How to Make Time Your Friend

• Procrastination
• Lack of Productivity
• Too much to do
• Double booked
• Family discord over time worked
• Exhausted at the end of the day

The act of balancing one’s family, work and personal time while maintaining sanity is often the toughest thing we do in today’s busy world.

Choices and boundaries are the culprits. If we are going to effectively manage our time we make choices... And stick to them.

Bottom line: Double tasking is exhausting and inefficient.

TIP! You have a choice here. You can keep reading, or you can grab the pen. If you keep reading, when you're finished you will have only an idea of how to control your time. If you grab the pen and start writing you will have a great tool to begin to get a real handle on your time.

TIP! I suggest to decide how many people you actually want to talk to, and then book what you believe is enough time to accomplish that. For instance, don't say you want to call 15 people. Rather, make your goal to talk to say 5 people. You might get that done in 5 calls. Maybe it will take 15 or 20 calls to reach 5 people. It prevents leaving voice mail messages and telling ourselves we've done a 'good days work.'

Store hours are simply the number of hours you work your business each week.

TIP! Give everything you want to accomplish in a day an actual time in your calendar to get done. Put one item per delineated time slot. If you say you'll make those calls sometime in the afternoon or just after dinner, they often don't happen. It's not a real deadline. You don't have an appointment with yourself. Make a real time.

TIP! Carrying around your To Do list is like carrying around a ball and chain with you all day. You only have it for one of two reasons. (1) You are not working out of a calendar at all. (2) You don't have time to put these items into your day, so you carry them with you hoping to fit them in. Bad Idea

This is your opportunity to make a change. You have some big boundaries to draw here. You are going to make yourself “off limits” during your business hours in much the same way you are “off limits” when at a traditional job.

TIP! If your kids are young and don't have the time-telling thing together yet, you can buy one of those “We'll be back” cardboard clocks that stores put on their doors when they close. Have your child move the fingers to the correct time to tell you when to go to work and when to stop. When the cardboard clock matches the real clock they'll let you know. They'll love telling you what to do!

Typically I’ve found kids (and partners) are agreeable to your working hours when they know when you are not working.

TIP! This is huge. If you respect your business hours, work them when appropriate and leave it alone when appropriate, people will take you and your business much more seriously. Be professional and you earn respect.

That’s what systems do... they build teams.

TIP! This may be tough to hear but your number one priority should be yourself. You first. I promise at the end of the day you will be less cranky, less tired, less frustrated and will have more quality time with the people in your life.

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