Time Management-The Key to a Productive Day

February 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment


When you are a work at home, there are many things you need to schedule into your day. As children can often be a little unpredictable and you may never end up knowing what day you may have to take an unexpected trip to the hospital or the children may skip their daily nap, you need to learn to be as productive as you can in the time given to you each day(as I write this, my 2 year old is climbing up on my lap for some “mommy time”, and who can resist such a big wet kiss and hug?)

When I first started out online, I was still working a full time job and had no children that needed me on a full time basis(my two older children were teenagers 6 years ago and hardly ever around) I was pretty much free to schedule my time as I wanted to fit in my online work. As the years progressed though, I ended up getting re-married, having 2 more children and life suddenly became super busy.

When your children are babies, it is easy to just work around their sleeping habits but as they get older and don’t sleep as much, the task soon becomes a little more of a challenge. Taking the time to plan out what you need to do each day at night when the children go down for a nap, will allow you to see what time slots you can fit your tasks into.

For example, a typical day for me now goes something like this:

  • 7am- Rise and shine with the 2 children
  • 7:30am- Breakfast and cartoons(I sit with them for this time and spend a little time chatting with them so they feel like I am giving them top priority before I do anything else)
  • 8am-I turn on my computer and check my emails, answer clients, respond to customers inquiries, and tend to affiliate stuff if there is any
  • 9am-Check into facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and see what all my other internet marketing friends and followers are up to for the day(I will retweet those posts that I believe will help anyone on my list)
  • 9:30am-Do some client work
  • 10:30am-Take a break and have a snack with the kids. Maybe read them a story or two.
  • 11:00am-Write up an article for Hubpages, Ezinearticles, or one of my blogs. I have several blogs I work on every week and schedule it so that I post to one each day.
  • 12:30pm-Take another break to make lunch and chat with my kids, maybe we make up a story or song while I prepare lunch and they color at the table.
  • 1:30pm-Housework time
  • 2:00pm-4pm-This I know is my most productive time of the day and the time I need to make the most of since both the kids are usually down for a nap-I can do client work, work on a new book or project, do some research, talk to a client in person and discuss some jobs, write more articles,or do more marketing. Whatever I have on my list for the day that requires quiet time and concentration gets done right now.
  • 4pm-Kids are up and want me to sit with them for a bit, have another snack or maybe do a craft(we go outside for a walk or play in the backyard when it isn’t winter).
  • 5pm-Finish up any work
  • 6pm-Make dinner and have some family time

The rest of the evening is usually for the family and whatever comes along, although often I am still researching or doing something to plan for the next day or week.

Every mom knows that each day is different and something may or may not get done. If you write out a list of priorities the night before and make sure that you schedule the most important things to be done during the time you know you will have the most uninterrupted time, you can end up having a productive day. Also, if you do not multi-task yet(although I don’t know many moms who don’t do that), you need to get started practicing how, it is a true life saver when getting the most from each day.

Here is a quick list of other ways you make can make the most of time management:

  • Don’t get stressed out when something doesn’t get done.
  • Don’t schedule things you are unsure you will be able to finish on time-this means not being afraid to say “No” to something

that you don’t think you can do(this means in both business and personal life).

  • Write out everything you need to get done for the day and break it up into time manageable slots. In this way, you will

not feel like you were unproductive if you did not manage to finish the whole project or list

  • Always be prepared to be interrupted. If you are not interrupted and manage to get more done than you thought you would

for the day, you can feel really pleased with yourself, but will avoid discouragement if you don’t.

As you spend more time working at home and managing a family, you will learn what works well together and how to get projects done quicker in the time you are given. It is a work in progress but organization and time management will always allow you to feel productive and successful with both business and family life.

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Get Organized: The Refrigerator

December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There is no doubt that nearly every aspect of your life can be improved by at least some amount of organization. Things simply run more smoothly when they are working under a well-organized system. Take, for example, your refrigerator. In most cases, people simply put whatever food they have into their refrigerator, and then just use the food as they need it. This works fairly well for the most part, but every now and then there will be a problem. Something will get tucked into a back corner of the refrigerator and forgotten for weeks, or someone will forget how long the meatloaf has been laying around and end up eating leftovers that went bad days ago.

