Have you ever realized, as a business owner you frequently repeat some tasks more than twice daily? If yes is your response, I bet you also didn’t realize the amount of time used to repeatedly do the same tasks. For example, after a sample session with a potential client, I explain my services, fees and expectations as well as ask a series of questions to see if we will be a good fit for one another. This process took an additional 15 – 20 minutes beyond the allotted sample session time. I decided that I could save time and close the sale quicker if this process was automated, so I developed a Welcome Packet and Questions that the potential client received 24 hours prior to our sample session. The client is required to emailed responses to the questions prior to our session. It not only saved time but it allowed us to show up for the session prepared and informed about each others expectations and it allowed the client to make a quicker decision.

Here are five ways to automate your business immediately:

Write A Job Description

I am amazed at the amount of business owners who do not have a clear written job description of their duties. You must know what you do and what is expected of you in your business. Take a few minutes and jot down what you do. Include everything even if it seems trivial. List the items, it doesn’t have to be in order but you need to include all your duties. This is the starting point of automating your business, you must know what you do and how often it is done. Next to each line item, write a number estimating how often the task it done. For example: 1. Write a sales letter – 3 times monthly

Write A Step-By-Step Process For Each

Once you have a job description, write your process for completing the task. For example, if one of your task is marketing. Than write the process of one of your marketing strategies. If speaking is a marketing strategy for you, write what you must do before a speaking engagement. Your steps may look like this:

Booking a Speaking Engagement
1. Research target market
2. Research a topic
3. Create a presentation
4. Edit the presentation or hire an editor
5. Look for speaking engagements
6. Send out a press release
7. Make cold calls
8. Schedule presentation on calendar

Create A Work Flow Chart

Use your step-by-step process to create a work flow chart. Use sticky notes to write each step and decide the exact order. The sticky notes allow you to change the order of steps around as needed, until you decided on final format. This will help you to create a plan and flow of your duties. You will never miss a step or waste time deciding what comes next. Whenever you need to prepare for a speaking engagement, you now have a flow chart of the necessary steps needed to take in order to complete the task. This will organize your workflow and create a clear concise system & thus preventing the accidental elimination of tasks.

Create Templates and Forms

Now you know what you do and how you do it. Make it more simplistic and create a template or form to use repeatedly instead of reinventing the wheel daily. When speaking to potential clients, what information do you ask consistently? Don’t rely on your memory, create a client prospect form and write every question you need to capture from the prospect? Do most of your clients ask similar questions? Why not create a most frequently asked questions list and email it to them instead of answering the same questions over and over! If you network offline and have one- on-one meetings with business owners in order to provide referrals, create a form to ask about the business owner’s ideal customers, etc and staple her business card to the form for future reference for referrals. I can not stress the importance of creating and using forms and templates to establish organization in your business. You will never miss obtaining the information you really need to capture and you will be organized and save time.

Delegate

Peruse your job description again to notate if there are any items that can be delegated to a virtual assistant, current employee, etc. If you decide to delegate a task, it will be so easy, because you now have a step-by-step process, forms & templates that will make the delegation process easier and quicker. Delegating tasks allows you to concentrate on your expertise and free you from daily mundane task that take up time. Once an item is delegated, take it off your job description or highlight it as delegated. As many items that you can delete from your job description allows more time for your business productivity

Thinking They Can Manage Time

You can not manage time, you can only manage yourself around time by changing your mindset and habits. You can not add more time to your day nor stop the unending movement of time, you must manage yourself first by planning, having clear goals, taking daily actions steps and make a commitment to be conscious of your time daily.

Keeping a Traditional Rigid Schedule

You do not have to follow the traditional 9 to 5 schedule, work at your highest peak performance to reach your highest productivity. Be flexible. You didn’t go into business for yourself to work harder and longer as you did for your previous employer, “work smarter not harder.” Make time for yourself, block it on your calendar, take a brisk walk, get a pedicure, take a power nap, just do something to allow your creative energies to flow.

No Written Job Description or Mission Statement

Do you have a written job description? Do you know your core functions and work objectives? Even as a solo-entrepreneur, there is a need for a written job description. A job description is a written summary listing the elements of a particular job, purpose, duties and equipment needed. It provides an organized plan, determines work objectives, explains core functions and gives clarity to what is important to you and your business. It gives you a plan and direction of your work flow. Your job description is a good place to include your mission statement. Your mission statement outlines you and your organization’s vision, why the organization exist and what it hopes to achieve in the future. Also it serves as a resource to monitor your performance and measure if you are meeting your business objectives. Steven Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, states that a mission statement is a “connection with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes in fulfilling it.”

