Add this to any other friction within your life and you are heading for disasterville!

In an ideal environment, we’d have a nice office at home where we could go and work in peace. We wouldn’t have other commitments through-out the day, we could just…. work!

No school runs, no shopping, no housework, no friends swinging by for coffee (because they know and RESPECT the fact you are working) and no children wanting something every five minutes!

The reality is that many people working from home don’t have a separate room to work in, their office is their kitchen, lounge or bedroom, the housework is mounting up around their ears, the fridge is bare, the washing basket is spilling over and the children do want something every five minutes.

You’re fully aware that when you are on the computer, and all this is going on around you, you should be working – focusing on your business – but how can you be organised online when there is so much disorganisation around you?
That niggling feeling of knowing that a whole load of stuff needs doing leads you into a flurry of stop.start.stop.start.
This kind of behaviour can lead to feelings of despair, helplessness and you may often find that these feeling spill into your non-working life as there are no definitive lines between the two.

When you start to get snippy with your partner and children, it’s time to sit down and re-evaluate how you spend your day.

You may feel like you are not getting the support that you need from your family. Sit them down and explain how you feel. Tell them you are trying your hardest to create an additional stream of income that will greatly benefit you all, but without the help and support you need – it will only ever remain a pipe dream or you’ll drive yourself to the brink in the process.

Older children can help with chores and if you have older and younger – then they can also help a little with childcare. Husbands and partners can come in from work and cook a meal a couple of evenings a week. It’s not beyond their capabilities – and if it is, have something simple that you have pre-prepared or stick to something like soup with a crusty roll.

Try and put your day into blocks rather than merging it all in to one. What I mean by this, is actually visualize the day ahead as sections containing achievable tasks rather than an endless day with a jumble of jobs.

Write lists of the jobs you wish to accomplish, but don’t put an unrealistic amount of things down because it will only end in feelings of failure if you don’t achieve it all.

Keep your lists small and you will experience feelings of achievement which will then lead to motivation and more success.

And always keep in the forefront of your mind that what you are doing is amazing and what you are achieving is something to be incredibly proud of. Remember that you’re not alone, there are many other amazing women out there building businesses and we’re all here to support you through it.

Photo Credit Mattox

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I’m Outing The Internet Time Thief!

I thought as much! How many times have you settled down to do some market research, learn a new skill, write an article, source some new products and so on and so on, only to find that 3 hours have slipped by and you’ve accomplished….nothing…..nada……zip!?!

Why are you working from home? No really, think about it, why are you working from home?

Can you even remember? Was it to earn some extra money to pay off the credit cards? Was it to save up for a holiday? Was it to create a college fund for your children? Or maybe you want a long term business model that will pave the way to a complete change in lifestyle.

Whatever your reasons for starting an online business – don’t lose focus of them. Write them down and pin them somewhere where you can see them. It’s so easy to lose focus and lose time procrastinating and these are valuable hours that you could have spent working towards your dream.
There are many valuable resources scattered around the Internet that will help you on your way but this can be your enemy. As you float from site to site clicking on more and more links, hoping and hoping that one of them will give you the quick fix you are looking for, you are wasting more and more and more……and more time.

There are no quick fixes but there are numerous ways to earn money – hundreds! You need to choose ONE that is right for you, focus your energy into it and do not move on to the next one until your initial one is underway. Maybe it won’t work, maybe it will flop but until you work on it – you will never know.

Stay motivated by setting daily, weekly and monthly goals. Consider teaming up with other people as it’s not only motivational it’s inspiring what you can come up with when you put your heads together!

It’s like having a jogging buddy! You don’t want to go, of course you don’t – you’d much rather gaze out of the window into the garden for an hour, maybe snack on a bag of chips and kick back infront of the tv…..but you don’t want to let your buddy down – so you get changed and you go jogging! What happens when you get home? You feel fantastic, that’s what!
You’re glad you went and the result is that you are looking after your health.

Take that attitude online and look after your business or procrastination and the Internet time thief will steal your precious dreams unless you sling them in the slammer now!

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Structuring Your WAHM Day

Structuring Your Day

Who am I to tell you how to structure your day? And doesn’t it get on your nerves when you keep reading these unrealistic articles about ‘Time Management’ and how you can work from home, whilst being a mum, a cook, a cleaner, a chauffeur, a teacher, a helper, a listener and… well – just you really!

Most of these bloody guides are written by men or by women who are trying to concentrate whilst a snotty 2yr old rubs jam over their keyboards.

