If you always feel rushed and you feel you can’t get anything completed during the day you might want to address your time management methods. If you have the feeling of not being able to focus on one thing at a time and not being able to handle distractions well, then you should take a step away from the action and relearn the basics.

Time management is a simple concept: plan and organize your schedule to make your time as clear and productive as possible. However, as with most stay at home moms, we must accept that there will be plenty adversity during the day and we have to deal with it.

If you are finding that you are pressed for free time or that you just feel too busy chasing your kids around, here are some tips to make your time more productive and find some time for yourself.

Wake up a Little Earlier and Take Time to Take Care of Yourself

Remember you have control as to when you wake up. Consider waking up a little earlier. I find that taking the first 30 – 60 minutes of the day to just think does wonders for my mental outlook. Take a few minutes to have a cup of coffee or tea and write down what you need to do for the day or maybe do absolutely nothing. If you want, write down any tasks you promised your family or yourself to do earlier and prioritize as to when you can complete them.

If you really want to do something great take on exercising: wake up 60 minutes earlier than your family and work out. Movement is a great way to start the day and it clears your mind. There is so much to be said for exercising and living a healthy life style. The point is that you want to give yourself a head start. Again: you can control when you wake up.

Take Control of Incoming Demands

Children can be a very powerful distraction that can easily take your focus away. I have two young children (six and three years old) and it seems that they have a request every 30 seconds. Some days I’m reaching for the Excedrin by 9:00 am. However, you must embrace the fact that your family comes first.

The best thing to do here is to try your best to teach your children to ask for things one at a time and also (if age permits) show them how to do things on their own. If you are doing something very important and it’s not a life and death request from your child, try to defer it until you complete the task. Your time can be well spent by teaching your kids to take care of a few things themselves when they ask for something.

Keep a Note Book and Pen Handy

Try to keep a note book with yourself at all times. As long as you are not driving or doing something dangerous, it is best to write down your random thoughts in a note book. This way you can decide what to do with the task when you are ready to review new information. This is a good way to decide if an idea is good enough to pursue. More importantly you can prioritize the idea.

Writing down your ideas and forgotten tasks in a note book can be a powerful tool in dealing with distractions. If you are like me (with a mind going a mile a minute), a note pad and pen is essential to time management.

Time management is necessary for almost anyone in this super busy world we live in. However, I feel it’s even more important for stay at home moms because we are responsible for keeping our families together. Our days are filled with running around for our children, working on multiple projects at the same time plus some of us try to juggle school or a home business. So time management skills are definitely needed and can really help.

It is a continuing process that should include each aspect of your business life. This implies your psychological angle, physical contentment and appearance, work atmosphere, your interplay with others ( clients and employees alike ), and your off-the-job environment. Inspirational gurus get paid big money to inform executives, trying for success, that they must constantly inspect these elements. How does one do that?

Follow these  five tips that follow, and watch the changes.

Always Maintain a Positive Outlook – Let’s understand that life is only ten percent of what happens to us and ninety percent how we respond to it. When you are around other people / things that are inspiring and positive, you’re feeling that way. You’ve more confidence in yourself, and know you can change whatever wants changing.

If you can make your workplace such a place you will find happier employees and higher production. You could even find your workers anticipate coming to work.

Leave Personal Difficulties at Home – Everybody has issues, but they do not belong at work. This will be good for you because you will get a psychological break from your difficulties.

Create Positive confirmations – the reason behind writing goals for your business is the same as creating positive confirmations on paper. What your eyes see and ears hear, your intellect will believe. After you have written them down, read them out loud to oneself – and do it each morning when you get into work.

Come up with a group of fresh affirmations each month. Statements such as, “I’m a crucial and valuable person,” or “I know I should make efficient use of my time today.” Repeating them aloud everyday at a set time will help reinforce positive actions.

Ensure Break Times Are Truly Break Times – This is an area where most bosses / entrepreneurs fall down. You become so intense about the project or situation you are working on that you do not ease up.

Thinking that it will be figured out in the following few seconds, and then you will get a cup of joe can lead you right up to quitting time. Frequently sticking to a mentioned break schedule, even if you are the MD, releases the strain. If you work on a PC this is even a larger problem because before you realize it – you have been working in that very same position for hours.

The best answer to this is to set yourself a reminder on your appointment calendar for each two hours, and let the PC reminder chime send you the caution to move around.

