Can I just start off by writing - You can’t!!! You may believe you can, but you can’t! As someone who runs her own home based business, I have to admit that I have been struggling with this for the past few weeks. And by sharing my time management issues with friends and colleagues, it seems I am not the only one to try to do everything all of the time.

The more you try to do everything and be everything to everyone, the bigger the cracks that appear. There are many roles that women have to live up to - from perfect wife and bestest-ever friend, to amazing mum and ‘Business Woman of the Year’. Standards may start to slip and you realise that the pressure build-up is causing headaches, anxiety attacks or, at the very least, an increase in chocolate consumption (an essential top-up for energy, isn’t it?!!).

So, being completely selfish, I felt I needed to remind myself of some simple strategies to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Top Tips on Managing You

Delegate. If you have too much on your plate, it is essential to look around you and pass some of your responsibilities over to someone else. Ask your other half to cook just one meal next week. Share the school run with another mum.

Stop over-booking your diary. Come on, you know who you are. One more night out with friends won’t matter - you feel should make it out to that network meeting in case you meet your dream client. Stop. Why not leave one whole day blank with no plans at all. Have you ever tried to read the name of a station when you are speeding by on a train? If your life is going by too quickly, you might be missing essential signposts to where your life could be going.

Run Away. Now I don’t mean for ever, but shut your PC down, put your phone on silent and take a walk. This can give you some essential breathing space. Come back calm and collected and it will help you prioritise the essentials and take control again.

Time to sub-contract. It may be that your business needs another pair of hands. Do you really need to stuff all those envelopes? Would you be servicing your business better by focusing on developing new clients? This applies to the running of your home as well – if you hate ironing, get someone else to do it. It will obviously cost you money, but what could you do with having those couple of hours a week?

Know when to stop. Sometimes we can try too hard to make things happen. If you feel that it is taking blood, sweat and tears to get something moving ask yourself if this is the right time. Please do not use this as an excuse to give up before you have even tried, but you can try too hard.

Get back to values. What is important to you about what you do? If you have forgotten what your core values are, then it is time to take a break and get back to basics. If you want a values exercise to work through, drop me an email and I will happily send you one.

Finally, stop feeling guilty. If you are saying to yourself “I should be doing this”, take this as a warning signal that the guilt monster is sitting on your shoulder. So what if something doesn’t happen – just ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that could happen by not getting this done?” If it is not life-threatening – is it worth the headache and stress of getting it done?