The simple fact of the matter is – if you want to run a business from home, it takes a huge amount of time and a huge amount of commitment, and let’s not forget about the oodles of enthusiasm.

Most (but not all) women, who work from home, have chosen to do so for a few of the following reasons;

• We need money but can’t afford child-minding fees
• We simply do not want to leave our children with a childminder
• We’d like to be around for our kids as much as possible
• We have an entrepreneurial streak that drives us to run a business
• We no longer want to work for ‘the man’ and want to be our own boss
• We  want to make our children and family proud
• We’d like to feel like a ‘grown up’ now and again
• It gives us something to focus on other than wiping jam off the keyboard and snot from the 2yr old
• It enables us to contribute towards the household
• It gives us a feeling of independence
• It re-ignites a feeling of excitement – the kind that is only reserved for teenagers and entrepreneurs
• It stops us from going insane
• We don’t have a choice
• It enables us to be…..us
• …Insert Your Own….

Whatever the reason, it never really turns out quite the way that we imagined. Some of us like the thrill of setting up a new business, but once it’s up and running – we lose interest and the rest is just plain …. boring. (if we ever get that far)

Others really want to get to that place but just don’t have the right skills or tools to get there.

Then of course there are others who create highly successful businesses and want to push it further but are tied by constraints of family or …..insert the constraint….

But nearly all of us waste a shit load of time! And is it really any wonder? Look at what we do – we work online and we have access to EVERYTHING! If we have spent all morning being mum and finally grab 30 minutes to do some work – is it really work?

Or did you just check your email? Or go order something online? Maybe you popped into a social site like Facebook or Twitter and spent 30 minutes talking mindless crap and now the 2yr old has started to ooze snot everywhere again and you haven’t managed to get anything done – aaargh!

So what do we do? We’re only human and there is only so many Time Management articles one can read before we finally explode and say ‘You Just Don’t GET IT’.

Let’s take a look at a typical day here – I have taken these quotes from our forum:-

I feel like I have days like that all too often! I have such a long mental to do list that I should really learn to start writing things down and working through them consistently but I just never get round to do doing this.
I used to be such an organised person and over the last couple of years this has all but disappeared! Another thing to add to my to do list…..get more organised!! Lol

I think its been a gradual thing! But yes my whole mentality towards things like that has changed! I used to be to the point of being obsessive! My brother used to call me Monica (From Friends LOL).
Now I just never catch up…..
Oh well

It really does help to write things down, it takes the pressure off…well a little bit! I do a todo list every week, sometimes it just gets longer and longer and other weeks I really do hit the spot and get loads done off it. This weeks list has 87 things on it at the moment, but started with 48, so I seriously need to sit down and get on with it.

if there were a few extra hours in the day for SEO, picking and packing, emailing, twittering and sourcing new stock etc life would be easier!
I must start doing a to do list, trouble is it would be soul destroying as it would never seem to get any shorter..its funny how I work on my own things to do as well as my husbands things to do..chase payments, arrange insurances, confirm meetings etc and my own list stays as long as his gets shorter..ho hum..ce la vie!

I know what you mean about spending a LOT of time online but actually not getting a LOT of productive stuff done….every little things seems to lead to bigger things that need done!

I so understand that feeling about being online a lot but not feeling like you are achieving anything.

I too can totally relate to spending a huge amount of time online but don’t feel like I’m progressing far.

I probably have too much goin on lol always feel pulled in 100 directions and guilty for lack of time I spend with Kaden after all Im doing this to be with him but tbh he doesnt get enough of my quality time

I had a mad morning and Tuesdays are crazy – both the eldest wet the bed last night (younger one twice – luckily he has the washable bed mat on top of his sheet so not too bad!) so I had a ton of washing, took both to school / nursery, took DH to work (so I can have the car later), then did the fruit & veg / market shop, home for about ten mins to change a stinky nappy and read emails, then to nursery for pick up (they need to do a lunch club 2 and a half hours is not long enough!), now its lunch, parcels, Tesco shop delivery, pick eldest up from school in the car to go straight to swimming lessons, then pick DH up from work, dinner, baths and bed for the boys, I have an NCT teleconference to listen to (speakerphone and mute so I can do other stuff at the same time!) – another day gone!

with my oldest it was just me and him. I’d just finished work and I could do whatever was required, go out if we were getting bored, shop or stay in.

with the 2nd, who has just started preschool here was my day:

out, drop off 2 at school, back up my massive hill (live in the pennines) for 40 mins before meeting with my PR woman (supposedly doing housework, but on computer and calling potential new stockist), back down hill into town for meeting. Rush off at 11.25 to collect daughter, back up massive hill with pram via co op to make lunch for friend coming round. eat lunch, friend goes, clear up, put on wash, daughter falls asleep on my bed whilst I do this. have to collect the other from school, get neighbour round to keep an eye. Drive down hill this time (woohoo!) collect son and friend who is coming for tea. back up hill. make drink from neighbour who stays for a chat. make tea for all the kids…..clear up….luckily the other half does bath/bed!