Always Make To Exercise! I do not mean that you need to go out and join a gymnasium or workout everyday at lunch-time, 3-days-a-week there working out. What’s truly advantageous and workable is that at those chiming alerts from your PC, get up and walk around your desk or room. Perhaps go outside and get the post and enjoy the daylight ( if you are a businessman which has a SOHO office ), or merely get up and do one or two stretches.

Then when we move we “ooh” and “ouch” because we’ve knotted up into a ball of strain. Regular stretching, even at our desk, or simply getting up and walking over to the window and getting a different view can be helpful. One of the best disservice modern business decor has done to us, is making our offices spotless, graceful, unfettered spaces.

There’s not a lot more relaxing than getting up from your desk and walking over to a peaceful, tranquil, seascape or pastoral painting and just drinking it in visually.

Temporarily transporting your intellect out of work and into that place performs marvels. One or two good paintings and less glossy chrome in offices would benefit us all. It only takes a little concentrated effort on our part to keep incentivized and productive, leading to success.

Well, I’ve read just about everybody’s directions, books, and helpful hints about getting organized (in fact, I’m thinking of writing one myself), and I’ve got to tell you there are some misconceptions being fostered by every organizational guru.  It will be my pleasure to give you the ‘skinny” on that in today’s column.

Here are the 8 misconceptions that we can throw out:

1. Handle paper once.  This is not only impossible, but in most cases it’s unrealistic.  Instead of handling paper once, get in the habit of doing something with each piece of paper to move it forward.  If you get some information about an upcoming seminar/trade show, for example, decide if you’ll attend or not.  If you’re to attend then note the date on your calendar and sign up.  If not, then toss the information immediately.  If you want to wait to sign up, then make a note in your planner to respond well before the deadline and file the paper in your ‘to-do” file.

2. Always keep papers stored out of sight: Some of us work better when their desk is clear, whereas others feel stifled if they aren’t surrounded by stacks of paper.  If you’re an “out of sight – out of mind” type, keep papers you use often nearby in files or stacking bins.  They’ll be accessible, yet not clutter your desk.  When working on a project, spread out the papers related to it, and when you’re done put them away together in one place.

3. Everyone should be organized to the same degree.   Different people work differently.  Don’t feel that you have to work the same as someone else.  Find a comfortable level of being organized, and make the necessary changes to maintain that level.  I usually draw that line when I’m looking for something and can’t find it; that’s when I know things need to get reorganized.

4. Soon we’ll be a “paperless” society. Don’t you believe it.  Experts have been saying that for years, and we won’t be paperless for a long time.  It’s not technology that’s the problem, it is human nature that’s the culprit.  We’re creatures of habit and used to seeing things in print rather than on a computer screen.  The younger generation is now being trained on computers at an early age, so when they join the workforce, the “paperless” society will have a better chance of becoming a reality.

5. One planning system should fit everyone.  When used correctly, daily planners are an ideal way to stay organized.  Keep in mind, however, they are designed by a few for many users.  When buying a planner, whether paper-based or electronic, determine what you want it to do and choose a system accordingly.  If you can’t find one to suit your system, design your own based on your individual needs.

6. You have to be born organized to be organized. We learn both good and bad habits at an early age.  It’s possible to change any bad habit, including disorganization.  Youngsters raised in an organized environment sometimes rebel as adults by being disorganized.  The opposite is also true, but neither is carved in stone and behavior can be modified.

7. You MUST use a ‘to-do” list. Planning day-to-day is not realistic for everyone.  Someone may do the same task every week, but others find their plans changing daily.  Consider your particular need, then plan by the day or the week.

8. Being organized means being a perfectionist. A perfectionist may spend time on insignificant details while disregarding the big picture.  When others complete a project quickly and on time, the perfectionist continues to work until the project is perfect.  A perfectionist becomes more effective when he/she lowers his/her standards slightly and concentrates on ways to increase productivity.

Misinformation, when taken seriously, can hinder you from doing what you want.  The next time you hear one of those “Organizational Gurus” espousing one of the above misconceptions, consider its value and work to develop your own style of organizing.

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An article in The Wall Street Journal today by my colleague Miriam Jordan tells the tale of Dolores Jacobo, a nanny for a wealthy couple in Malibu, Calif. In addition to watching the children, she shopped for groceries and ferried the golden retrievers to grooming appointments.

Last week, her employers informed her that her $1,000-a-week job was getting cut.

