You are here: Home / Archives for Time Management

Protecting Family Time

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Protect family time

For many home based business mums, the line between business time and family time can be blurred. It is easy for clients for demand attention at all hours. As parents, it is more important than ever to protect your family time, drawing a line between work and leisure.

Here a few ways you can protect your family time.

  1. Set office hours – even if your set hours are erratic, fitting around your children, set office hours when you will be working. Outside these hours, be un-contactable, by phone and email. Answer emails and phone messages during office hours. Let your family know when your office hours are so they know when you’re working and know not to disturb you.
  2. Schedule family time – you put all your business meetings in your diary, to ensure you keep your appointments. Do the same with your family time – and ensure you keep your appointments!
  3. Use voicemail – during family time, turn your mobile phone off and unplug your phone or screen your calls. If it is an important matter, your clients will leave a message or call back later. You may even want to change your voicemail message to let callers know when you will be back in the office.
  4. Have a separate work area – if possible, keep your work area separate from your living area. If a separate room is unavailable, set yourself up in a corner that is designated as your office. Set yourself up so that your work can be put away during family time, so you are not tempted to start working while you are with your family.

Remember, if you were working for someone else, and working nine to five, your clients wouldn’t expect you to be available after hours, on weekends or when you are on holiday.

Your family time is precious – protect it.

Filed Under: Time Management

Get a cleaner!

August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Get a cleaner!

I have seen a number of business mums ask for tips on managing housework and their business.

Many express that they want to keep their house tidy, however would rather spend time on or in their business and spend time with their families.

My answer to these Mums is simple – get a cleaner! I have a cleaner who comes for 2 hours a week and does things like cleaning the toilet and bathroom, vacuuming and anything else she can in those 2 hours. It costs me $50 for 2 hours, and is a fantastic investment.

If you think about it, how much could you earn from your business in two hours? How many products can you make or phone calls, or whatever it is to grow your business? Is that more than $50, or will those activities make you more than $50? If so, then consider getting a cleaner to do those housework tasks that need doing and then free yourself up to work on or in your business.

The other tip I have is to get your kids involved with the housework. If they are old enough, they can help out regularly – from helping with the washing, dishes, and anything else that needs doing. They can also help with some business tasks, but that’s a whole other post.

Filed Under: Kids & Business, Outsourcing, Time Management

Marketing Monday – Facebook strategy?

October 11, 2010 By 1 Comment

Marketing MondayThis is something I’ve spoken with a few people about lately. Facebook business pages are “the next big thing” in marketing, or they were. They are a simple and cheap way to promote your business, especially if Facebook is a place where your target market hang out.

So, do you have a strategy for your Facebook page?

Currently all I have is a feed from my blog – mostly as I’m still working out what my strategy should be. I have also started using them for promoting events with an event invitation that is posted on the wall and invite my Facebook contacts to.

The thing with a strategy is you can work out what your aims are and then work to that. Is your aim to educate people, interact with them, encourage them to buy, or something else entirely?

Having a strategy will also help you work out your time – you may decide that you will spend 5 minutes every hour, for example, on updates and tweaking your Facebook page for a week and then testing the results based on your aims, then changing it.

I’m still working out what I’m doing with my Facebook page. Do you have a strategy for your Facebook page? Please share some tips with me (and everyone else) so I can work out what to do with my page :)

Filed Under: Facebook, Growing your business, Promoting your business, Time Management

Do you work through lunch?

August 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Do you take a break?

Do you take a break?

Do you take a lunch break or do you madly work through without a break from the time the kids go to school to when they get home?

It can be tempting to work through without a break, suddenly realising that you’re hungry around the time you pick the kids up from school. Or taking your lunch to your desk and work while you eat.

Ask yourself this – in life before children, did you take a lunch break then? When I was working BC (before children), I would make a point of going to the corner shop for my lunch. If I had brought my lunch to work, I’d go and get a hot chocolate. This would give me a change of scenery and short work and a break from work.

Recently I’ve started having a lunch break. Usually I sit and watch Dr Phil or some other trashy thing on TV because it’s been too cold & wet to go for a walk. I wish there was a coffee place near me… Other times I’ll go up to my brother’s cafe or somewhere in between to have lunch or a hot chocolate for a change of scenery and a good break. Sometimes the break is for an hour, other times shorter, other times longer.