How good it is to know that wherever we are, Mums are ALWAYS busy. I sometimes think my time management skills need sharpening, but untill we add another 5 or 6 hours to each day, I’ll just keep running.
It’s our second last day of school before 2 weeks holiday…spring is here, yay!!
After class reading (my daughter is in grade 1), I had a 20 minute drive to a DR. checkup. I love living by the beach, but we are quite far away from lots of things. Then I treated myself to a coffee and magazine (research into the jewellery industry of course ). Now it’s lunchtime and I need to wake my husband up as he works nightshift and sleeps 4 hours in the morning and 2 hours before work at night. He’s off to an appointment with his dad, as he doesn’t speak English, only Chinese, and John needs to translate.
I have 1 hour now to get dinner sorted, fold washing, answer emails and do some work for my part-time office job (hopefully not for too much longer), then back to school for help with craft and more reading. I’ll get to sit down and do some of my real work from about 10pm tonight when John goes to work. Honestly, if it wasn’t for my whiteboard, I’d be totally lost!

All of these quotes were posted by WAHMs within the space of FOUR DAYS! There was no thread asking them about their day – they just really needed to get this crap off their chest!

So what’s the answer? Shall I give you some sheets to print off so that you can fill them in and structure your day? Well – meh! I could, and indeed I have included some within the goal setting section – but let’s be realistic here; if you have a family and a business and a house to run, you are going to be pushed to the max.

Is it impossible?

No!

Are there any easy answers?

No!

Here’s the deal, and I’m gonna give it to you straight! Your time is precious so you gotta stop wasting it. Stop feeling guilty about the time you’re not spending with your kids or with your partner etc And remember why it was you started all this! You wanted to spend time with your family and partner!

So, go get a piece of paper and write this down. I want you to write it because it will have more impact if you actually write the words down.

Got your pen? Paper at the ready?

Start writing….

• I WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN MY BUSINESS
• I ADMIT THAT I HAVE SPENT TOO MUCH TIME ON STUFF THAT REALLY WAS A TIME SUCKER AND DIDN’T NEED MY ATTENTION
• I AM GOING TO RE-FOCUS MY EFFORTS
• I AM GOING TO BE MORE ORGANIZED
• I AM SCHEDULING TIME IN FOR MY FAMILY AND/OR LEISURE PURSUITS

Okay, we’re over that hurdle of the ‘writing’ thing, let’s now dig a little deeper. What you have just written should have some sort of impact. If it doesn’t then you probably don’t have any Time Management problems, so you can skip this if it is of little relevance to you.

If this is hitting a homerun with you, then I want you to do a couple of things. Firstly, I want you to pin you piece of paper up somewhere that you can see it. A good place would be on the wall above where you normally work.

Now, we put it last on our lists, but we’re going to deal with it first – family. Most of us went into this business because we wanted to make a better future for our families and spend more time with them, yet getting there is taking up so much bloody time, we are missing out on time with our family, we’re getting stressed with ourselves and our children and it’s not a good place to be.

So – first things first – schedule in your family time and your work time.

If you’re at home and you have children, you normally have school runs, nursery runs, shopping to get, housework etc.  So your day is often gone before you know it. You try and focus on work in between but you get distracted by the kids wanting something else, the phone ringing, Twitter, Facebook, a friend arriving for lunch and so on…

So don’t do it! Just……STOP!

Now, I don’t know your schedule and everyone’s day is different, so I can’t write you a personal report but try and do the following;

Forget doing dribs and drabs of work throughout the day – swap it for spending time with your children. If you committed to working 4 evenings a week, after the kids have gone to bed, you would actually accomplish far more.

If you do happen to get a few hours in during the day when the kids are at school or nursery, then run round and do your chores first. Just get them out of the way so they are not playing on your mind – then settle down for some quality work time.