Many people struggle to find the time to do the things they want to. There are only 24 hours in a day and that is never going to change. However, we can change how we look at time and how we use it to help us lead a fuller and more productive life.

If you have a to do list that is longer than your arm and only limited time available you are probably wondering how you can get it all done. Most likely you are feeling stressed out and helpless. However, with a little commitment and effort you can learn how to manage your time more effectively.

The first thing you need to do is to take a step back from your life and try to look at it objectively. Take some time to consider what in life means the most to you and what you really want to achieve. Once you decide what is most important to you, you can begin to move towards more effective time management.

Write down what is important to you and compare it to how you plan to spend the coming days. There will most likely be many things that are not important to you and that are not essential to get done. First remove these from your list and you will find that your schedule now looks much more manageable.

There will, of course, remain some things on the list that are not important to you that simply have to be done. At the beginning, at least, this will be a fact of life. However, effective time management can lead to some life-changing choices and help you achieve what you really want in your life.

The mismatches between how you currently spend your time and how you would like to spend your time can be very revealing as they help you identify where you need to make changes. Some of these changes may be very small while others may be life changing.

You can start on the small changes right away. These could include simple things like getting fit or learning a new hobby so all you will need to do is schedule a little time to devote to these each day.

Bigger changes will require a lot more thought and commitment, but are achievable. Perhaps you want to move house or change profession. You cannot do things like this at the drop of a hat so you need to identify the steps you need to take to achieve them.

I encourage you to break these steps into small, manageable tasks that can be easily scheduled. Using the changing profession example, a first task might be to research courses available to train you in the skills you need for your chosen new profession. This small task can easily be scheduled into one of your days. Once you begin to take action to move you in the right direction you will feel more satisfied with your life.

Modern life in big cities has many advantages; modern malls, exciting nightlife, many luxuries and conveniences. A convenient life style is at our doorstep. Probably the greatest advantage is a smoothly operated transportation system.

The downside to all these advantages is that our lives have become complicated and rushed. We are constantly trying to cram more and more into the 24 hours of a day, leaving very little time for our personal lives. We are also expected to do more things faster with very limited time to our exposal. Our friends and family are also very busy "living" - their time being robbed as well.

We are all suffering one huge drawback, modern living robs us all of our personal time!

So the question arises: When do we find the time to spend quality time with our partners and family? The common response is: "I don't have any extra time!" or "I can't find the time!".

So, how do we manage this difficult situation? It is all about priorities. We need to actively reserve private time - time for partners, family and friends.

Our jobs require that we make appointments, arrange meetings and set time aside for particular activities. We can do the same thing with our personal lives. As long as we realize that there may be a need for some sacrifices, but they should be small. And, in time, as your life becomes more organized, you will not feel that you are making any sacrifices.

One of the largest barriers against getting organized is that we are stuck in a rut; a particular routine; doing things out of habit. When we get home after a tiresome and difficult day at work, we only want to relax. We drop down in front of the television, watching our favorite show or sports program. When weekends arrive, they become an extension of our week's after-work-behaviour: doing a lot of relaxation and less and less constructive living.

You need to take a decision to change that behavior!

The question is how?

First of all, set one evening a week aside for you and your partner, or your family. Give this night a name. Names attach importance - call that night "family time" or "date night". You may feel initially as if this time is robbing you of your relaxation time, but you will soon experience the value of togetherness that "family time" brings. Making it easy. In that way you will not feel robbed of your private time.

Changing ingrained habits can be difficult. Routines are not that easy to break and should be replaced with something else. I have found that if you can stick with this new introduction into your life for three weeks in a row, you will have experienced the benefits and not want to go back to the old routine.

Now, the next question arises: What do I do with this newfound time?

You need to plan activities for this time, or its value will not be realized and you will relapse back into old habits. Discuss plans with your partner. If your "family time" evening is with your whole family, it might need some sort of consensus decision. Or, make it a surprise â€" let a different family member come up with an idea each week.

Our family has practiced "family time" nights for a few years. The only time we skip them is during the holidays. But, we enjoy these evenings so much that after the holidays they "just start up" again.

Effective time management is a step by step process that takes determination and a long-term commitment. However, it is essential that you do not try to take on too much, too soon. In this article I advise you on how you can manage your time effectively. We all have days when we are left frustrated and dissatisfied because we did not achieve everything we wanted to get done at the start of the day. This feeling of dissatisfaction can have a disruptive effect that can lower productivity and general happiness.