Having a break is important. Often great ideas will flow, but more often than not, the break helps me come back in the afternoon refreshed and ready for the next task.

So, do you take a lunch break? If not, it might be time to start.

Filed Under: Looking after YOU, Time Management

Take the weekend off

June 14, 2010 By 4 Comments
Enjoy your weekends

Enjoy your weekends

I know I normally have a Marketing Monday tip on a Monday, however today is a public holiday – the Queen’s birthday. I wasn’t going to post, however I spotted something on the weekend that had me shaking my head.

On Facebook, I saw a number of business pages posting apologies that they wouldn’t be around as they were spending time with their families!

I have noticed this a lot – many business mums don’t take the weekends off, instead continue to work frantically in their businesses.

Think about it – if you were working for someone else, you wouldn’t be working on the weekend, instead you’d be spending time with the family, doing housework, or whatever else you do on the weekends.

I know of many husbands complaining about Mums spending the whole weekend working, not to mention kids complaining.

So, the point of this post is to remind all the business mums out there to remember to take time out. Take a weekend and enjoy some quality time with your family.

Oh, and a weekend doesn’t have to be Saturday/Sunday. I know of some business mums who have husbands who do shift work and have Sunday/Monday as their weekend.

Depending on your business, you may need to be at a market or do a party plan presentation on weekends, just don’t let these take up all weekend every weekend. Take some weekends off and enjoy them!

Filed Under: Looking after YOU, Time Management

Doing “Mum Stuff”

April 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

mumandbaby-1As a business mum, there is a certain amount of “Mum Stuff” I need to do in a day. This could include helping out at school, doing some baking, housework, washing, and tidying, not to mention being “Mums Taxi” taking the kids to extra curricular activities and friends places after school and on the weekend.

So, what do you do, and how do you get it all done?

I aim to get as much business work done while the kids are at school as possible so much of the “Mum Stuff” is done while the kids are home after school or on the weekends. Occasionally there are days like today when I’m not feeling particularly motivated, I’ll do some of the “Mum” tasks.

So far today I have done some baking and changed the sheets on the bed. It’s a beautiful sunny day, so I”m hoping to get all the washing on the line so it will drive before the rains come in the next couple of days.

“Mum Stuff” can also be an effective procrastination tool – if you let it. It can be easy to see the pile of washing or the kids toys around and deal with them before you do any work for your business, especially if you work from home. It can be easier if you work in a shop or office outside home as the constant reminders are not right in front of you.

Schedule in your Mum tasks as you would any other task. You may put aside an hour a day, or whatever works for you, to do these tasks, or even a morning or day a week.

If these tasks are getting too much for you, then outsource. I have a cleaner who comes in on Friday mornings to clean, all we have to do is make sure everything gets tidied. I know of some Mums who outsource their ironing and gardening.

Doing “Mum Stuff” is important, but it can be tempting to let it take over so nothing else gets done.

What are some of your tips to help you get all the Mum Stuff done as well as your business tasks?

Filed Under: Organisation, Outsourcing, Planning, Time Management

Time Management – a question

March 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Time ManagementLast week, my Mum attended the Monash Council Women in Business meeting. Their speaker was talking about time management. Mum came back with a lot of ideas and was all fired up.

Talking with my Dad the other night (my parents work together in their business), he made the comment that most time management experts tell you how you can get more done. He would rather get less done and have space to think and plan.

This let me to the question – do you want to plan your time so you can get more done in a day, or would you rather plan it so you can get things done in a smaller amount of time so you can do less?

I’m not sure if all of this makes sense, but if you can make any sense of my rambling, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Filed Under: Time Management

A time management tool for business mums

September 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Your mobile can help you manage your time

Your mobile can help you manage your time

If you’re anything like me, it can be hard to keep track of time and can forget appointments. I remember a few weeks back getting a phone call from my parents office (where I had a meeting) letting me know that the people I was meeting with had arrived & asking where I was!

The girls from A Good Sort posted a great suggestion on their blog. Use your mobile phone to help keep you organised! Most phones, especially more modern ones, have a reminder function. This is a brilliant suggestion and can help us all remember when we have meetings, or even remember to pick up the kids from school (if that’s an issue).

Now I have to find out whether my phone has that function on it (it’s ancient!), or upgrade.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Time Management