One of the challenges I see women entrepreneurs who work at home face is setting a work at home schedule. The TV tempts, the kids want attention, the dishes need to be done, and it can get difficult to stick to a disciplined schedule. Here are some suggestions to help:

1.  Honor your and your family’s natural personal rhythms.

If you don’t do well at math or accounting right after you wake up, don’t do it then. If you would rather talk to people after lunch, fine. If Wednesday is a super distracting and chaotic Soccer and Ballet class day, it’s ok to schedule a day off from work those days. Forcing yourself to do things against your grain will suck the very life out of you and you will resent your new business.

One word of caution here: if you naturally put off scary things (like closing a sale) or know you get bored doing repetitive but crucial tasks (like bookkeeping or web maintenance), you have to get help. Either get help facing and overcoming your fears or be woman enough to hire someone. Not doing them at all probably won’t work. If the issue is serious enough, you should probably reconsider if you’re even in the right business for you or if you should be in business at all. If you’re naturally an outdoor person and you’ve created an all-indoor business,  you are swimming upstream. Be honest with yourself about what you like to do and structure your business activities accordingly.

2.  Set weekly goals rather than daily goals when possible:

Of course, if the train leaves on Tuesday at 2 pm, you’d better be there. No avoiding that deadline. But, by lengthening your goal due dates where you can, you build in flexibility. If you arbitrarily say Tuesday at 2 pm this to-do item must be done, or….or what? You’ve “failed” if you miss the deadline, right? Isn’t that how it feels when you miss a due date, even when it was completely arbitrary? Why do that to yourself? How much energy are you going to have to keep working if you set yourself up to be a failure all the time? Don’t this to your psyche. Working for yourself is challenging enough without approaching your goals this way. It’s better to say this week, I will accomplish this task. You can schedule a specific proposed time to get it done, but the actual goal is more flexible. This allows for you to manage the unexpected and allows you to implement significantly more creativity into your days. It’s just so much more fun and satisfying, so you’re more likely to keep doing it. Keeping at it is the name of the game.

3.  Schedule your work to match with your client’s schedules:

If you have to talk with clients in Hong Kong, you have to talk to them when they’re awake. No getting around that. If your biggest client only works on Tuesday and Thursday morning, that’s when you will have to work too. If most of your clients only take calls to set appointments in the early AM before their day starts spirialing out of control, that’s when you will call, even if it defies your natural personal rhythms. I will repeat again because I feel it is super important - if your work schedule requirements go too heavily against your natural personal rhythms, don’t just try to grin and bear it - hire someone to do that work that loves working during those times. With virtual assistants available worldwide, there is no reason to not at least explore the possibilities. Your clients will know you hate what you’re doing and you won’t be successful at it. Don’t be a scrooge - be a boss. You’re the CEO of your company, so act like one. Solve the problems, don’t just suffer through them. Not loving what you do is a problem. Take action to fix it.

4.  Reward yourself by punching out on time:

Part of setting a work at home schedule is committing to a time when you will quit working for the day as well as how many days or hours you will work each week. In my opinion (and I know you will hear differently from others), hard work is not the secret. Focusing on your unique gifts and on the most important tasks are what’s important. Get out of the worker bee mentality and become a visionary. Visionaries take sabatticals, they go on vision quests, and they give their minds room to roam. That means they take time away from the office, for themselves, for their family, for their health, and for unabashed fun.

We all sincerely desire a life of meaning.  As the old adage goes, no one ever sat on their death bed wishing they had spent more time at the office. And, being off of work isn’t just about going to the next set of household tasks. It’s about resting, rejuvenating, relaxing, and recovering. Reading a novel, not another business education text. Eating good food, working in your gardening, traveling - all the finer things in life that don’t revolve around work. Go to a party in a gorgeous dress and don’t bring any business cards (they hardly fit into a proper evening bag anyway - there’s a reason for that…). Give yourself space to be a full person. You will get more done in smarter ways if you give your brain and body a rest.

I hope these tips work for you. I guess it’s easy to see that I believe in life balance, right? I do.  And, I wish you the best of successs. You’re invited to comment here on how you schedule yourself successfully.

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

It’s easy for Life to push against a woman entrepreneur’s work agenda. You have kids, chores, errands, TV, etc. You also have something that I can inertia. It’s easy to stay still if you are already still. The opposite of that is that it’s also easy to keep moving if you are already moving.

So, how do you start moving? You begin small. The smallest step you can take. Don’t berate yourself that it’s not enough. Just pick a small task and complete it. Set a schedule, and if you can make the small task an important one, even better. But either way, do a small thing. And, even if you go off schedule, get that one thing done before you get into bed that night.

Flow develops when you move consistently. Flow makes work easy. For me, you get extra points if the small task you choose to complete is also fun. Keep focused on why you are an entrepreneur to begin with. If you wanted a slave-master boss, you’d be in the corporate world, right?

Micheal Cheney, a wonderful internet marketer, says you should choose your task with your F.E.E.T. Here’s what his acronym means:
F: fast
E: easy
E: exciting
T: Tingle  (as in, makes you tingle)

So, if you need to shift your inertia, get moving. Don’t try the biggest thing first. If you’ve put off a very important thing because you are concerned you aren’t going to do it so well, pick a warm up activity. Do something that lets you practice or feel comfortable. Just do something and do it consistently.

Tomorrow we will talk about goal setting. To me, it’s a bit overrated and tomorrow you’ll see why I say that.

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher

p.s. Thanks to those readers who checked on me over the weekend–I took some much deserved time off. I am glad you noticed….