Because of this, it is essential not to pack too much into your day. It is true that we can achieve a lot if we focus and work very hard, but this is difficult to sustain and can be counter-productive in the long run. When you are planning your day you should think about how you can use your time effectively. Think about what the most important things are for you to achieve and give these priority. Make a list outlining what you have to achieve and what you would like to achieve.

Allocate time slots for the things that you have to achieve and use any left over time for the things that you would like to achieve that are most important to you. Anything else will just have to wait until another day.

If you are just starting out with managing your time more effectively you may find it difficult to gauge exactly how long a task will take. As time goes on you will get better at this but for now allow a little bit more time than you think a particular task will take. This will make sure that you do not over stretch yourself at the beginning.

You can now go about your day happy that you have given yourself realistic and achievable goals. This will allow you to work in a relaxed and stress-free manner and most of us work better when we are relaxed.

However, it is at the end of the day that you will feel the most benefit from the exercise. The feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction will be replaced by a sense of achievement, and contentment that you have had a full and productive day where you attained all of your goals. This will leave you ready for the next day and, in the long run, increase your productivity and quality of life.

As mentioned, as time goes on you will be able get better at estimating how long various tasks will take. Two tools that can help you with this are the time log and the time plan.

A time log is basically a list of how you spend your time every day. Try writing down how you spend your time each day for a week. You will probably surprised at the results. This will allow you to see exactly where your time goes and will show you how long different things take. You can use this information to make a time plan for how you are going to spend each day.

"If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done," said a wisecracking piece of stationery I once came across in a store. But if you were to learn proper time management tips, you wouldn't need that procrastinator's motivator of a last minute in the first place. Here are some useful time management tips to help keep you and your time in tip-top shape:

1. Delegate. Recent studies show that multitasking, rather than being an asset, is actually quite detrimental to productivity, as opposed to focusing on one job at a time. You cannot do everything by yourself. You are not superhuman after all. Know your limits and don't be afraid to say "no" to more work or get others to share the load.

2. Don't procrastinate. All this does is pile up your work, making it even more daunting. And the more daunting it is, the less you'll be inclined to work on it, and the more you'll put it off. It's a vicious cycle, indeed. So another time management tip is to break the task apart into several tiny, more manageable pieces. Work on these pieces one at a time and before you know it, you have conquered the project in its entirety.

3. Personalize. Work on your workspace so that it is conducive to productivity. Get rid of distractions, but do what works best for you. Some people prefer a desk that is the epitome of organization. But if your clutter is your very life source, the fuel from which you derive all of your creative energy, then keep the mess-as long as it's organized mess, meaning you know exactly where everything is so that you don't waste precious time scrounging around for this paper or anything else you might need.

4. Reward yourself for a job well done. Hard-earned rewards can be added motivation, goals toward which you can strive. They make work that much more satisfying and fulfilling.

Time is such an invaluable resource. So simply follow these time management tips and actually get things done - right on time and without ever having to rely on the last minute.

Time management is something that many people battle with and for the work at home mom trying to juggle many different roles and responsibilities this can be particularly difficult. In this article we give some strategies that you can use to manage your time more effectively.

A Diary is Essential for Effective Time Management

The first time management tool that a work at home mom should not be without is a diary. Making a list of what you need to accomplish each day will help to ensure that you manage your time in order to get the best results and get done what you need to. Use your diary to write down appointments and keep your to-do list.

Find Ways to Double Your Time or Automate Processes

Another way the work at home mom can manage her time more effectively is by learning to double time or automate processes. Some things can be done at the same time such as phoning and ironing, listening to tapes and doing the washing, etc. Various aspects of your business may also be automated if you work online and you should learn all you can about automation in order to save more time for the things you cannot automate.

Do the Important Things First

Start your day by doing the most important things you have to do. If this is work-related and you have small children then it is probably best to wake up a little earlier than they do and get the most important work-related task done before they wake up. This way you will not be stressing about it for the rest of the day.

Don't Be Dictated to by the Tyranny of the Urgent

There are many things which demand immediate notice that are not really urgent and it is important that our lives are not dictated to by these things. The telephone is a prime example but instead of always answering, get an answering service and return phone calls at a time that is more appropriate to you; don't always feel that you need to check your email but make set times when you do and reply to emails.

Get Up Early or Go to Bed Late

When you have small children they may make a lot of demands on you during the day and so in order to manage your time more effectively you should try to either wake up early and get some work or housework done before they wake up, or do some after they have gone to bed. This means that you will be more ready for their interruptions during the day and will not feel as stressed when you are not able to get everything done then.