Speak to your family and ask for some support. My husband can’t cook – fact! But on the nights I ‘work’ he rustles up some pasta and tips a jar of sauce over it. Nuevo Cuisine it isn’t but it fills us up and it’s relatively healthy. I generally get the kids tea ready prior to this so they have already eaten.

If you don’t respect the fact that you have a JOB then nobody else will. You’ll have family and friends calling when you are supposed to be working because – heck – it aint a REAL job!

So – now you have established some actual work hours and you are spending time with your family too, let’s move one to the ‘to do’ list.

You need to make this list in order of priority. I would even go as far as to do it in days, so for example;

• Monday – write newsletter, update homepage offer

• Tues – Write a blog post and an article for marketing purposes

• Weds – Night off

• Thurs – Package items for posting

• Fri – insert whatever is relevant to your business…

Just by doing that – you’re more likely to achieve it and don’t forget – we’re all different people with different lives, different commitments and different goals – so you need to tailor this to YOU.

The other thing I want you to do is get yourself a timer. You could use an alarm, stop-watch or even the timer on the oven (if you can hear it from where you work). Now, set yourself a timer of 30 minutes and be totally committed to working for 30 minutes solid without checking your email or replying to a Tweet or doing anything that isn’t specifically on your list. YOU WILL BE AMAZED at how much you accomplish.

30 minute blocks work really well but if your timer goes off and you are right in the middle of something work-related and important, then set it for another 30 minutes. If you work solidly for an hour without distraction you will have produced more quality work that a whole week of dribs and drabs from Monday to Friday. This output will allow you to spend more time with your family and actually achieve quicker and better results.

Once your business really starts to pull in the pounds you can then start to outsource some tasks to enable you to still run your business but still enjoy the life you wanted.

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Okay then – if you hired a virtual assistant to work for you, 1 day a week for 5 hours, how much would that bill be? Based on the minimum rate above of £6 per hour and for 5 hours each week – you’d be paying £120 a month. Quite an amount!

Last night, when I was laying in bed and a gazilion things were running through my mind. I started to think about my day.
Now normally I am pretty focused but yesterday was a day when I seemed to be online all day and accomplish nothing. The things I needed to do were things I didn’t feel like doing and some other things needed a little more research, so rather than just do it – I found myself surfing, learning more stuff and socilaizing!
I’m not going to beat myself up over it because as I said, I’m generally quite focused and I have a pretty good system that I use – BUT how many people do this in their buisness EVERY DAY?

I probably lost 2 hrs of time yesterday – maybe more, just doing stuff that was of no benefit to my business at all.

If you are completely honest with yourself, how many hours do you think that you waste each day? What does it work out on average? An hour? More?

Let’s assume that the average WAHM wastes around an hour each day online, either by dealing with unecessary emails, distractions on Facebook & Twitter and probably numerous other widgets, aps and paraphernalia.

Now let’s look at the knock on effect of that in a monetary way:-

If You worked that extra hour each day on marketing, SEO, link building etc That would have a huge knock on effect to your business. So that would mean your revenue would shoot up along with your earnings – so you could be charging £25 an hour upwards.

So over a 4 wk period @ 20hrs that would = £500

Over a 52 wk period, it would = £6500

Would you like your business to generate an extra £6500? Hmmm…

Okay, let’s look at it that you were paying the minimum to a VA (it would have to be an overseas VA for a £6 rate). It would cost you £1440 a year.

So what is my point?

Well, if I said to you “Why don’t you hire a VA for 5 hrs each week to work on the tasks you don’t want to do, so that you can focus on the tasks that build revenue for your company” you would probably say “I can’t afford it”

So if I then said “Okay, well how about having someone work those 5 hours each week for no charge and it will generate an extra £6000 a year or more” you would likely say ‘Yes Please’

So, to round up – when you are a small business you need to look at the long term picture. The hour of time you waste each day (based on you working on your business 5 days a week, rather than 7, like most entrepreneurs) is equal to 260 hours a year and at £25 that’s £6500.

And on the flip side, if you do outsource as soon as you poss can – then it will free you up to work on the stuff that creates more revenue. So the cost is completely justifiable.

Until you get to that point, just tell yourself that for every day you waste an hour doing stuff that isn’t important – you lose another chunk of that extra £6000 revenue you could be potentially earning.

Whilst I have based these figures on what I consider to be the minimum the reality is that it could work out to be so much more. Just think how much marketing and promotion you could do over the space of 260 hrs? How much more revenue you could create..

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