Mums in Business Guest Blog series

Welcome to the 2nd post in my “Mums In Business” Guest blog series. Today I have the lovely Rachel from Secretarial Online who is here to share some helpful tips on time management which she has learned through years of running a busy household and her VA business.

Over to you Rachel!

Juggling motherhood while working is hard. Sometimes I would feel like I was juggling so many balls that I was going to drop them all. But how can we successfully juggle both home and work life?

In this blog post, I will share with you some simple ways that can help you manage your time effectively, allowing you to be more productive.

What are the benefits of managing our time?

There are many benefits to managing our time. If we manage our time well, we become more efficient, more productive and feel good about ourselves. These benefits include:

• Having more time - People who manage their time well have a good work/life balance. In our business life, this could mean more time to follow up leads and sales so you can grow your business. In our personal lives, this could be spending more time with our families, working on hobbies etc.

• Getting things done - People who are good at time management are more likely to stay on top of their workload and are regularly ticking things off their to-do list.

• Feeling less stressed - when we manage our time well, we feel less stressed and anxious.

How do we manage time effectively?

There are lots of tips out there that help with time management. Essentially, though, the information is pretty much the same. We need to know the difference between what is urgent and what is not urgent, and how to not waste time. A few tips that I think are essential to developing strong time management skills are:

• Plan/organize your day - This seems pretty simple, but lots of people do struggle with planning. Think about everything that needs to be done and write a list. Be as clear as possible, and if you can, write when this task needs to be completed.

• Prioritize - Think about your tasks and separate them into groups of importance. You could use a numbering system, where 1 is the top priority, 2 is the next important tasks or list U for urgent, NU not urgent etc.

• Delegate - If you can delegate a task to someone else, do it. You can delegate to other staff, or even outsource these tasks to someone else. Delegating tasks will save you time, which can be better used focusing on other more important things.

• Organise your time - Set yourself a schedule by using your diary. Write down all the deadlines of your tasks; from there it is easier to block out time in your diary and work on certain tasks. Be sure to include time for tasks that need to happen at certain times of the day/week e.g. meetings, accounts work, sales etc. or even after school activities and family time.

• Take breaks - Always ensure you take a break when you are busy, even if it is just 10 mins to go into the kitchen, grab a coffee etc. You will be more focused and motivated if you don’t push yourself and skip lunch.
  

How do we incorporate these tips into our everyday life?

The above suggestions can be easily used in our everyday life as well as our work life. This might be writing a to-do list for the next day or week, using a weekly planner to plan your family’s activities and events, or even meal plan.

I implemented a meal plan years ago, not only does it save me umming and ahhing about what to cook; it saves me money as I only purchase the groceries I need each week. My kids love it too, as each of my children get to choose a meal they want each week, so no more fights at the dinner table and everyone enjoys their dinner!