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How to Save Time by Helping Others Be On Time

August 15, 2011 By 6 Comments

On a show that my sons and I were watching a few nights ago, one of the characters walked in and said, “I’m late because I’m very important.”

Can you relate to that line?

Think about the last time you were sitting in a coffee shop waiting to meet with someone. You were clear about the time and place to meet, yet you have to wait at least 15 minutes until that person shows up. How frustrating is that?

All of us know someone who’s time-challenged. They’re not trying to be disrespectful of our time…it just seems that way. There are a few ways, though, to help people in your business life and personal life be on time.

Give an earlier time

When you schedule an appointment with the always-late person, give him or her a time that’s 30 minutes earlier. When that person shows up late, they’ll actually be on time. That worked with a former boss of mine. When she had to do a live television interview, I told her to show up at the studio 30 [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working with clients Tagged With:

10 Actions You Can Take in 10 Minutes or Less to Move Your Business Forward

August 10, 2011 By 26 Comments

Guest post by Michelle Shaeffer

Sometimes we’ve only got a few minutes here and there to work on our home-based businesses.  Don’t let this stop you from marketing and building your business network!

If you’ve got just 10 minutes, you can take positive actions that will help you move forward.

If I had to write a 50-page marketing plan and spend 4 hours a day implementing it… well, either it’d never happen… or I’d never get anything else done and never have time to complete the services I need to for my clients and create the products I offer. Or, I’d never get to play with my kiddos and my house would look like a hurricane hit it. There just aren’t that many hours in the day. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Making money from home, Marketing/Public Relations, Time mgmt./Productivity Tagged With: ,

Time-Wasters You Need to Avoid

July 18, 2011 By 4 Comments

Ask any mompreneur whether we could use more hours in the day and you’d be hard-pressed to find any of us who would say no. There always seem to be more tasks to do than time to do them.

Whether you realize it or not, your day is full of time-stealers. Checking e-mail one too many times and taking calls from chatty friends are clear time-wasters and ones you can avoid. But what about the other time-wasters that aren’t so obvious and can take minutes, even hours out of your day?

Before you can eliminate these time-stealers, it’s important to identify them.

I have the privilege of guest posting at an awesome website called The Work at Home Woman. Read the rest of the post above by clicking here.

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: , ,

What Do You Do When Your Horrible Boss Is You?

July 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The movie “Horrible Bosses“ opens soon. While I didn’t write it, I could have inspired it.

I used to work for a horrible boss. This boss demanded long work hours, allowed limited breaks and scheduled deadlines that were impossible to meet.

The horrible boss I worked for, was me.

If you’re ready to work for a boss who is understanding, reasonable, and respectful of your time and talents, there are a few simple changes you can make.

  • Limit the number of hours you work each day. When your commute is only seconds away, it’s easy to go to work early and stay late. The key is knowing when to stop working and when to start enjoying your personal life.
  • Keep your to-do list reasonable and remember that you can’t do everything. Instead of scheduling a long list of tasks to finish in one day, limit your list. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: , , , ,

Do Something to Move Paper Forward

May 16, 2011 By 2 Comments

For years, my clients have told me how frustrated they are that they can’t handle paper once. They look at a piece of paper, put it in a stack, look at it again later and the cycle continues.

They usually have a few reasons for stacking papers instead of taking action including:

  • They haven’t made a decision about each piece of paper
  • They want to remind themselves of tasks they need to do
  • They’re afraid of filing a piece of paper and never seeing it again
  • They don’t have specific places to put their papers
  • They want to keep the piece of paper “just in case” [Read more...]
Filed Under: Home office organizing, Time mgmt./Productivity Tagged With: , ,

4 Ways to Stop Running in Place

April 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Have you ever noticed that on some days you’re incredibly productive and have something to show for all the time you’ve spent in front of your computer, while on other days not so much?

When you work for yourself, it’s easy to feel that you’re always playing catch-up or running in place. We all have days like that…some more often than others.

One of my clients described it as feeling like a hamster on a wheel. She was on the go constantly, but never accomplished anything.

There are a few ways to get off the hamster wheel.

#1. Determine what your time is worth. Are you spending time entering e-mail addresses into your contact management program, updating your Web site, or handling tasks that someone else could take care of? If so, hire someone to help you. You could hire a virtual assistant or a freelancer to take care of routine tasks that are taking you away from handling moneymaking tasks. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Time mgmt./Productivity Tagged With: , ,

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear About Entrepreneurship

April 12, 2011 By 2 Comments

Before I started my first home-based business, I put in my time at three different corporate jobs. By my second year in my last job, I was ready to go out on my own.

At first, my co-workers were skeptical and figured I’d be back within a year, begging for my old job. Many years later, I’m still working for myself and some of those same employees are still working for the company I left. I’ve never looked back.

Now whenever I run into anyone from my old job, they usually tell me that they wish they could work for themselves too. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Making money from home, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working with clients Tagged With: , , ,

How to See New Ideas Clearly

March 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some people can think of one idea after another without any problem. Others, like me, have to work harder to be creative. Most of the time my brainstorming involves chocolate, but not everyone needs Godiva to get inspired.

Linda Cotter is a perfect example. As the founder of Delightful Purpose, she works with clients to help them discover their [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home office design, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: , ,

The Naked Truth…It’s Working Naked Day!

February 1, 2011 By 17 Comments

(Click here for the 2012 Working Naked Day post)

 

Happy 2nd annual Working Naked Day! Today is the perfect day for those of us who work from home to celebrate the freedom we have to set our own hours, follow our own rules and live a life that doesn’t include reporting to a corporate job each day.

As part of today’s celebration, you can strip down and work in your birthday suit, or stay in your pajamas. Although when you’re working from home you don’t need a holiday or permission to do that.

Need a few ideas for celebrating Working Naked Day?

  • Skype with a friend who is working in a cubicle all day while you’re working on your sofa, bed or in your home office. Let them know how comfy you are at home.
  • Blog, brag and tweet about the freedom you have to work from home. Who needs a commute when you can go to work in less than 10 seconds?
  • Take your laptop to the park, beach or a nearby coffee shop (especially if you’re surrounded by snow, not sun) and get inspired. Working somewhere other than in your home office can get your creative juices flowing.
  • Take advantage of your flexible schedule. Take the morning off and do something special like meet a friend for coffee, catch an early movie or work out later in the morning when the gym is less crowded.
  • Convince your boss to let you work from home. The company will save money on rent and you’ll save money on gas, wear and tear on your car and dry cleaning bills.

Consider taking today off to truly celebrate the choice you’ve made to leave the corporate world behind. And if you’re not already Working Naked, today’s the perfect day to strip away your inhibitions and start your own home-based business.  That’s the naked truth.

How are you going to celebrate Working Naked Day?

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Making money from home, Time mgmt./Productivity

Break Down Your Time and See Your Productivity Go Up

January 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago I had an incredibly productive week. I powered through everything on my To Do list. My main focus was on the marketing and publicity tasks I’d been wanting to try and a few money-making projects that I’d been putting off. I was a productivity powerhouse.

The next week I didn’t accomplish anything. Nothing. Nada. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Time mgmt./Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,
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