It’s February and I am happy to be writing my TELUS Talks Business Blog Post again, even if it means I have to write it whilst I am on a conference call, emailing my clients, working on a keynote presentation, and working out at the gym to make sure I lose those extra pounds I gained at Christmas!

Just joking, my blog post just happens to be about not having enough time in the day and as all small business owners know, there is not always enough money in our business plan to hire accountants, IT people and marketing gurus, so we have to do it all ourselves and there are only 24 hours in a day.

I do have some tips that helped me make it appear that there are 25 hours in a day, and I even managed to sleep a healthy 8 hours after a full day in the office.

• Put a planner on your office wall. Make sure you put everything on there including your lunch time, gym break, shopping and obviously your appointments with clients, phone calls etc.
• Make a promise to yourself not to answer your phone when you are in the middle of a project, remember you do have voice mail, you can always phone the caller back.
• Stick to your schedule; if you plan on being in your office at 9am make sure you keep to that time. If you get behind during the day you never find the time to catch up.
• Schedule time for your social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and know why you are spending time on those platforms. Focus, whether you have scheduled 15 minutes or longer, when your time is up, quit at the exact time you have on your planner.
• Take time to read the book you know you have to. Set a goal for a chapter a day, during your coffee break if that works for you.
• Plan for exceptions in your schedule such as your car breaking down, the train being late, a client not turning up, etc. If you need to, set new goals for the next day or when you have availability. Leave open spaces in your planner for these emergency changes.
• Know that you will probably not be able to finish everything in one day, accept this and walk away. Your work will still be there tomorrow and you will feel refreshed and ready to go.

We tend to set tight schedules that we know we can’t keep to. This can make us irritable, angry and even suffer low moral.  If there is an emergency and you have to work from home once you have eaten supper, know that this can’t happen every night. Once you get into the habit of taking work home it is difficult to turn back. Set sensible goals, make new habits and believe in what you are doing and know it works.

I think there is a term that could be used to describe what I am talking about: time management. It’s about knowing how to use your time wisely, effectively and how to get the most out of every minute of your day. Saying that, if it’s not fun and you are making yourself sick through overworking then you are not doing it properly. The time has come to look at your budget and see if you can out-source some of your work otherwise you might not have a business for much longer.

Let me share a quote: “A stitch in time saves nine”. This quote means: a timely effort will prevent more work later. The Phrase Finder suggests, “The stitch in time is simply the sewing up of a small hole in a piece of material and so saving the need for more stitching at a later date, when the hole has become larger, clearly, the first users of this expression were referring to saving nine stitches.”

We can transfer the meaning of this quote over to our work ethic and if it means keeping to a sensible work schedule, which in turn may help stay healthy and alert. We will probably get more done than if we are forgetting things which are important to the smooth running of our business.

We were given 24 hours in a day for a reason, use your 24 hours every day sensibly, productively and don’t fight old man time, you can’t win.

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is a President of Motivational Steps and  Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in  Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org