Setting a work schedule is very important for being productive and using your time effectively. There have been many weeks that I had more time to work without interruption and sadly I actually got less done. The busier my schedule is the more I will get done as I find that I schedule down to the last detail because I have to.

This is going to be especially key for me to get work done this summer when the kids are home. I have just a couple of weeks left to get a regular schedule figured out and schedule in downtime for having fun with the family as well. With hubby not working a normal 9-5 schedule this gets tricky for me. My work schedule doesn’t end up being the same every week as I schedule around time he will be home as well.

One thing I’m really working on is checking emails less. I have a horrible habit of having my email account open at all times. This is distracting as I glance at the tab for new emails that come in and then of course I have click and see what the incoming email is quite quickly when it pops up. If I am in a project or have my time scheduled then there is no reason to be checking emails so often. I am not going to do anything with the email after I open it because I am already working on something else. All I am doing is taking my attention away from the current work. Not a good plan, but something that I have to work on. Not something that comes easily because of the years of answering emails immediately. I have to change my mindset for that. Checking emails 3 times a day is a good start and quite appropriate. Unless I am waiting for something from clients or advertisers so I can get work completed.

I did set hours for return emails to be expected. I didn’t like the guilt I had for not returning emails on the weekends at times. Setting a schedule for email contact helped alleviate that guilt and took a weight off my shoulders. Especially when it comes to contacting possible new clients.

My offline work is very structured and I’ve been working to schedule around that to make it easier for myself. I’ve also been staying up in the mornings to take care of emails after the kids go to school or on the weekends I’m up early to work on emails before family wakes up. This is something I will keep doing after the kids get out as it’s much easier to work in the quiet.

I’ve learned that I need to get my clients work done in the mornings. This will leave me the afternoons to get emails back that I need and then to work again on a project in the evening if necessary. At this time time I am scheduling the majority of my VA client work for Tues and Thurs because I teach class and have a client at the gym on M, W, Fri. So far this is working.

When the kids get out of school will you have to change up your schedule a lot or just minor changes? Have you started planning for it yet?

Always a learning experience, did some right, did some the hard way, and will completely revamp some things. lol

But numbers, you want numbers right?

I didn’t hit the $500. However, with the extra marketing and pushing I have one other VA client that will be signing up June 1st, but until that money is exchanged I can’t count it towards my goal. That client would put me at $473 extra from this challenge. So my true number was $378 in extra income for the 15 days. But beyond the money, I put some better habits in place and saw some great traffic increases as well. All of this documented for my next 15 day goal and for daily business.

Original quick post of ways to accomplish this goal were:

1. Push my affiliates at Once a Week Cooking (This didn’t get put in place at all)
2. Tweet daily on the Once a Week Cooking account (Did much better at this!)
3. Get blog posts up there daily. (Planned on 12 and got 9 up. SO MUCH BETTER THAN IT HAS BEEN! Great habit formed.)
4. Get 5 new PLR packs added to Busy Blogger PLR (Have 10 packs loaded now and another 5 to add as I type this)
5. 5 blog posts added to the Busy Blogger PLR site about PLR and it’s uses. (Only got 3 fully written and added, have another 10 posts started)

What also was added was a big Mother’s Day sale at Mom Chats and more blog posts on other blogs. I made sure and got atleast 1 affiliate link in each post I put up on other blogs.  I added a big VA special and took on 1 client that way and then the other client that would like to purchase hours in June.

Major thing I learned for next time:

1.  Check the calendar before committing to the 15 days.  I chose a time frame that hubby was home quite a bit, this makes it difficult to work as much as I’d like to.  Next challenge I will schedule around that.  Believe me it will be soon.  I want to get another one finished before kids are out of school and that’s not very many weeks out.

2.  Have daily tasks written out and focus completely on just 1 or 2 sites for the major 15 day goal push.

3.  Figure out what I am going to outsource for those 15 days and give work list to my VA ahead of time.

4.  When pre-planning the dates of my goal, get a daily schedule written out of the extra’s needed to accomplish this goal.  Also look at any site design or setups that need to be completed before the challenge starts.  During my goal is not the time to create new stuff, it is the time to push things I already have in place.

