On my last post about planning your business actions I got a great comment and it’s one I thought would be worth answering in a new post. Here’s the question (copied from the comments ~ formatted a little for easier reading)
Great post Jackie, agree with you totally on goals and planning sheets.
But do you allow for time-consuming things like an email from PotPieGirl (who I have learned to listen to, and respect) heavily promoting something like ‘Plug & Play Niche’. Do you take time to check it out – either now or later in the day – and then spend time deciding if it’s for you or not? Or David Risley offering you a free 60 odd page report which you feel you must have. And then spend the time to print it out for reading, and possible ongoing actioning?
Then there is a thing you briefly refer to called LIFE. You obviously spend time on this, having Hanna, a husband, and a home. How do you build this into you Plan? I know that if a branch falls off a tree, it’ll fall on on electric fence. At least 1 hour to fix! Apart from daily grooming, animals need exercise & attention. This can take several hours. And so on!!!
I’m not disagreeing with you, but in comments to your posts, I hear nothing about this sort ‘distraction’ from a planned path from those commenting. I’d very much like to hear from you and your members like me, just how they build all these factors into their LIFE and their schedule.
(I know there are many out there who are building the IT working activity around full-time and part-time employment. I admire them for this and I don’t know quite how they cope).
Regards
RUSSELL
Russell, this is an excellent question and it’s an issue everyone who works for themselves or works from home must answer at some point if they are going to be successful. I can’t tell you how everyone does it, but I can share with you how I “manage” this ~ and it IS a work in progres… always. 
1. Identify the time of day that I work best. I fought it but at some point realized mornings were the time I worked best. (I really thought it was late at night lol) I find it easiest to write, concentrate and focus in the hours before noon. (It happens that those are Hanna’s best behaved hours too ~ lucky me!)
2. Identify the actions that are going to move me forward in my business. Since I do have coaching clients and interacting with my community is a big part of my business I do check my email in the morning. HOWEVER… it’s a cursory glance and the only thing I take action on is blog comments or questions from clients. All else is left until later. If it’s something I really want to check out I’ll star it in my email folder.
If you don’t have clients I would leave email until after you’ve finished the most important task of your day. Email can turn into a serious time suck… get your “work” done first.
3. Take time for myself FIRST. I take 15 to 20 minutes to go outside for some meditation. I do this before I do anything ~ to get me in the right frame of mind. I usually hook Hanna up with PBS and she’ll hang in for that short time.
4. Breakfast ~ for both of us.
5. Set Hanna up with some activity that will hold her attention for 30 minutes to an hour.
6. Start and complete the highest priority action. (Usually a blog post/guest post or working on free report or paid product on non blog days)
7. Take a break ~ this usually means checking my email again for questions/comments and actually looking at anything that sounds interesting **** that fits what I am doing****
This one’s key ~ you asked about plug n play ~ does it fit what you are doing now? If it doesn’t I wouldn’t even click the link. Don’t keep looking at things that are going to get you distracted. Same thing with the free ebook from David (which is REALLY GOOD ~ IF you want to be a blogger!!) If you are doing something else ~ save it in a folder for later when you are working on being a blogger) I only open emails, check out links that are going to benefit/help me do/do better what I am focused on.
This is where having clarity about what you’re doing, where your business is going is very helpful. You will know if it fits your business model or not! It also makes it much easier to not get swayed by all the possibilities that are out there.
8. Set Hanna up with something new if she’s lost interest in what she was doing.
9. Tackle the next highest priority on my planner.
etc etc…
I don’t make appointments during my “work time”. I don’t schedule family stuff during my “work time”. My work time is my work time, and I work.
Come noon ~ whole other story. I’m outside playing in the pool, taking a walk, gardening, living life.
Of course, I check in on my email ~ I tweet through the day… in fact, I have a harder time staying AWAY from the computer, and I have to work on that daily.
The thing is… I LOVE what I do. I get excited about waking up and getting on the computer. I enjoy writing blog posts, and answering questions and helping clients ~ I really do. So it’s not like when I used to have to force myself to get in the car and go to a J.O.B., I have to work to get myself off the computer and spend time doing other things. 
My schedule works for me, and the things you need to do in your life may create a schedule that looks different than mine, but I really think the key is to choose your time… and then make it YOUR time (whatever time frame that looks like ~ it may be 3 separate blocks of time with other tasks in between). Don’t let horses, kids, husbands, a house, or potpiegirl invade your time you need to be working.
With that said… stuff does happen. If it can’t wait until your work time is over make a note of where you are so you can pick up where you left off, and get back to it as soon as you can.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=88801cb5-0a70-4ebd-a6ff-90e19e76d8d7)
Other Posts That Might Help:
I find it tough, a 9-5 internet marketing then extra ciriculum internet marketing. Theres not enough hours in the day to do it all.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like