Tweet

Taking Back Your Life

Written by: Cyndi Webb

Article Overview: Do you feel like you are a slave to your home based business? Are you working seven days a week, with many of those days being 10 - 12 hour work days? If your answer is "yes", you are not alone. This seems to be the syndrome that many home based business owners fall into. One of the downfalls in running a home-based business is that many individuals are not able to break away as they would if they worked outside the home. It is too easy to walk by your office, pop in for what you anticipate will be a quick five minutes, and end up coming back out of your office an hour or two later. When your office is in the home, the hours can blur together, and, if you are not careful, your business will consume you.

Taking Back Your Life

Do you feel like you are a slave to your home based business? Are you working seven days a week, with many of those days being 10 - 12 hour work days? If your answer is "yes", you are not alone. This seems to be the syndrome that many home based business owners fall into.

One of the downfalls in running a home-based business is that many individuals are not able to break away as they would if they worked outside the home. It is too easy to walk by your office, pop in for what you anticipate will be a quick five minutes, and end up coming back out of your office an hour or two later. When your office is in the home, the hours can blur together, and, if you are not careful, your business will consume you.

There are two very simple ways to overcome this problem. First, you need to set a schedule as you would for a job outside the home. Allow yourself only so many hours during the day to run your business, and stick to it. Just as you would have regular office hours when working outside the home, you need to create work hours for your home based business. Working at home allows you the flexibility to decide what hours they will be, but be fair to yourself and your family by sticking to your plan.

Second, prioritize your work every day with your “to do” list. Make sure that the most critical jobs and tasks that need to get done are at the top of the list. That way you are sure to hit those deadlines and feel better at the end of the day knowing that you have not left an important project unfinished. And you will not feel the pull to get back into your office every time you walk by during your non-working hours that you have set in place.

For most of home business owners, the reason we have chosen to work at home is because we want to be home with our children and there to meet the needs of the family. If you let your business take up too much of your time and energy, you are defeating the purpose of your original goal.

Take back your life. Allow yourself the freedom to be the parent, spouse, and friend that you need to be. Your business is important, but so are you. Don't lose sight of what is truly valuable during our short time at home with our children. What you don't get done today will still be there tomorrow.

Related Articles
  The Benefits of Taking Action
  Overcoming Self-Sabotage
  Successful People Make Their Own Luck
  Don’t Neglect This Part of Your Business
  Take Action Now and Achieve Your Goals Sooner

Article Tags: based business owners, defeating the purpose, five minutes, flexibility, freedom, home based business, home business owners, job, jobs, seven days, working at home



Related Forum Posts
The Second Life Platform - Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.
Re: New Video - Should I Get A Job Or Start A Business? - Hi Evan, I was curious to know what you'd suggest and I think you gave excellent advice. Taking a year out to try and start your own business is a great idea. Taking a year out after college is a well established option so I guess it doesn't prejudice your chances of getting a job should you wish to do so later on; it probably improves your chances if you've been getting valuable experience of managing a business and of course, if all goes well, you won't need to find out. Definitely a video for my website. Thanks! David
Re: The Second Life Platform - [quote="JBunion":fhe23fsu]Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.[/quote:fhe23fsu] Hi JBunion, I've heard about the site. So are you currently a member? And more importantly, have you tried to open a store front in that virtual world?
Post subject: Too successful for a mate? - That was an interesting article, Shri! Most of the women I know who continue to be single have some type of self limiting behavior which interferes with them either meeting or attracting the perfect mate for them. They are incredible and talented women, they just haven't set themselves up for relationship success. I know there are men who may be intimidated, but there are also men who aren't. Some men are attracted to smart women! My advice to these women would be to focus on creating the right environment for a relationship to happen. This would be a great time to hire a Life Coach or Relationship Coach. Taking action to get ready for a relationship doesn't mean having to be aggressive in finding a man. It's more subtle. If you don't make room for a man in your life, you might just squeeze out the opportunity before he gets to you. As well, you may be sending off all the wrong signals without realizing it. Seriously, I don't think successful women are off the proverbial "good wife material list". However, if you think yourself off of it then don't be surprised if you fulfill your own prophecy.
Re: Charge what you're worth - [quote="Tami Szabo":292ze3jd]People will pay you what you ask. Very few will ever up the price. You are the one who decided what you are worth. The key is that we believe our services are worth the price we are asking.[/quote:292ze3jd] Hi Tami, You're absolutely right. In "Think and Grow Rich", Jessie B. Rittenhouse says "For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial's hire Only to learn, dismayed , That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid" (Napoleon Hill 35). I think the same can be said when setting prices on eBay or Craigslist, especially when people are trying to haggle you.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Good News Travels Fast

What is an Adaptive Organization

Stay Employed In A Down Economy

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.