Mompreneur Tip – How To Track Your Time

One of the easiest things for you to do to feel better about working is to stop, drop and take a look at what is really going on for you!

Since mompreneurs are so busy – effective systems and routines really help us to effectively create profitable businesses and a fulfilling career! BUT in order to create effective systems and routines, it’s really important for you to understand exactly how you spend your time currently.  Without an accurate picture of what you currently do it’s really hard to implement any strategies or routines that will help you save tidbits of time here and there.

The best way to understand how much time you have available to you, is to actually track how you spend your time for an entire week.

YES – an entire week…

In the first module of my group coaching course AWAKE – Manage Your Time to Love Your Life, – we work on “Step One: Assess & Accept”. During this step, the homework is to scrupulously track your time for a week.  And mind you, I’m not saying to categorize your to do list.  I ask you to track your time to the number of minutes you spend and on the priorities you choose.

(I believe in this practice so completely that it’s USUALLY one of the first things I request of my private clients too.)

And, although it tends to drive my clients a little whacky by week’s end… it works – flawlessly actually.

Because, once we have an accurate picture of how you’re currently spending your time in a typical, we  can measure it, and then evaluate it. As part of the process, I ask you to consider shifting the accepted paradigm that time can be managed…

Truth is… although many people refer to me as a time management coach, I don’t even believe in the accepted vernacular that ‘time’ is actually managed at all.

Surprise!

What I know – is that it’s really YOU who has to manage YOU within the 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 52 weeks/year format of what we all define as our given time.

One of the best strategies I have for you to get back into balance with your time, is to determine how to support, prioritize and manage your activities to create the time for the things you love so you can live the life you want within the time you have.

Because moms not only manage themselves, we really must take a cold hard look at the time we actually have in order to manage our families and our businesses.

Let’s face it, the lioness still holds the lion’s share of family responsibilities.  It’s important to understand just how much time those responsibilities take on a weekly basis so that you can build your business in the time you have.

The cold, hard truth is this: I work with mompreneurs to simply accept the reality that time exists regardless of what you choose to do or choose not to do.

[Tweet “So mom… how much time do you have daily to yourself? #mompreneur #timemanagement #productivity”]

So many of us think we have MUCH MORE time available to us than we do – and as such, we set ourselves up for failure from the start.

• We set our expectations WAY TOO HIGH for the amount of time and energy we have to devote to things…
• We over-commit…
• We exhaust ourselves…
• We get mad at everyone else without seeing who’s really in charge here.
• We are the captains of an endless pursuit of activities that may or may not lead to the results we want – or the life we are trying to create for ourselves and our families.

The first step to feeling more ‘managed’ in time is to track what you’re currently doing with it now.

Then, analyze it to determine if your time is spent doing the things that you want to be doing.

Then – your next challenge is to accept how much time you actually have and find your way forward by fitting the puzzle pieces together while juggling all the parts!

How much ‘time’ do you actually have to devote to your business weekly?

Please do the math for your typical day and week, and share your challenges and insights in the comments  below!

If you would like assistance in this process, check out my AWAKE! Manage Your Time To Love Your Life – time management program!

Have you ever tracked your time? What do you notice about your own time tendencies? Please comment in the box below… OR if you have a question -please post it!