How to Accomplish What You Want…Everyday

By Stephanie Kelly © 2002

Good time management skills are essential in operating a
home business.

Life is busy and full of distractions.  If you don't use
your time wisely you will easily be distracted and never
get around to doing the work that your business requires.

On the other hand, it is also very easy to let your home
business overtake the rest of your life.  If you spend
every waking moment on your business and neglect everything
else in your life, you won't be happy.

The answer is to learn to manage your time wisely.

You need to focus on results, not being busy.  It's easy to
spend an entire day being busy, but not accomplishing
anything.

To focus on results you have to determine what it is that
you want.  What you want in every area of your life.

You will have to be more specific than, "I want a clean
house, a happy spouse and children, and a thriving
business."

Those are fine long term/lifetime goals but what do you need
to do to actually have them?  What would you like to have
accomplished at the end of this year to bring you closer to
the life you want?  Now what can you do each month to
achieve these things?  Each week?  Each day?

This process doesn't take much time at all, and it will help
you to become focused.  Once you are focused you will spend
your time on what is important.

Spend time each day on the things that will bring about what
you want in each area of your life.  This will keep you
balanced.

Here is a great example:
Spending time with your family and friends is very high on
your priority list, but so is a thriving business.  If you
spend your time from morning until night on your business
you will be too tired for anything else.  Your friends and
family will feel neglected, and nothing else that you need
to accomplish will get done.  After a few days of this you
are burned out and feel guilty about the people you haven't
spent time with, and the other things that have been left
undone...so you feel overwhelmed...at this point you cannot
possibly do your best work and your business will suffer. 
The end result is that you haven't accomplished anything
that will bring you happiness.

On the other hand, if each day you spend 3-5 hours on your
business, an hour or two taking care of the basic day to day
needs of life, (washing dishes, doing laundry, or whatever
your life requires) and 3-5 hours spending real time with
your friends and family, you will still have a few hours
for other activities (exercise, reading, your hobby, time
for you!)  And each day you'll be fresh and can devote 100%
to each area of your life!

The work that you put into your business will be a much
higher quality when you're fresh and focused each day
instead of when feeling guilty and overwhelmed.  And if the
quality is better...the business will be better...and you
will really be on your way to having the thriving
business...and life that you want!

Not defining goals and setting priorities are two of the
biggest time wasters. It affects every aspect of your
life...your personal life...and your professional life.

The people who accomplish the most in a day know exactly
what they want to accomplish. Sadly, too many people think
of goals as something that you think about every January
1st, and not something that you use everyday.  This results
in a lot of time wasted on trivial things instead of what
will actually bring about the life that you want

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Stephanie Kelly provides real and honest information about
creating, owning, and marketing home businesses at
http://www.saksbbi.com.  Enjoy fresh new ideas, inspiration,
and motivation with her bi-monthly newsletter Life By Design.