or...How To Let Family Members Know You Are Not Available to Chat During Business Time!

If you run or operate a small business from home or work online, you may find your time is often interrupted by unexpected phone calls from family members who just “want to chat.” This can be a very frustrating experience for someone that relies on their business to ensure their financial stability and success.

If this describes a situation that you have been faced with, or are currently experiencing, rest assured you are not alone. You don’t have to suffer however. In this article I will show you how you CAN have a backbone and let family members know you’re not available to chat on the phone, without little to no conflict.

If you find yourself needing to reiterate to family members that you can’t just stop and chat anytime you feel like it during your work time, it’s probably best to send a subtle message at first. One way to do this (after you’ve explained it to them that is) is to attach an answering machine or voice mail to the line. Then (and this is the hard part I know) when the phone rings, regardless of what the Caller ID displays, avoid the temptation to answer it.

Allow the answering machine to pick up the call. If you have a machine that you can hear the message a caller leaves as they are leaving it, resist the urge of picking up when someone leaves a message that they claim to be important. Everyone has something “important” to talk about, but not all topics are significant enough to interfere with your daily routine and achieving success.

If you find that this is a hard task to accomplish or just not possible, have voice mail added to your line so that you don’t have to hear the message right away. Then set a specific time each day to check the messages and return calls as necessary.

While we hope this is enough to get the point across, sometimes it just doesn’t happen that way with some friends and family. If you find after a certain amount of time that you have not received the peace and quiet you have to have during work time, it may be time to sit down and have a talk with these individuals.

It is often natural for those we are close with to take for granted the fact that you work from home. Especially if they don’t understand what you do or have never been in a situation where someone they knew ran their own business from their home office. They automatically assume that since you are home, you must be available at any time. Then there are those who realize you are actually working, but they may believe that you have more flexibility in your schedule than you do so they don’t think about things such as productivity and allotted time for certain tasks, including telephone chats.

One way that may benefit both you and those looking for a friendly conversation may be to give everyone a set time frame in which they can call you. This is one way to get your point across without making anyone feel like you are shunning them. There will more than likely come a point in which, despite your previous attempts to get family members to call during certain hours, you will be receiving calls outside of those hours.

If this happens, you have to be certain to let them know, in a way that they understand, that they are interfering with your overall productivity, as well as the way you make money to support yourself and your family. Remind them that you would not call them on their job unless it was an emergency and that you would like them to so the same respect for your work.

It may come to the point in which you really have to get point blank with your family members. Let them know, however, that you enjoy talking to them on the phone but that there are certain times during the day that are more appropriate than others. Eventually it will sink in!

It can be hard to tell those you love that you are unable to chat on the phone during the time that you are working. However, it is something that you will need to come to terms with and do for the success of your business. In the end it will be beneficial and everyone will come around.

There are many ways to manage time while working online. The computer, Internet, and various other types of activities that can be pursued while working may prove to be quite overwhelming when it comes to time restraints or deadlines. If your income is dependent upon the financial success that you achieve online, it is absolutely imperative that you take the time to ensure that you are maximizing each and every minute of your working time.

Productivity is an extremely important element to the overall success of an online business. In order to reach a high level of productivity, time management skills are a must for every home business owner. Here are five ways to help manage your time while working online in turn boosting your productivity and hopefully income.

1. Reducing the amount of time spent on the telephone.

One of the biggest time restraints that individuals experience are telephone calls. It is quite easy to experience a severe time lapse while working due to unexpected calls, long conversations, and even calls that are necessary for the overall functionality of your business. One way to manage this aspect of your time is to turn off the ringer and purchase an answering machine or subscribe to voice mail. Then, you should set aside a time each day to check your messages and return calls as appropriate.

2. Avoid the act of constantly checking email.

Just like the phone, this can take up a lot of your time. You should set aside small chunks of time on a daily basis where you can go through your email and respond when needed. For the average eight hour work day, I recommend setting aside up to four intervals of fifteen minutes a day to handle the task of dealing directly with email. While this may seem like an awful lot of time at first, you will find that it actually saves you time in the end.

3. Dealing with your children when you work at home.

You may want to consider setting up a schedule in a way that works well with the schedule of your partner. This way, your partner can contend with the kids and you can focus on your work instead of sitting down to work and getting interrupted after 5 or 10 minutes. If this is not possible, you may consider implementing the services of a babysitter, daycare or mommy’s helper a few days a week. This way, you aren’t neglecting your business or your family.

4. Dealing with friends, family members and neighbors.

If you want to learn ways to manage your time while working online from home, it is important to express to family members, friends, and neighbors that you work at certain times and it is important that you are able to maintain a sound level of productivity while working. Come up with times that these individuals may call you to chat or come by for a visit. Although not always intentional, these friends and family will end up testing you initially and drop by and call anytime. However, if you let them know it is not acceptable and set up appropriate times for these activities, you will find yourself getting more accomplished during these times.

5. Take breaks.

Yes, I said it! You may not believe that by taking a break you can actually increase your overall productivity, but it is quite true! Why do you think employers allow their employees to take small breaks? It allows the employee to experience a short time of relaxation and also provides them with the opportunity to refresh! You can experience this too, so be sure to work in those breaks and take them – you can always finish what you started when you get back!

As you can see, there are a number of ways to successfully manage your time while working online. Sometimes, all it takes is a little creativity and persistence to come up with successful time management techniques. Here’s to a better organized and more profitable online working environment.