It is hard enough managing time as a solopreneur, add to that – mom, wife, employee or even student and you can easily find yourself way off track. Trying to get it all under control can be a challenge, especially without compromising one thing, for another.
Very often though, that is exactly what ends up happening. One or two of the primary roles in our lives usually dominate, causing us to neglect the others. The one the suffers the most is, you guessed it – our role as “Business Owner”. Life has a way of sometimes knocking us back a few steps to the point where our business efforts get shoved into a place of paralysis.
As time goes on, it’s almost hard to notice the invisible barrier around our business and how it even occurred. In this post today, I’m going to keep it short and straight to the point.
In business, you’ve got to learn to set Boundaries and release the Barriers
I’m not oblivious to the fact that things don’t always go “as planned” (whatever that means), and we can’t control every situation that comes our way, believe me…with six kids, I completely understand.
We can however make things a bit easier for ourselves by setting boundaries when it comes to managing our time. Setting boundaries creates structure, which helps things run a little more smoothly in your day-to-day life and business.
A few things you can do TODAY to set boundaries:
- Set scheduled work hours
- Limit the amount of times you check email throughout the day
- Limit the amount of time you spend on social networks
- Limit the amount of time you spend on the phone with clients/customers
- Create a prioritized “To-Do” list
- Value your own time (when you do, others will too!)
- Learn to say NO
Obviously, this list could go on…but you get the idea. Setting boundaries gives you MORE freedom and will prevent you from creating unwarranted barriers that keep you from making progress.
I learned this lesson with a few bumps and bruises, hopefully you won’t have too.
How has setting boundaries in your business helped you be more productive? Let me know in the comments below:
Tamyka Washington
I had been very good at staying within my boundary lines. Last week, I strayed wildly outside of them and my productivity just sank. This post is a wonderful reminder to set boundaries and respect them. Boundaries are created for a reason! Thanks for such a great post!
Thank for your honest feedback Regina! You are so right too, there have been times I’ve strayed away from my boundaries and found myself playing catch up…not very fun!
I definitely needed to read this today! life will definitely try to throw you off track if your not careful I spent 2 weeks wondering why I couldn’t get anything done and found that a to do list keeps me focused and on target. Thanks for the reminder!
Glad you found it helpful Alena. I agree, sometimes the littlest things – like a to-do list, is what we need to keep us on track!