These problems can be solved with a little organization. The first thing to do is to organize the food itself. You can use any system you like to accomplish this, and it does not have to be complex. You might simply make one shelf for foods that need to be used quickly, one for foods that keep longer, and so on. Or you can separate the foods into different groups such as dairy products, meats, vegetables, etc. This will make finding things inside your refrigerator easy, and will keep things from being lost in corners.

Once you have the interior organized, make a list of everything that is inside your refrigerator and post it on the door. As you put new things in, and use old things up, you should update the list. This will give you an idea of how long things have been in the refrigerator, so you will know when to throw things out. This will also keep you up to date on what you have and what you need, for when you are planning meals and shopping trips.

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Get Organized : The Truth

December 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Many times, people over-complicate the task of organization. They try to make some elaborate plan for their organizing efforts, and then find themselves overwhelmed by the complications they created.

Meanwhile, the real key to organization could not possibly be any simpler: know where to put your things. As the old saying goes, a place for everything and everything in its place. Once you have specific places for everything, the process of organization becomes a breeze. All you have to do is take everything to its appropriate place, and you are done.

There are a number of things you can use to assist you in organizing your things. Plastic bins of all shapes and sizes are readily available at department stores, and even many smaller stores. These are often the most convenient way to store and organize things, as they can be labeled and stacked, making your items easy to find as well as taking up as little space as possible. Along these lines, there are also a number of different kinds of ‘space organizers’ available, which are generally something to the order of plastic chest of drawers. These methods are effective, and inexpensive.

Be sure to make the best use possible of the space available to you. Stackable containers, as mentioned, work well. Similarly, using wall-mounted shelving units can greatly increase the amount of space you can use for organizing your things. Also, do not be afraid to separate things you do not use and either put them into storage or just get rid of them. In many cases, a cluttered area can be made much more manageable simply by taking away the extra, unneeded items. Once you have an area organized, take care not to let it fall back into disorganization. A few minutes of tidying regularly can keep you from having to repeat all your work.

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Look At My Space

August 27, 2008 By 1 Comment

My husband and I were talking the other night and he brought up a really good point. I have boxes and boxes of scrapbook stuff, and I do nothing with it. Scrapbooks and passing on stories used to be my passion. Now I mostly talk about the importance of scrapbooks, but I do nothing about it.

I’m sure I could come up with plenty of excuses for not scrapbooking. One of the main excuses is the fact that I don’t have the space to scrap. Of course, the reason I don’t have the space to scrap is because I am totally unorganized and have a really bad habit of letting things pile up instead of putting them away when I am done with them. It’s a habit I have committed myself to breaking.

So, in an effort to get myself more organized, and I can’t believe I am about to do this, I am going to show you what my desk/craft table looks like right now.

And here is the table next to my desk.

The worst part of it all is that none of that junk is scrapbook or other craft stuff, with the exception of the Fairy Things to Make and Do Kid Kit that never got put away last week. Most of it is bills and junk mail, but there’s plenty of other randomness like take-out menus, books, the remote control for the protable DVD player, and yes, that is a roll of toilet paper you see near the left end of my table. The mess makes a very unattractive addition to my entryway/dining room.

In addition to the mess on the table, I also have these two piles of boxes in the corner of my bedroom.

That’s where all of my scrapbook and craft supplies are stored. There isn’t really any method to the madness, just a bunch of stuff thrown into whatever box it fit into at the moment. Needless to say, it is not functional.

So, in an effort to get committed to organizing and then scrapbooking, I am officially declaring Wednesday to be “Look At My Space” day. Each week I will post an update of what my spaces look like. Throughout the week I will spend a minimum of 10 minutes per day specifically cleaning and dejunking in one of the two areas. If you need to clean up your space, feel free to play along and leave me a comment about what you are doing with your craft space. If you have pictures of your space, post them on your blog and leave a link so everyone can come and get some inspiration.

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