You can wind up feeling that your life is spent catering to every one else’s obligations. However, I have some good news! You can find and maximize time to build momentum for your home business. All you need is to find time and commit to using that time for your home business only.
Try the following strategies to make your home based business flourish:
Document Your Daily Routine
The first thing you will need to do find a quiet place and write down your schedule. Document the start and end time on events like getting ready for work, driving your kids to school, your commute to your day job, gym time and any other weekly commitments you have. Don’t forget to include weekends and family time (this is most important).
After completing this exercise you should have a good visual of what your work week looks like. You should see openings in your week.
Set Achieveable Goals
Make your goal easy. Try to find two hours you can commit to spending on your business. You should be able to re-prioritize some time. Before you decide whether a single goal fits into your goals program, you should work that goal through a process that can help determine whether you should be pursuing this goal at the current time. This can take considerable time but it can save you much time and frustration by eliminating goals that are not for you at this time and helping to identify what you need to focus on now.
1. Target in on your goal: Your goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Remember:
Some goals must be big and some goals must be long-range.
Significant goals must be broken down into smaller parts to ensure daily accountability. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds this year, you can break that down to a goal of 4 pounds a month or 1 pound a week and then figure out how many calories you need to cut out or burn off to achieve that weekly weight loss.
2. Identify how you benefit from the goal: People often fail to reach their goals because they concentrate on the costs rather than the benefits. “If I lose the weight,” they reason, “I’ll have to give up this and do that.” Or “If I quit smoking, I know that I’ll gain weight and be miserable and difficult to get along with.”
Instead of concentrating on the negatives, think of the benefits that you’re going to enjoy. As you set goals, make a list of the tangible rewards that will be yours when you reach each goal. Each time you begin to ask yourself whether pursuing a goal is worth the effort, simply take out the list of benefits and read them aloud again.
3. List the obstacles that stand between you and your goal: You need to identify obstacles in order to be realistic and avoid being surprised. People have experienced many times that they had no idea that pursuing such-and-such a goal was going to be so demanding, require so much effort, take so long, and involve so many unexpected pitfalls. Careful planning in advance eliminates much of this disappointment, but you must understand that you can’t always see the roadblocks ahead. That’s why commitment, attitude, responsibility, and focus on the benefits remain constant necessities. Patience is also extremely important. Just remember that by keeping yourself focused on the goal, you can see the benefits and not just the obstacles.
Stay with the Schedule You Created and Re-Evaluate
The next thing you need to do is stick with your schedule. This can be tough because you are creating a new habit. Once you get the hang of your new routine, you should always re-evaluate your schedule. You may be able to find more time to spend on your home business.
Sticking with your schedule means you need to discipline yourself to work. This means that you have to find a way after work, after little league games, after dinner and after putting the kids to bed.
Don’t Forget Your Family.
Spending time with my family is always a top priority for most of us. I find that using the evening hours is best for me to spend on my home business. It seems to be the most quite part of the day. If you have to use your family time to spend on your business, make sure you communicate with your family so they have an expectation of what you are doing. However, I would recommend that you set a time limit so you can spend that time you want with your family. This will provide balance for you.
Embrace Distractions
As we all know life often throws us off schedule. Try your best to embrace that fact instead of fighting it. If your child stays up late, focus on helping your child quiet down and go to sleep. Try not to focus on what you could be doing. Don’t worry. The work will still be there when you are ready. If you have to stay late at your day job, then choose to work late. Usually, you’ll find that it is better just to focus on one thing at a time. You’ll be more efficient and effective.
Having a clear and guilt free mind while working on your business is most productive. To handle new ideas that can distract you while you are working, keep an MP3 Recorder handy so if an idea comes up you can record it or write down the idea in a notebook. You can always prioritize those thoughts at a later time. You will also find that you are using less energy dealing with distractions instead of fighting them.
So there is good news when it comes to finding time to work on your own business. Don’t despair and don’t get frustrated. Just remember that you have total control of your time and you alone can change your habits to build your business's momentum.
That's it for today. I hope this article was helpful to you in your efforts to build a successful home business.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
