One of the biggest excuses people use for not making progress on their business goals can be summed up in one deflating, five-word sentence:
I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME.
First of all, I can tell you right now that if you’re using this excuse, you’re flat-out lying to yourself. Let’s just keep it real here, shall we? We all have the same 24 hours in a day. And everyone is busy. So the truth is, some of us use our time wisely and some of us waste our precious “free time” on things that don’t even matter. It’s up to you how to spend the limited time that you DO have.
When I work with private clients and students, we take a close look at their calendar and create a 20-hour weekly schedule to maximize productivity in their business.
Here are six simple ways to make time for your business (or any goal, really), even if you have a demanding full-time job, kids and a husband at home!
1. Use mornings before work.
I call this the “morning 5 to 9.” Set aside a few hours between 5am and 9am to complete tasks for your business. Hint: Wake up earlier!
2. Use evenings after work.
I call this the “evening 5-9.” After work, jump right into your to-do list for your own business! This could also be 7pm-11pm, etc. Get the kids to bed and then get to work!
3. Leave work on time.
Set boundaries on how late you stay at work. If you come in at 9am, plan your day so you can end at 5pm so you can go home to work on your business.
4. Use weekends and vacation days.
Reduce social time. Take part of your vacation for actual R&R, then use the rest for working on your business. Schedule major projects around holidays, three-day weekends and times that are clear for you to be out of the office.
5. Maximize your lunch hour.
Use your work breaks to email prospective clients, make phone calls to schedule meetings or simply jot down ideas.
6. Stop watching TV.
You get a big chunk of “extra time” if you eliminate TV. You should be working while everyone else is watching Scandal!
If you were to implement just one of these simple time-management strategies, you would create the space for increased productivity and increased revenue.
Just imagine… what would be possible for you and your business if you let go of the false belief that you don’t have enough time?
Leave a comment: Which one of these strategies can you start using this week to create more time to work on your business?
Rosetta Thurman is a nationally-recognized author, speaker, mentor and coach dedicated to helping women create their ideal lives.
Definitely, stop watching tv.
I am on the path of starting my day earlier. I work for a government agency and luckily I am able to have a schedule of 6:30am-3:00pm. Being that I live only 10 minutes from my office, I have always taken advantage of that and woke up as last as I possibly could. I have never been a morning person so starting my day this early has been crazy and a major adjustment. Therefore I am committing myself to wake up 15 mins earlier every 2 weeks until I am at my goal wake up time of 5:00 am. By doing this I can have more time in the day to make my blog a success as well as to work on the multiple ways I want to generate different streams of income.
I can definitely stop watching so much TV. It is a time zapper and I’ve been telling myself to limit, if not stop, watching so much TV. Thanks for your tips!
Yes, TV is a big time waster for a lot of people. Americans watch, on average, 5 hours a day! It might be time for you to cancel your cable subscription.