Jeweltastic: Time Management Crisis

Oil on canvas by Jane P. Bowling

I am a homeschooling mommy and managing this business and teaching is becoming a wee bit challenging.  I have a partner but my partner isn't able to invest her full time at this moment.  This all leads to a time management crisis.  If you're a busy mom like me, or even if you aren't a busy mom, here are a few tips you can use:

Set Goals:
Social activist Benjamin Mays States,  "The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."

When I wake in the morning I have a list of things that have to happen before anything else.  Feed the kids, clean our area, we use the dining room table for school, pull out books and teach on those subjects.  Required are math, reading, spelling, gym, handwriting, English, Social Studies.  Extracurricular is computer language, Spanish, art, music appreciation, theatre appreciation, and blogging which ties into the computer language.  I have the extracurricular broken up they don't learn about Mozart or Tennessee Williams every day.

Then, we make lunch and if they are in slow mode we go back to school.  We typically end school around 2:00 pm.  Which leaves us with preparing dinner if it isn't in the freezer already.  This ends up being a math lesson with fractions, division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction.  After all of that stuff is done, I have a little free time.  I typically say to myself I'm going to make X amount of earrings today and I work on those goals.

I set daily goals and It helps a whole lot.  I am going to have to figure in social networking and blogging.  I've yet to figure that out.

Save time for self:
If it's 15 minute of an hour, you need that time to unwind.  A home business can have stress and so can family.  You aren't going to get out of having at least a little stress.  If your kids are old enough, tell them you need to unwind you'll be back or wait for bed time.  No TV, noise, and wait until no more whispers can be heard.


Set your priorities:
As previously mentioned my day is planned from the moment I wake.  This also means the education of my children is my priority.  This has to come after family.  It is also an extension of my family.  I am hoping it leads us toward becoming more independent. 

No TV
Unless I've found an educational video or a video that is diet/ exercise or business related, I limit the boob tube.    There are exceptions to the rule.  Kids that have been behaving particularly well, did awesome on school work, helped out and didn't expect it, and movie night.

Keep a calendar:
Pretty self explanatory.  Keep a list of everything you need to do to achieve your goals.   It helps to stay on task.

Set deadlines:
Everything you do has a deadline.  For a homeschooler that would be to try to make sure they are ready for the next grade unless they have special educational needs that can't be met by a standard curriculum.  Deadlines also have to be met for your home business.   I need to make X amount of necklaces before X date.

Get organized:
If everything is thrown about and not very organized it wastes your time.  That is time you could be spending with your family, or working on your business.

Time management expert Peter Turla has a few suggestions:

• Define your key result area (KRA). What were you hired to do?  Or in a the case of a home business, what is it that you do? 
• Ask yourself if what I'm doing now leads to an outcome of  your KRA.
• Give a right brain approach and think to the future. Where do I want to be?
• Give a left brain approach.  Analyze what it is you're doing.
• Overcome procrastination.