As a solo entrepreneur who may also work away from home you have numerous demands on your time and different aspects of your life that demand constant attention.  In the past this seemed to be a challenge that affected women more than men, but in recent times there appears to be quite an equalizing.  One of the main reasons for this change is that due to the economy many men lost their jobs and have had to look at other means to create an income, including working from home.  I became aware of this significant shift while listening to introductions at networking events locally.

Part of being organized is making sure that you manage your time effectively and the following are time saving tips to help you throughout the day and hopefully lessen stress.

1. Do you have school-age children?  Do you also work away from home? Make lunches the night before. Instead of rushing around in the morning, trying to get everyone ready for school and work, make school lunches the night before and put them in the refrigerator.  Label them in bags and they are ready to go the next morning.

2. Lay your clothes out the evening before.   I find that this tip alone saves me at least 15 minutes or more and my choices are better. This is

3. Do errands on your lunch hour and make phone calls during break times and during your lunch hour.  This can save you a trip to the store after work and will help you stay organized.

4. Keep a timer on your desk for when you call clients and customers.  Help them to appreciate when you are calling about business and let your timer be your assistant. Unfortunately many people think that if you work from home you have lots of time to spare.

5. Do your banking online.  The banking industry tells us that your identity is much more likely to be stolen by other means than through banking online.  You can pay your bills online and where applicable have an automatic deposit of your check into your bank account.  Most employers encourage automatic deposits and the good news is that the money is available for you right away.  This saves you a trip to the bank as well as time when it comes to writing out checks to pay bills and mailing them.

6. Fill up your gas tank when you need gas.  It seems that with the high cost of gasoline many of us loathe to spend the large sum required to fill our tanks on gas but just putting in a small amount every few days, if you are able to do more, does not make for the best use of your time.  Instead of having to stop all of the time at the gas station for gas, fill up your tank. You’re also likely to keep better records.

7. Wake up 15 minutes early to exercise.  This may encourage you to be more consistent in your exercise program, keep you more energized, and save on the time required to go to a gym.

8. Make casseroles and dinners two nights a week.  Instead of trying to figure out what you are going to cook for dinner each night, make dinner in advance.  Two nights a week, or on the weekends, you can make such things like casseroles that will keep in the refrigerator

9. While walking is a good form of exercise, there are times when condensing what you need to do around your home makes good sense on how you manage your time.  For example, removing clothes from your dryer and taking them to a bedroom.  Try to think of what items you need from that room or section of the house that you can take back rather than returning empty-handed.

10. It might be a good idea to print out this list and add to it as you think of other ways you can work at keeping yourself organized and manage your time to reduce stress.

I invite you to get your free booklet “50 Ways to Manage Your Time” for additional tips.

If you are old enough you will recall that in the ’70’s the dream was that in 15-20 years we will become a paperless society because with the proliferation of computers, everything would be stored there and we would not need to have huge filing cabinets.  We can easily laugh at those statements now, can’t we, because it seems that more than ever before we are inundated with paper.  How about you in your home-based business?  Do you find that you spend a lot of time moving different stacks of paper from one place to another in your home office?  Do you often walk in to your office and wish you could just wave a magic wand and make all the papers disappear?  If you do, you are not alone.  But, what can you do so that the flood of papers do not consume your time?

Here are 5 tips to control the flow of paper and manage your time:

1.   E-Mails:  Just about everyone receive lots of e-mails on a daily basis.  Do you really need to print out every e-mail?  You may need to from time to time, but before you print a copy, is a reply required?  You could reply promptly and then print one copy that has both the incoming message and your response.  You may have specific times during the day that you reply to e-mails.  Rather than printing them out, could you ‘flag’ the messages so that you’ll know which ones need to be replied to. Print only after you have responded. In this way you have less paperwork on a given topic.

2.   Regular Mail:  It may be possible to reply with a note written on the bottom of the original letter, or just a phone call may be an appropriate response.  You would make sure to note on the correspondence the time and date you responded and the person to whom you spoke.

3.    Do You Need to File It?:  Many of us, including myself, receive mail and file it away to look at in more detail ‘later.’  Six months later we still have not found the time to look at the “Special Offer” which has expired.  If the offer has expired throw it out!  Why not include in your schedule every two weeks to spend a half-hour outside of normal client hours to go through these correspondence and purge.  Make to decision to file or throw out.

4.    Reading Online Correspondence:  Most of us are on several people’s mailing lists and receive newsletters, ezines, and e-mails daily.  Some information is very pertinent and valuable to our business.  However, how you read is important.  You probably have perfected the art of speed-reading, but do you need to read everything  in every e-mail?  You may need to do that for some, while others you just skim over looking at headings, and others you scan for specific information.  For indepth material I like to print out and read along with a pen or pencil and highlighter.  Keep those for quiet moments when you can focus and concentrate.

5.   Be organized:  Have a system in place for putting away papers so that you touch each the minimum  required number of times.  Moving stacks of paper from one place to the other is self-defeating and time-consuming.  File, don’t pile!  Keep only what is necessary on your desk and outside of cabinets. File away all others.

By implementing these tips, you may find that you are more productive.  Entering a neat work area gives a positive feeling of well-being and encourages creativity and action.  For additional strategies click here.