Managing Your Offline Time

For the Internet marketer, effective time management of your offline time is just as important as managing the time you spend online.  After all, except for emergencies, most people have to leave their home lives at the door when they go to the office; that is, when they work for someone else.  Even though you have more discretion as your own boss, stop for a moment and think why it is that most workplaces have that rule.  If they didn’t,  productivity would slow and employees would get far less work done.  In most businesses, employee productivity has an impact on the company’s bottom line.  Your own productivity will have an impact on your bottom line as well.  Be sure to make that a positive impact by leaving your home life at the door, which can be an effective time management technique.

Take Care of Household Tasks During Off Hours

Most  employees that work for someone else realize that they only have a certain amount of time to do the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and other chores because they have to be back at work the following day, except for scheduled days off, of course.  In the same way, when you are “off,” make sure you take care of your household responsibilities so that they don’t bleed over into your work time.  This can be difficult for the Internet marketer who has to answer to no one except for him or herself.  Still, practicing wise and effective time management skills off the job will mean that you can be more productive on the job.

Schedule Social Activities for Your Off Time

While most Internet marketers who act as their own bosses don’t have to stick to a rigid schedule, most have discovered that sticking to a regular schedule is more conducive to conducting business.  While it’s nice to be able to have lunch with friends, try to schedule most of your social activities during your off hours.  Friends who know you are at home (if you work from home) may complain, but if you are firm about your working hours, they will get the message and you’ll be able to really enjoy yourself when you are off.

When all else Fails, be Flexible

Stuff happens.  It always does and it will happen to you too.  You’ll lose your Internet connection at the most inopportune time, pets and kids will get sick, and yes, you will get sick too.  For this reason, never, ever wait until the last minute to do work that a client is waiting for.  If you do, you’ll find yourself spending the evening in the Emergency Room with a broken leg and explaining things to your client the next day.

Take Time for Yourself

You know what they say about all work and no play.  While most start up businesses, both online and offline, initially take an enormous amount of time and work to get off the ground, make sure you are giving yourself plenty of time off so that you can take care of yourself and your family, relax, and rejuvenate.  While there are laws keeping most employers from working employees too many hours, there is nothing to keep you from working yourself too hard.  Believe it or not, a healthy balance of work and play will result in more productivity than a steady diet of nothing but work.  The bottom line is that in order to take care of business, you’ll need to take care of yourself too.