🌟HOW TO FIND THE TIME TO WORK ON YOUR BUSINESS WHILST STILL IN YOUR 9-5🌟
I’ve been speaking to some amazing ladies this week and also delivered a talk for my Coaching Group last week.
Something that has been coming up a lot is finding time to get everything done when building your freedom business and staying focused.
One of the ladies in my group in particular came to my talk after a full (and very stressful) day at work, having dropped in at home to check on her kids, momentarily getting tempted to collapse on the sofa, and forcing herself to come to the talk because as she said “I need to hear this”.
She was struggling with finding the time to focus on the right things and make things happen.
And she is not alone.
I know that as women, we can have so many conflicting demands on our time and energy. Taking the time to build our dream businesses online can come with its own demands.
It’s so easy to get lost on social media spending hours on Facebook or Instagram and achieving nothing and that is just one of the many example of time vampires out there. If you want to make real tangible progress on your business, it’s essential that you focus on the right things and prioritise the things that will help you build your business.
Here are 5 quick tips to help you organize your time and get focused:
1) Proper planning
Proper planning is crucial when building your freedom business. It’s even more important when you have limited time to do everything e.g. if you are still in your 9-5.
At the start of the week, it’s good practice to identify everything that you need to do in that week e.g. work on your business, go to work, family commitments, exercise etc. Literally brain dump everything and get it out of your head and onto a piece of paper.
Getting everything out of your head and onto paper helps reduce overwhelm and the brain fog that comes with having too much to do. It’s also the first step in getting a plan in place.
2) Schedule
Once you have done your brain dump, it’s time to schedule the activities in your diary allocating a realistic time to each activity. Prioritise the tasks at this stage and make room for those things that are most important.
Diarise the most important tasks and get those done first. This prevents you from firefighting at a later date as you deal with important tasks as they arise. By scheduling your tasks, you are signalling your commitment to getting them done. Get used to treating your scheduled tasks as important appointments that you MUST keep.
Pretty soon you will realise that what gets scheduled gets done.
3) Use technology to help you focus
There are many great apps out there that can help you stay focused and get more accomplished in limited time. I really like the Pomodoro app which breaks time slots down into intervals e.g. blocks of 25 minutes. You switch the timer on, get focused and work on your task for that 25 minutes. You then take a 5 minute break before restarting the 25 minutes. After four 25 minute cycles you take a break.
It’s actually amazing what you can get achieved when you have a timer counting down – 25 minutes can suddenly seem like a really long time.
Try it today with a task you have been struggling to get done.
4) Batching
A useful technique to use when you are scheduling is to batch tasks of a similar nature and get them all done together. For example, you could do all your social media in one go, do all your client calls on certain days only, all your admin together, etc.
Batching tasks in this way help to group similar tasks that need similar resources together to complete them more efficiently. It also stops you from jumping between tasks and context switching which can be very inefficient.
You can use the batching method with the Pomodoro timer mentioned above to get super productive.
5) Self-care
Self-care is so important when it comes to productivity as the last thing you want to do is work yourself into the ground. You won’t get much done if that happens!
You are your biggest asset when it comes to building your business so it’s important to take time out and recharge and refresh so that the time you do spend working on your business is effective.
I remember when I first started, I was working all hours and nearly worked myself into the ground. I quickly realized that wasn’t the type of business I wanted.
What is the point of having a freedom business if you are too shattered to enjoy the freedom right?!
Make time for you – eat well, get plenty of sleep, exercise, and above all be kind to yourself.
Do your best work and switch off your inner mean girl – there’s no room for her as you are growing into the amazing lady boss you were meant to be.
If you try these techniques and are still finding that you don’t have time for everything, take a look at your existing commitments and review those.
Are they all aligned to your bigger purpose? Do you need to say “No” to certain people or certain commitments?
What areas do you need to do something different to create some more time?
Where do you need support?
How can you get a proper strategy in place?
Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions and make tough decisions when it comes to protecting your time.
If you’re ready to overcome your fears and mindset blocks and create your dream business, then go ahead and download the Ultimate Confidence Toolkit and Free Audio Training.
Hey, I'm Tasmin! I'm a Mindset & Business Confidence Coach for new and aspiring female entrepreneurs. I help overcome their fears and ramp up their confidence so that they can escape the corporate drudgery and create a life and business on their terms.
Want to chat about how I can help you? Apply for a Free Session with me here. I'm excited to talk to you :-)
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