I’m really thrilled to welcome back Peggy, who blogs at The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife, for a second guest post.  Since we last posted Peggy has set up her own business as a freelance writer, blogger and virtual assistant, working from her boat.  I also got to meet her at Blogcamp UK and she’s ace!  I totally covet her office, look:

I can see this developing in to a slot where lots of you creative types share pictures of your desk and guest post….shout if you fancy posting!  I know lots of my readers love to gain tips on getting more organised and time management, so over to Peggy…

You don’t tell time: time tells you.

- Chumbawumba ‘Timebomb’. 1993

I feel that my biggest challenge as a mumpreneur is time management. However, I recently read ‘Your Best Year Yet!’ By Jinny Ditzler. Jinny points out that “Time is unmanageable. No matter what you do or how well organised you get, the hands of the clock go round and round. What you can do, however, is learn to manage yourself.”

I am really into making lists. I have a notebook with different lists for different parts of my life:

A ‘To Do’ list for each client, a ‘To Do’ list for each blog and a ‘To Do’ list for home stuff, like ‘clean kitchen cupboards’! Then I have a personal ‘To Do’ list for everything else. That one is really random and goes something like: Do tax return, phone dentist, enter poetry competition, get a picture of Angelina Ballerina for my daughter and put more diesel in to the boat engine!

A good way to get a list off to a flying start is to make it something like this;

1) Something quick and easy.

2) Something you’ll enjoy.

3) Something you’ve already done.

4) The thing you’re dreading.

My second tip is to have a routine or a schedule and do the same things at the same times each week. I need to become more aware of things that sap my time and distract me: like social networking or reading random articles on line. Working at home it’s too easy to swap roles and flit from the computer to the dishes to the laundry. So staying focussed is another goal that I’m working on right now!

As I began this article that line from an old Chumbawumba song popped into my head. I asked Google to find out for me where the sample had come from and when Google didn’t know I went on Facebook and asked my music expert friend. He said,

“Doesn’t one of the band say it?”

It started a whole Facebook discussion and there I was sucked into social media again.

How did you land on this blog article? Where will you surf to next? Are you distracted or focussed?

Do you tell time or does time tell you?

About Peggy, by Peggy:

Peggy is a time management expert – just kidding! Peggy is a freelance writer, blogger

and virtual assistant. She’s also a mum of two, a daydreamer and lives on a narrowboat.

She blogs at Peggy Melmouth and The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife