Time Management Ideas for Home Based Business Owners with Kids
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and Manage Your Time
When You Have a Business and a Family
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As a business owner working at home - cooking for profit, running an ebusiness, or managing your offline business on your home computer - efficient time management is probably your biggest problem.
Here you'll find some helpful time management ideas to make the balancing act between your home based business and your family a little easier to handle.
Efficient use of one's time is a key component for success --and often, the most dfficult to master... especially if there are little ones running around the house as you try to work.
The following ideas will help to keep you and your children focused as you work at home -- help you manage your time, and therefore, be more productive and profitable in your chosen home based business.
How to Run a Home Based Business and Balance Family Time
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Set Your Priorities For The Day
Your Children
If you're a work-at-home Mom or Dad, your children are your first priority, but that doesn't mean you are to be at their beck and call every moment of the day. If your child is under a year old, then you basically have to roll with the punches. At that age, you pretty much belong to them 24/7, but toddlers and older children can be encouraged into activities which you set up in a location where you can keep an eye on them. Establish routines with them early in life -- when they're babies -- and you'll find it easier to get them to settle down with their activities as pre-schoolers. Having a set routine will keep them focused for a while and allow you time to work. They'll be happier when they have focused activities to look forward to... and so will you.
Rules Without Relationships Lead to Rebellion
Relationships Without Rules Lead to Rebellion
The family that reads together stays together! - Give the Gift of the Scriptures
Children need your attention, structure and boundaries -- Rules. These allow them to feel safe and free to express themselves in a positive way. When they are constructively occupied with activities that they know meet with your approval, they will be well behaved and happy... and you'll be able to turn your attentions to your home business.
You might want to start by writing out a preliminary schedule and trying to work with it. Make necessary changes as you go along. The aim is to allow sufficient time for each activity within your
designa
ted time frame, say from after breakfast in the morning to noon, then the afternoon schedule
would start somewhere around 2 p.m until it's time to prepare dinner.
Remember to write in time to be with your child or children just to play and have fun. Be present at meal times. Be available for homework help. And in the evening after dinner up to bed time, be available to them. This is why you work at home.
Making this schedule could be a fun project you and the kids can work on together. When it's done, put it on the fridge or a wall where everyone can see it.
Meals, Naps and Bedtime
Meal times and bed time are usually the most difficult times of the day with young children. They need your full attention. Create some fun activities that you can do with them during their "special time" with you. Give them your full undivided attention at some time during the day.
This will go a long way towards alleviating some of the eating and bed time anxieties that some kids are prone to.
Meal time will go more easily because they won't feel the need to capture your attention.
A mid-morning or early afternoon nap is also beneficial and will give you a little extra time to yourself. However, you have to make sure they don't sleep too late into the afternoon or you'll have some bed time challenges because they won't be sleepy.
Decide on a specific bed time for your little ones and stick with it. Children need 8 to 10 hours of sleep in order to be healthy and well adjusted. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how happy and cooperative they can be when they are well rested.
A bed time ritual such as a special story and "cuddle" time will make going to bed something they look forward to, rather than something they try to avoid.
Most difficulties with children result from their feeling that they aren't getting your attention. Think up ways to interact with them in designated pockets of time so they won't feel neglected and always be calling for your attention. This will make it easier for you to schedule your working hours.
Your Marriage
Leave some free time in the evenings to focus on your spouse. Good marriages don't just happen. They have to be worked at, and that means spending time together, just the two of you. Don't let your business get in the way.
Hire a baby sitter or leave the children with your parents at least one evening each week. Scheduling a date night or just a night off from work which you spend with your spouse is essential. Take time to talk. Communicate and enjoy some of the things that brought you together in the first place.
The Key To Success In Life Is Balance - in everything - including your Time Management
There must be time to just be Mom or Dad, time to be lover, friend and companion to your spouse, time to run errands and keep house, time to work at your calling -- whatever that may be, and above all, time for yourself -- adequate rest and relaxation, exercise, and proper meals are essential.
I have to emphasize this because we Moms, especially, are often guilty of looking after everyone else at the expense of our own health and well being. It's important to understand that if you aren't at your best, the care you give to everyone else will not be your best either. Work, Rest, Relax...
I know it sounds daunting, but if you "plan your work and work your plan" you can do it...
And try some of these time management ideas -
- Multitask as often as you can.
- Let your household appliances run simultaneously when it's feasible.
- Do laundry overnight. Wash while you're doing dinner. Into the dryer overnight. Clear in the morning.
- Run the dishwasher while you vacuum.
- Use "set and forget" kitchen appliances as much as possible so you can go do something else while they do their magic. More on this Here.
- Set aside half a day in the week to prepare make ahead meals and freeze in serving size portions. You can either cook to completion and heat to serve, or you can prepare the ingredients and cook off at meal time. Cooking meats, soups, and casseroles on the weekends makes dinner a lot easier during the week. All you'll needed is a salad and/or a vegetable dish.
- Cook ahead and freeze individual portions - especially handy if you have teenagers. They can just pop the plastic bag into the microwave and voila! -- dinner! -- no matter what time they get in from football practice or ballet.
- Be flexible so you can be available to your children when they need you. After all, this is the reason you have a home-based business.
Obviously, it's not always going to happen according to schedule, but you'll find that time management will be easier if you have a written plan to help keep you on track. If you stray, you have some guidelines to get you back to where you need to be. You'll get more done, feel more fulfilled, and be more at peace with yourself. When things run smoothly you'll be more productive, and if you're allocating sufficient time to be with your children, you won't feel guilty about working.
You have to decide how much time to spend on each activity and when you've worked it out to your satisfaction, stick to it as best you can -- with Persistence, Dedication and Discipline -- but if you have to put something on the back burner to attend to bruised knees or hurt feelings, don't obsess about what you're not getting to. That's life. Things happen. And scheduling will give you more time for school plays, ballet recitals and football games.
Keep everything in perspective.
Do what you have to do, so you can do the things you want to do.
When you sit down at the computer or at your desk or wherever it is that you work --
Do The Money-Making Activities First
You're in business to make money. When you go to work at a job, you get the paycheck even if you take some time off, but working at home is a whole different animal. If you're not in control of your time and your money making activities, you're essentially out of business. It can't be just "go with the flow" and see where it takes you.
You must have an overall time management plan and a daily schedule, and you must stick to it. Get yourself a Daytimer and use it. Estimate how much time you need for each activity and schedule your days.
When you work with your computer, it's easy to become distracted with emails, Facebook, and other things that aren't necessarily what you need to be doing to make sure the money keeps coming in. Set a limit for time spent with these activities, say, 1 hour per day.
Make A "To Do List" of Your Home Business Activities Every Night For The Next Day
Prioritize each activity in order of importance and put the money-making activities first. The next day, go over the list and focus your energies on what is most important. Set a time for reading emails, returning phone calls, planning, going over the books, checking on invoices and payments, setting appointments, checking your website to see that it's running smoothly -- whatever it is that you do -- whatever your business entails, write it down in order of importance and don't deviate unless you absolutely must.
Discipline and routine are important.
Before you finish with tomorrow's To Do List, go over today's activities. Review how you spent the last 24 hours. Take careful note of how much time each activity required, and make any necessary changes in your routine for the next day.
After the first two weeks, you should have a pretty good idea of how you spend your time and so be able to develop a schedule you can live with.
Stay Focused
Try not to get sidetracked or distracted returning phone calls and emails if it's not the scheduled time to do that. Out in the Corporate world, secretaries are there to check and follow up on emails, phone calls and such. They keep the boss focused. At home, you're the boss, this is your business, so you must focus yourself -- remember --
Misplaced priorities result in wasted opportunities.
Lack of concentration drains time of its potential.
Don't get sidetracked.
Persistence, Dedication and Discipline
This can be difficult in the beginning, but persevere. You'll be glad you did.
Persistence
is the combination of strong desire and willpower.
It is the capacity to stay on course in the face of difficulty and refuse to quit.
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