Managing work-life balance is hard at the best of times and right now it’s proving even more difficult than normal.  I thought I’d share with you a few of the tips that I’ve picked up along the way – a couple of them that I’ve not been putting into practice recently but have promised myself that I will start again!

1.  Eat the Frog

Your frogs each day are the tasks that will have the greatest impact on achieving your goals and are usually the tasks that you are most likely to procrastinate starting.  Deal with them first you will feel so much better for doing so.

2. Be selective about your meetings

Poorly run meetings are time wasters.  Make sure you have an agenda and you aren’t just having a meeting for the sake of it.

3. Eliminate electronic time wasters

Everyone has certain distractions that interrupt them and take their time away from their work.  Is your Facebook?  Twitter?  Email checking?  Stop looking at them so often and start batching these activities.  Set a time then check and deal with them all at once; give yourself 30 minutes and then get back on track.

4. Manage the gaps

Ensure that you have built gaps into your schedule to be able to offer flexibility and cope with emergencies.  If you have tasks to do that don’t have a deadline, create your own artificial one so that it is completed in a timely fashion and doesn’t drag on.

5.  Take time out!

 Give yourself a little break.  You will find that you will actually return to the task in a more productive mood.  Employed people are often better at taking breaks because they are usually scheduled in.  If you are self-employed and having a hard time making personal time a priority, pencil it into your calendar.  Try scheduling it at the same time every day/week so that it becomes a habit

I’m always keen to listen to new ideas on how to maximize my time, do you have any that you can share ?  I’d love to hear them.