5. I have a disaster plan in place for daily work, but I didn’t for the extra stuff.  I had a death to contend with during this time and we also ended up having 2 birthdays, plus some other things on the weekends.  My last week didn’t get put to use like I’d hoped and and that really cut into not hitting my goal.  So pre-planning is going to be key!

I’m excited for what I did hit with no real planning.  Now to push the next challenge well beyond and put into place all the things I learned.

You can check out the original post for my 15 Day goal here. I’m in the middle of day 6 and so far it’s been an extra $140 earned out of the $500 goal. Not bad, but not where I need to be. Let’s review.

A couple of other follow up posts:
Day 2 of 15 day goal
Quick Check in on 15 day goal.

My original quick post of what I was going to do to accomplish this goal of $500 in 15 days are:

1. Push my affiliates at Once a Week Cooking (still need to do)
2. Tweet daily on the Once a Week Cooking account (had at least 1 tweet of my own and one RT or @ reply each day)
3. Get blog posts up there daily. (planned on 12 posts in the 15 days. I have 6 done)
4. Get 5 new PLR packs added to Busy Blogger PLR (put new packs up today)
5. 5 blog posts added to the Busy Blogger PLR site about PLR and it’s uses. (have 6 posts up in draft form)

So I’m doing ‘ok’ with the goals. The posts have made a major difference and the tweeting to my main account @busymommaval has brought a lot of traffic. I’m almost half way to my goal of new subscribers for Once a Week Cooking. This means it is time to get the affiliate angle working. I’m setting a new list below of things to accomplish. This includes what hasn’t been finished yet above.

1. Push affiliates to menu plans.
2. Keep tweeting daily and start to push the affiliate program as well.
3. Finish last 6 blogs posts to OAWC
4. Finish the 5 blog posts to busy blogger plr
5. Get next 10 autoresponders done for 102 scrapbooking ideas
6. Email drafted to go out to lists about May Madness when it goes live
7. 1 article written for directories to promote OAWC

Alright, that will keep me busy for the next few days. I still have about 3 hours to work today and I want to get 1 article done for each site and then a guest blog post done for Shelly. Oh and go grab something health for lunch. K, I’ll get 1 blog post finished up and then go make a salad. Have to keep my energy going!

More posting tomorrow.  Oh and I have to get a post up here about spam comments.  I’ll get that out in the morning.  lol

Well it’s midway through day 2 of my 15 Day Goal of an extra $500. I’m happy to report that with an unplanned site sale and a couple of new subscriptions, I am $120 towards that goal. So 13 days to go and I’ve earned $380 left to hit.

Some things that I have done so far:

~ 4 posts set to go up at Once a Week Cooking. Have a goal of 12 total by the May 7th.
~ Put my goal up on my mom masterminds group, with some more detailed numbers
~ Sent newsletter out to Once a Week Cooking
~ I have an article started that I’ll get up in some article directories
~ I got my special in for a big may madness push, again through my mom masterminds group
~ I put up a special for VA hours to this group, I’m looking for 1 new client. Then I’ll add a special here for 1 more VA client.

Considering I barely got online yesterday and I was super warn out when I was online, I’m happy how much has been done so far.

I still need to get the new PLR packs added and that is a major one. Also need to work on building the list there some. Other 8 blog posts up and I’ll have a major dent in my to do list towards this goal.

I love it. I love discussion. I love making people look good and hard at how their perceptions get in their way. Most of all I love discussion that makes me stop, because truly I have to look at my own perceptions. Chrissy has been really egging on my thinking by continuing the discussion on wahm values. Keep bringing it Chrissy, every post is making me think about something different I may be doing or not doing.

All this WAHM value talk has made me think hard about my work life. I have major offline changes and I’ll post those later, but they have been truly major and all this talk of my value has made the decisions easier. Not saying that I’m waltzing through said changes, shouting with glee, but if this talk didn’t come up right now I would be dragging my feet. lol Remember this blog was created because I balance my two business personalities. Some are online and my personal training is offline, but both are mine alone The offline biz has not been easy to balance with the family and is yet another reason that forced changes and thinking have been awesome.

The last week I have been even better about scheduling and balance. This is not an easy task as all this discussion has gotten me very excited about my projects and a couple of clients projects as well. Not to mention two of my sites really kicking it this week. Hmm, wonder if it has anything to do with my passion being back in the biz and putting more value on my time?

