After starting my own online business I had realized that life can get pretty darn hectic especially when working at home.  I felt as though I was always busy and not getting anything accomplished.  I’d be up late at night and wake up early in the morning trying to get it all done.  There was no balance in my life and I’d end up exhausted and wondered were other entrepreneurs going through this too?

After doing research on the topic of time management, I started implementing what I had learned.  Below you will find some of the time management tips I have used and hopefully they will help you too.

• Start logging (writing down) what you do in a day, starting with your ideas, conversations and activities.  By doing this you can start to see what you actually accomplish in a day, which also helps you recognize things that might be considered time wasters.
• When setting up meetings you should assign a certain time of day (or a certain day of the week) for this purpose.  I have certain days of the week where I meet with regular clients and certain days where I meet with new/potential clients.
• I like to set up an appointment with myself and I block out spaces of my time on my calendar so I can get important tasks done and I try to spend at least half of that time in doing things that will produce results for my business.  Though planning for interruptions should be considered too in case you have to re-prioritize your day.
• What I prefer to do is schedule 30 mins at the beginning of each day to organize and adjust my calendar as needed.  Before anything else gets done I check and arrange my schedule for the day.  This helps me become a lot more productive.
• Delegating has been the biggest time saver for me yet. Delegating less important tasks to employees allows me more time to work on my businesses priorities and get lots more accomplished.
• Even though I recommend you schedule your day, don’t forget to leave some me-time in between.   Don’t forget to give yourself breaks (you can even schedule those in if you like).  For instance if you decided to block off 1 hour to write a blog post, don’t jump to the next task at hand once you’re done. You should take 10 to 15 minutes and move around, stretch, dance, do some jumping jacks or check on your loved ones and ask them how they’re doing.  You can even do nothing at all and just stop and smell the roses.

We’re living in a fast- paced world in the digital age, where it appears there’s more to do and less hours to do it in. By taking the time to stop and plan your day, at the end you will be able to see what tasks you were able to accomplish with ease, and others you didn’t, therefore, giving you the perfect indication of which tasks you should delegate.