I still don’t employ a huge team.
What I learned early on is, that there are things, that only I can do. For my family, it is important that I am there if the kids are ill or if they need someone to talk to after the hustle and bustle of school. While the loo doesn’t really care if I clean it personally or a helpful cleaner dos.
When we were starting out as a family, we did all the jobs ourselves. I did not mind to work till 2am just to get my part of the housekeeping done. Washing and ironing after everybody else went to sleep. On the other hand, my husband always helped me. I always insisted of shared help at home and in our business.
When I started to working from home 10 years ago I had to learn how to prioritise and keep up the flow and my work done even when my kids would try to interrupted. I learned to set goals and reach them each day. By scheduling my day around the times when I was best able to work on a high level of concentration and I had to teach my children how to respect me and my work and don’t interrupt (that proved as quite hard…)
I love lists, so I made one at first each day, then each week, to get the things done that I needed most doing. I did schedule everything in my calendar and got going each Moring with a huge cup of tea.
What I learned was:
- Start the day with a little mediation, so I was ready to face the world. If you don’t do it first thing in the morning, you’ll hardly will find time to do it at all.
- Keep to a strict scheduled plan and do the things that are most important at the beginning of each day, otherwise they always nag at the back of your head and you’re not really free to keep your mind at the other things you try to achieve that day.
- To make room for creative work. For me that was best after Lunch that was my best time to work on the more creative parts. I made another huge cup of tea and let the flow take over.
- Keep track of what you achieved, that way you’ll learn where all this hour went and you will have a new understanding of what takes how long to do. For me, that was improving my planning within days!
- Schedule a break when the kids came home and have the most important tasks done already. Go back to work, once they kid told you all their news, happy story’s and dramas. Feed them and once they are ok, go back to your tasks.
- Most off all, at least once a week schedule some alone time for yourself! That is very important. Whatever makes you happy! Just do it and don’t compromise on it. It is so important to rejuvenate your energy, so you can keep on filling all this shoes that you are putting on each day!
Have a wonderful week and don’t forget, that your time, is the most important time!
Love yourself and share the Love