I’m being better about charging for my time. One client wants my opinion on things, not even proofreading but just my opinion after reading documents. Yes, yell at me, but there have been times in short documents that I haven’t added the time in. You can imagine after a few emails back and forth every week, how that can add up. It’s not like he doesn’t want me to charge him for that time, that was my own odd perception. Yes, you can commence the “yelling” at me now, I’m in a good place to be able take it. lol

It’s that fine line that I am crossing over. I’ve given away a lot of help for free over the years. I’m grateful that I have and I will continue to pass free help on, but there is also getting to be a much better line for when it is too much and I’m getting better at getting that across in my emails as well. Years of freely helping others is helping me set up ecourses and reports to further help more people. That coaching was not in vain, however I need to keep it under control so I don’t become bitter and it takes up time I need to be working my business so I can continue to work from home. This also puts value to my time.

Getting control of my time spent on certain aspects of biz and projects helps me map out where my time is spent and how I can work to lower that time. Be it through outsourcing some of my tasks or creating products to help even more. Analyzing how I’m spending my online time will help me value that time or show me where my time wasters are.

Just because I love to help other moms doesn’t mean that I should always do it for free. I know this is a big mindset I have to change. I’ve been on work at home forums since 1999, getting a ton of advice and passing it as well. I think the fact that I have gotten so much free info over the years is a reason why I’m having some issues crossing that line. But knowing is most of the battle right?

Oh what a distracted web we weave…when we sign up for every newsletter!

I’ve been so guilty of this lately. I got into this horrid mindset that I didn’t want to miss anything. Can’t miss out on the latest and greatest so-and-so released. YES, I CAN!

This isn’t close to the first time I’ve had to do major inbox weeding. I won’t kid myself that it will be the last. The realization always hits when I take time away from the computer. When checking emails after a couple of days and there are hundreds to sort through. Out of all of them I may possibly want to glance at 20-30. Out of those 20-30 (depending on any launches or projects I have going) I may actually need to respond to 10.

I just had to sign up for these lists to stay in the know. Yet, I find myself not opening them. Ding, ding, it’s unsubscribe time. Especially right now as I streamline a ton and vow not to spend more. If I don’t get the email with the new product or service then I’m not tempted to buy it. Temptation gone.

Now here’s the kicker. If a product launched and I will really benefit from it, then odds are it will be there a few months down the road as well. The price may not be introductory low anymore, but I’m not afraid to send an email and ask about any specials they may have. By waiting I’m also in a position to pay that higher price and not worry about it. I’ll be ready to use the product or service immediately and not have it sit on my computer as well. Many times I’ll find that I don’t actually need the product I thought I had to have. So waiting a few months can save me wasted money as well. If the product is as great as the emails would have claimed, then I’ll hear about it from my networking groups and won’t have to worry about not being on the newsletter list.

The inbox took a drastic hit on Sunday and I hope all the lists will be ok without me. lol I may be back if I miss the contact or you just might entice me to sign up again. But taking the time to delete so many unopened emails each day is a mental drag. It doesn’t matter that it only takes a minute to go through them all. It stinks to check emails and have to many that are a waste of time. I’m not done getting rid of lists by any means. But over the next month I will click the unsubscribe link on many emails instead of just deleting them.

Now to focus on checking my email only a few times a day. This will be a much more difficult task. lol

As a VA you work on a clients projects and follow all the procedures to a “T”. There’s no short cuts taken as your client is expecting every step to be completed on a project. You definitely want them to get your full attention and your best work.

But when it comes to your own, are you in a hurry to get it done and cut corners? Hmm, I wonder how this post came to light? lol

Yes, I found myself doing just that a couple of weeks ago. I was excited to get a project up and running. I was moving a website to my own hosting and was nervous about messing anything up. I’ve moved quite a few wordpress sites and it’s always gone smoothly, but I still worry until I see it pop back up on the new hosting. I had saved the database, the theme and all the plugins. I wrote down every single setting on the site separately. It took a long time to hand write all the settings that were on there. Then I was in the ftp and almost didn’t do one last save of the entire hosting to my site. I knew it would take quite a while for it to save to my computer so I was going to just let it ride.

