Many people who run an online business have very busy lives. Not all are running their businesses full time. That is when careers, family commitments and hobbies can leave little time for anything else.
So how is it that some people manage to find the time to run an online business very successfully as well?
The answer is Time Management and one of the secrets to success is to have a plan and to stick to it. Your time can be very precious so one of the best plans is to write down what needs to be done and when it needs to be completed.
Successful business people tend to be very organised and disciplined with their time. They don’t waste their energy trying to decide what to do next.
If you want to create some space in your life for your online business then write a plan. Use a pen and paper, a diary or your computer or laptop, anything so that it is structured and down in black and white.
It doesn’t have to be complicated – divide each day into time slots e.g. morning, afternoon and evening. Put in everything that’s essential – looking after the family, going to work etc then see how much time is left.
Don’t worry if you only have a spare hour slot here and there – as long as you schedule something productive for that slot you’ll be amazed as to how much you’ll achieve in a week.
Then it’s important to prioritise your tasks. Work out what’s essential for your business success and get those things done. It may be that you’ll only have time for a few things – if that’s the case, forget about what you aren’t going to do and concentrate on what you are doing.
Once you’ve carved out your time slots and decided on your priorities, set yourself some goals. For example, if you want to get more visitors to your website you may decide to write and publish 4 articles every month.
You can approach this in different ways eg. either write one article every week or draft all 4 articles at the same time and then finalise them and distribute them over the next 4 weeks.
Many people find that it’s easier to write articles at the same time once the creative juices are flowing! It makes sense to keep going.
You’ll find that once you have well defined realistic goals it will be much easier to get yourself motivated to achieve them.
As an example, I’ve just written this article in 30 minutes by setting myself the goal of finishing it so that I can watch my son playing football. This approach works! Try it and see and you’ll be amazed what you can squeeze into your day.