Only you know how much time you can dedicate to your business. Good time management will help you get the most out of your day so you can achieve your goals. Dont fall into the trap of planning to do things and then be distracted by friends, family, jobs around the house, animals, a good book or a chance to get out in the sunshine. You can still do all these things and give all these things the attention you want to but with a little time managment you will achieve much more.

Here are some essential tools and tips for helping you manage your time.

1. Have a diary

Make sure you have a diary in which you set up some core hours you will dedicate to your business.

It will be up to you to decide if this is an electronic diary or physical one. If you don’t have a diary you will always feel torn when you are asked by friends to join them for coffee, exercise, lunches etc.  An electronic diary is more portable and lighter. You can set up your to-do-lists in there too.

2. Set your core business hours

The distractions -Groceries still need to be bought, cleaning, washing, school drop offs, after school activities and lunches and dinners need to be made. All this needs to be considered when you are planning your working week from home.

Consider working longer some days so you have days available for the odd lunch or coffee date. Or start later so you can start the day doing exercise or catching up with friends. Working for yourself often means we can fit in work after hours when the kids are in bed or on the weekends when your partner is home or you know the kids will play happily for an hour.

When you look at the core hours you have to work with, ask yourself if that is enough time to get all you need to get done, done. If not, you may have to change some of your social time hours. We think it will be easy to fit all our friends in for coffees but in reality it’s still often better to leave our social time to after school or the weekends. Until you do this exercise you won’t know what is possible.

3. Let people know your work hours

Once your schedule is set let family, friends and clients know your core hours. It is useful for your clients too to know when they can easily get hold of you. The sooner people who know you know your “work hours” the less they will ask you to join them during those times. Less distractions.

In summary:

Have a diary
Decide on your core hours each day
Let family, friends and clients know what your core hours are