Wow, all that work and I wasn’t going to take one final safety measure to make sure I didn’t lose any of the site? Luckily I thought better of it. It clicked in my head that however long it took to download to my computer was nothing compared to having to redo a site that has been building links, traffic and content for 2 years.

I’m now double checking everything to make sure that I take all the same steps on my own projects that I would for a client. Do it right the first time so I don’t have to do it again.

This week is just packed with things that MUST be done. I’m coming off a fun, but really busy weekend and quite a bit of money was spent. That does a good thing and energizes me for making more. lol Plus some bills come out this week so it’s extra motivation as well to work on some must do projects.

Daylight savings time is going to mess the heck out of my week. I’ve been so good at my new sleeping schedule and now I have to change it an hour. It’s stupid and there is no reason for it. We’re the only damn country that does it and hell, 1 time zone in our own country doesn’t change! How’d they get to NOT do daylight savings time. I say pick a time and stay there. We’re not farmers and need to change our clocks by the daylight and I want proof from an unbiased source saying it saves on energy. So yes, that’s my little rant. It’s been difficult enough for me to get up at 6am, now you’re telling me I have to move my clock so it’s an hour earlier that my body gets out of bed? You are not helping me here!

I say this rant because I’m busy as all-get-out this week and I’m in a productive mood. I’m excited about some projects and I’m excited to see some clients projects go up and see the results. But, it’s going to have to be a week that I do my prioritizing and keep to my lists. I can’t be all over social networking for hours this week. Quick and to the point, then back to work. My lists are quite specific so I can get things accomplished every day. Hubby is working two days this week and the kids are going one night to my friends house to visit. That day the kids and hubby are both gone is going to be all my project day. I have a major project in mind and it will get set up that day.

Have you set up your week?

This week on my favorite forums, I posted the challenge to pick just one thing and focus on it. Having your to do list is great, but there are things that are a bigger priority on that list that must be pushed to the top.

This week I focused on my newsletters. I’d been neglectful and hadn’t been posting them as often as is necessary. One of them I’m sure it is because I was making the newsletter too big. I have decided to scale it back and link to articles and sections on my site instead of full articles. Then there were a couple of newsletters I’d never sent a thing to a joint newsletter I wanted to get some things pre-written for my biz partner to use in the coming weeks so she doesn’t have to come up with so much.

I got this done last night and it felt awesome. So from now on the last week of the month is newsletter push week for me. I’m excited to get that in place so I can build some of these lists like I should be.

Now it’s already Thursday and noon for those of you on the East Coast already. But it’s not too late to grab that thing on your to do list that is the most important and get it done today. Then look to next week’s list and figure out what your focus will be. I’m excited to hit my to do list this weekend and see what my main focus will be next week!

Today I’m having a tough time getting anything done online. I can’t seem to figure out why I can’t focus on my business right now. I have a list here by me of things that really MUST be completed. Yet I’ve wasted at least 3 hours. Now I did go through a few emails, so that was productive. But it wasn’t any of the important things on my list.

I have no choice but to get this stuff done, doesn’t matter how much time it takes me. It’s only 4 here on the west coast so I do still have a good amount of time to find my business focus. But only if I work on it right this minute. So here are my steps to getting a little more business focus on my projects and less staring at the computer screen.

1. I just took my projects and broke them down into much smaller items. For example, I have to get a meal plan done. Instead of having that big project on my list looming at me, I wrote down recipes, shopping list, article. Now I can go accomplish one item and get it crossed off. I’m a big list person, so once I start crossing things off it’ll flow.

2. Prioritize which things on my list need to be done first and which one’s are bogging my brain down. I have items on my list that I’ve been meaning to get done for a while. I won’t get to them today at this rate. I have a feeling that is keeping me back from getting even 1 thing done.

3. Set the timer and work on housework between projects. We have high hopes of going skiing/boarding tomorrow. This means that I need to make sure the laundry is done tonight so I don’t have to stay up late on Sunday. Also don’t want to come home to a dirty kitchen.

Alright, that’s my plan to find my business focus. Now off to go get the first major one done. Recipes Setting my timer so I can do the dishes after working on the recipes.