Similar scenes are playing out across affluent America. Christopher Baker, a top household staffer in Los Angeles, told me the story of a personal assistant in Orange County whose employers told her she would have to take a pay cut. “They said they just didn?t have the money,” he said.

The personal assistant then discovered the family was spending $12,000 on outdoor Christmas lights. She confronted the employers, who told her that they had to buy the lights to “keep up appearances” for the neighbors.

“She quit and went to work for another family,” Mr. Baker says.

Natasha Pearl, president of Aston Pearl, a New York advisory firm for wealthy families, says some families who have several housekeepers are cutting back to one or two, while those with “senior” and “junior” nannies are cutting back to just one “senior.”

Some also are using the economy as an excuse to get rid of people they wanted to fire anyway, she says. “They are using this as a chance to drop the nonperformers,” she says.

Household staff may seem like an essential part of life for the wealthy–uncuttable even in tough times. But as staffing salaries soared in recent years with so much demand for help–with household managers starting at $50,000 or more–staff has become a prime budget target.

“When a family steps back and does an analysis on ?where are we spending?? household staff is where the big money is,” Ms. Pearl says. “If you pay your nanny salary and benefits in a major city you?re looking at compensation that could be $50,000 to $70,000 a year.”

That has meant tough times for staffing agencies and help alike. Mr. Baker said his fourth-quarter revenue is down 10% from the same period in 2007, while volume is down about 25%.

First Class Care in Chicago said business is down 30% this year. Annie Davis, chief executive of Annie’s Nannies Household Staffing in Seattle, estimates a drop of 10% this year, and says, “It’s going to get worse.”

It all adds up to further proof that the budget crunches of the rich are going to have an outsize impact on the rest of the economy.

Have you ever wondered what makes a successful person? In fact do you even know what you need to do to be successful or what success really means to you?

For some achieving success maybe making alot of money, being viewed as a leader, being popular, amassing power, getting respect, and the list can go on and on….

But let me ask you? At this moment right now do you think you are a success? And if so, how did you achieve success?

One thing is for sure to achieve success you must have a solid vision. A vision in which you ‘see‘ yourself having already attained success. Great people of our past and present have achieved success by employing these 7 basic steps through out their lives.

These seven steps are very simple to implement in your daily life.

1. Do what you love and are passionate about. This is a major part in being successful because when you do something you love, you tend not to treat what you do like work.
2. Be prepared to learn and be positive (motivation and enthusiasm). I deliberately used the word “learn ” because we do learn from books but mostly we really learn from life. Life is the greatest teacher overall, but many of us do not use the circumstances in our lives as positive learning lessons. To fully embrace life as a teacher, we must be willing to accept all challenges, good or bad and use that to propel our lives to greater accomplishments.
3. Be prepared to invest not just money but your time, effort and resources to become successful . One thing is for certain, being successful is not easy! But anything in life that is truly worth having never is. You must put the time and effort to become exactly what you intended to be.
4. You must be disciplined in having set goals and targets. The keyword in that sentence is “set” because people with set and targeted goals are more likely to achieve their goals than those without clear goals. Common sense would say if you know exactly what you want in life it is far easier to achieve it than if you are vague or ambiguous about your goals. But the reality is most people set goals that are not specific or measurable. Think of all of the people that you know who would like to achieve something great, but their goals are not clear enough and thus they constantly end up failing or never starting?
5. You must be prepared to manage your time effectively. Time and money are similar in that people are always spending it. But unlike money, you can not save time, or use that time for another day. Once that second, minute, or hour goes by, its gone forever. You can be rich or poor, but we all live 168 hours each week. To be successful you must budget your time according to your priorities to ensure that you use it effectively.
6. Be an innovative individual. There will times in your life where you must stand alone and strive to learn and succeed regardless of what other people or external forces are telling you. When you stop exercising your views and thoughts, and become dependent on others this often results in failure.
7. As you mature and evolve in life, learn to give back to society or your community. Giving back your time, money, or knowledge to others is one of biggest joys of becoming successful.

In all, success is not some secret that you have to search for or unearth in order to reach your destination. It is rather the understanding and the process that you develop with respect to what you really want in life. Intuition, courage, skills, knowledge, challenges and opportunities are some of the concepts that determine the traits of people who enjoy success. Any task performed with the right mental attitude and spirit will give you victory in any human endeavor that you set out to accomplish.