Are you pulling your hair out because there is not enough time in the day to get things done? Are you pushed to your limit and ready to call it quits? Ready to run away from home because you have too much on your plate? Are all of life's responsibilities too much for you to handle in addition to a home business? Would you give anything to know how to organize and manage your time better? Believe it or not, there are a few things you can do to take control of your precious time and energy, and still make the most out of your business efforts!



The first thing we must do is define what is most important to us in life and create a vision for what we wish to achieve, both in life and in business. Set your priorities based on this. Know what your personal values, goals, dreams, and principles are that guide you. We cannot start to organize our time and our days until we know what gives our life and business value and meaning.

We are many people in our lives - We are mothers, brothers, lovers, teachers, children, coaches, mentors, leaders, business-men, doctors, friends. Our many roles in life make it difficult to manage our time and be who we need to be to all people. We have to remember that we can't be everything to everyone at all times though we sometimes try. If we remind ourselves of what each of our roles are and how they contribute to our purpose and priorities in life, and what gives us meaning, then we may give ourselves a clearer picture of what we need to do and when. Also, if we see these roles as not being totally separate from each other, but intertwined with our life purpose, then we won't feel as overwhelmed by all the roles we have to play.

Next we need to set goals for ourselves, and as with each of these steps, they should be written down where they can be seen, where they can remind us of what we are trying to accomplish, and so that we can change them as things change in our lives. Goals should be specific and measurable so that we can monitor our progress. Our goals will relate to our roles, our priorities, and what gives our lives meaning.

We then need to decide in advance how we are going to make decisions that we are faced with during our days and weeks. If we don't have a plan of action when faced with unexpected situations where we have to decide how to spend our time, we often make hasty or rash decisions at the spur of the moment, and sometimes these will end up giving us more stress than we had in the first place. If we are always trying to make time for everything that comes up, we will end up with way more on our plates than we can possibly handle, which leads to feeling overwhelmed. We need to stay focused on what we are trying to achieve, and decide how we are going to decide things. Sometimes this means being more flexible in our planning, and knowing what our priorities are, but making them happen when we can fit them into our schedules rather than having a fixed schedule and trying to fit more and more in.

When we keep our priorities and life purpose in mind, we must also act with integrity ? do what we say we are going to do, with the confidence to also be flexible in our planning. In the end we can evaluate how far we have come, and determine whether or not we reached our goals, and if not, why not. Reviewing our progress enables us to rework the plan that isn't working into something more effective and productive.