Setting Boundaries to Manage your Time

Every business owner should set boundaries to help manage time and plan their schedule.

One of the key things to think about when you are trying to manage your schedule more effectively and manage your tasks is how you are going to set the boundaries around your work life. I encourage you to think about what are some structures that you can put into place – whether it is starting and ending work at the same time each day, or working from the same place each day.

One of the most important boundaries that you need to set is what your regular business hours are going to be. This can be as flexible or inflexible as you feel comfortable with. You are in charge – you get to set the parameters around this. But I encourage you to set some parameters. For instance, you’ll definitely want to choose how many hours each day you want to work and which days per week you want to be open for business. You’ll also want to decide which hours each day will you open for business and when you will close the business day. Your essential time management boundaries are the days per week that you want to work and the hours per day. Once set, you’ll need to be able to communicate these effectively to the people who are connected with your business – your vendors, your clients, your family, your friends, your business partners and associates – all those people need to know what your open and close hours are so that they can respect that boundary. You could post your hours on your website, or you could leave it on your outgoing voice mail. If you have a retail storefront or dedicated office space you could post it on the door.

One thing that is also effective is to let people know when they can expect to hear from you if they don’t reach you during your business hours. So for instance, if a client calls you outside of your regular business hours – let’s say they call you at 6.00 p.m. and you are only open until 5.00 p.m.  – and they don’t reach you, you might want to put in your outgoing voice mail that they can expect to her from you within one business day.

Interested in learning more about how you can set boundaries to help manage your schedule more effectively ? Learn how at www.profitableproductivitysystem.com.

Leave a Reply