Being a work at home mom requires special time management skills in order to cope effectively. You should learn how to use your time more effectively by doubling time, automating tasks, waking up early or going to bed late, and doing the most important task first. A diary is also a critical time management tool to help you get more out of your day.

Learning better time management skills will help the manager efficiently to work through the stressful tasks that they encounter as managers. They have to deal with deadlines and other time constraints on a daily basis. Because of these time constraints, managers need to learn how to maximize their time at work by doing more important tasks.

Effective Time Management

Every field deals with different levels of time stress so; therefore, there are several methods of time management that can prove to be useful for these fields. Using effective time management practices will help to ensure quality use of time as well as efficiency. By working smarter rather than working harder, managers may realize how much time they are saving and consuming in an appropriate manner. One can really reduce its stress if it follows the some of the suggestion.

"To do"List for Time Management

The most basic way to start beating away at the problem of losing time is by getting into a routine of making "To-Do" lists and daily reminders. While managing time, it is always suggested that you should have only one list, not a multiple list on a separate scraps of paper. Moreover, put the "To-Do" at that place where you see after every hour or more than that so that it keeps reminding you about your important task.

Prioritize Significant Task

Another method of effective time management is to handles the daily tasks by prioritizing them. By doing this you will able to separate your tasks in accordance with their significance and relevancy and deal with them one at a time or you can delegate your work to your subordinates also.

Ability to Say "No"

The ability to say "no" to tasks and other affairs that are not really important when time is not on your side is an effective time management skill. By turning things down and staying committed to your task will save time because you will be able to complete this task in the time you have allotted.

Time Will No More Your Enemy

Managing time is important for managers for various reasons. Getting tasks done at right time is the first thing that a manager should understand to save his time for other useful tasks. Saving this time means saving time for the company. While time is an enemy for majority of people but those who know how to use time wisely they don't follow time but time follows them.

In working with coaching clients, one of the most common issues that comes up is the problem of overwhelm, of getting things done. I have studied some of the great time management classics for years and am always fascinated by the systems people develop, but for some reason I never manage to stick with them.

First of all, you can't manage time. Time simply "marches on." But you can manage your activity, your productivity. Here are 3 Simple Strategies for managing your productivity.

1. Write down everything.

As a mentor of mine says, "If it's not written down, it doesn't exist." Simply capture everything that comes to you - ideas, projects, to-dos, things to remember like phone numbers. Schedule some time on a regular basis, daily or weekly, to sort that information into projects, to-do lists, or reference files.

2. Make decisions quickly.

Decide to do it, delegate it, delay it, or dump it.

3. Do one thing at a time.

Multitasking is a myth. It doesn't work. Focus on accomplishing one thing at a time. Any project, no matter how big, is a series of individual tasks, and individual tasks can even be broken down into individual actions. Remember - How do you eat an elephant? ......1 bite at a time.

We mommies, have more than enough to do in a day. Wake the kids, make lunches, breakfast, out the door, work, homework, laundry, dinner, baths, bedtime routines, and much more. Then add the holidays with family obligations, gift shopping, decorating, parties, and the list goes on.

Feeling overwhelmed yet? You don't have to. Below are 7 tips to help you maximize your time and enjoy it.

1. Make a List - Ok, pretty basic, but writing down all you have to do will insure a smooth plan and less stress.

2. Prioritize - Be honest. Not every task has to get done first. What important things must be done? Put those at the top of your list.

3. Eliminate - The items towards the bottom or your list can wait, for now or forever. If a task doesn't contribute to your immediate goal or purpose - get rid of it. If you really must remember it for the future; then create a master list.

4. Delegate - No matter what age your children are they can contribute. Younger kids can clear or set the table, pick up their toys, even make their own beds. Older kids can, do dishes, a load or two of laundry or help the younger kids with homework. You don't have to do it all; so don't.

5. Say NO - You are not Wonder Woman or Super Mom. It is ok to say no. No, to that party, no to helping with that school social. You can say no this time and go or help next time.

6. Simplify - Decide what's really important. Do you really need to put out all of the decorations? Do you really need to host a big dinner party? Does everyone you know really need to receive a gift? Do you really need to back all those goodies? If something is important, trim it back a bit.

7. Make time for you - what do you enjoy? Take time to rejuvenate. Put the kids to bed a half hour early and take a bath. Hire a babysitter for a few hours and go to a movie. You deserve it. And so do your loved ones. Make time for what you enjoy. And always remember, "If momma ain't happy; ain't nobody happy."

Spend a week applying each tip for one day. See how much more relaxed and peaceful life is. Your kids will enjoy the less stressful environment as well. Let me know what tip was most helpful. It is time to enjoy life and not just live in it.