Planning & Time Management for Home Buisness

If you have a home business then it is likely that you are very busy. If you are also a parent, then you are probably even busier, trying to manage work/family balance and also get everything done in a day. Being a super mum (or dad) is very hard to live up to and quite often unrealistic.

How can planning and time management for wellbeing benefit home business owners? Managing not only your time for business but for other important things in your life such as family, house work, study, exercise etc, is extremely beneficial for work/family balance, keeping up to date with your business & home/family commitments, clarity and reducing stress levels.

The thought of managing your whole life may not be appealing to some. You may be wondering, where is the spontaneity and fun in that? The good news is, you are the author of your own time management plans and schedules. Therefore if you are generally managing your time well and are organised, then it is not going to matter if you miss a day here or a day there, or part of a day. It becomes an issue when you make a habit of not following it and getting behind.

The important thing to remember is time management, planning and schedules are not meant to be rigid or set in concrete. They are guidelines that are most beneficial if followed consistently but allow for flexibility. Rigid planning often results in the inability to follow for too long because you get the sense your life is over planned. Life also is always changing and has unexpected things which makes it hard to plan for every minute of every day. Especially if you have children, they are full of surprises and continually changing. This is also a reason why it is a good idea to regularly review your plans, time management and schedules.

So how do you create a simple time management plan?

1.     Write a list of everything you generally do in a day and approximate times for things that have times. Don't worry if you don't have approximate times for everything. Your list can be a simple or as complex as you need it to be. I am a mum of nearly 6 month old & 2 year old, running a business, studying and also tend to be forgetful. So I include things like get meat/chicken out of freezer, brush hair (otherwise it is 2 days later and I have a birds nest knot). I also include a column for baby solids & feeds and sleeps and a column for my toddlers routine 

2.    Write a separate list of things you do regularly throughout the week but not every day, for example clean the bathroom, pay the bills, grocery shopping, go to gym, take daughter to dance class.

Based on these 2 draft lists you can create your generic daily things to do list and weekly schedule.

Generic Daily Check List

You daily things to do list can be one column or you can break it up into further columns, for example Column 1 Daily things to do, column 2 - babies routine, column 3 - toddlers routine. I would recommend creating a separate one for your work and keeping it in your office or work diary/folder. The daily check list can be done in a spread sheet, on a table in Microsoft word or hand written.

On your daily things to do list, begin with things that have allocated times and put them in order of time. At the bottom have a sub heading for other things to do (things that do not have an allocated time.) This could be things like washing, make bed, put baby in jolly jumper, and check emails. If you do not have approximate times for things then you can just put your list in bullet points.

Weekly Schedule

• Create 7 columns and 2 rows on a spread sheet, in a table in Microsoft word or you can do it by hand.
• Label the first row of each column as Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun.
• Based on your draft list you can fill in your weekly schedule.

There are also many other things you can do to help with managing your time;

•  Place your daily check list and weekly schedule on your fridge or hang somewhere you will see it.
• Have a calendar on the fridge in which you put important event and appointments on.
• Put reminders in the calendar section on your mobile phone.
•  Have a diary.
• Write a list of things to do for the day and tick it off as you complete each task.
• Have a generic shopping check list which has all of the regular shopping items you buy and also items you keep stocked in the pantry. Based on your generic shopping check list you will be able to check which items you are getting low and more easily be able to create your shopping list.
• Plan your meals in advance by creating a weekly menu. You can even expand on this by having a rotating menu in which you have 2 - 4 weeks of menus and rotate them. When you plan your meals in advance it makes it easier to write a shopping list.
•  Create a recipe folder and put in it all the recipes you cook regularly. When you find new recipes that you like, you can also add them to the folder. For the recipes you know of by heart you can just put then in bullet point list. Having a recipe like this is really helpful when you are trying to think of what to have for dinner or what to put on your weekly menu.

The initial planning process to create your time management plans and schedules can be time consuming. However once you have something in place that works for you, the benefits greatly outweigh the time put in to planning.  By putting in the time and effort to do this planning, you create more time in your day to day life and will have benefits across all areas of your life. You will feel so much better for it!

Kym Presdee

Owner - Work at Home Hub