13 ways to find time for an online business — Part 2

In the previous issue of Productive! Magazine, I suggested seven ways to find time for your online business while having a family and a regular job. In this second (and final) part of the series, I reveal six more hacks that you can take advantage of.

8. Learn as you go

If you have very limited time on your hands (which is often true when you are building your online business part-time), you are faced with one particular problem: how to find time for education.

In my situation, I used the times when I was on the move — either while in the grocery store or when waiting my turn in the tax office. You need to have an MP3 player or other device onto which you can download podcasts before leaving the house.

I also saved blog posts for later reading with InstaPaper and moved the documents to my Amazon Kindle so that I could read posts that I hadn’t had time to read before.

Finally, I carried a book with me. This was kind of a backup plan if for some reason my Kindle’s battery was out of power.

Through these ways, I was able to learn while managing everyday things, and I didn’t spend my time at home on learning.

9. Work as you go

When I used to have a day job, I would travel by train between my home and our head office from time to time. The trip would take six hours altogether; that was the perfect time for building my online business. In order to maximize that time, I planned in advance what tasks I needed to focus on.

With those extra hours, I was able to write blog posts, guest posts, and even finished writing an e-book once.

By working as you go, you can make the most of traveling, staying at hotel rooms, or waiting for your flight at airports.

10. Escape from home

Sometimes you just have to leave home in order to get work done. Possible places for working outside include the following:

• coffee shop
  
• nearby park
  
• public library
  
• office space
  
• co-working space

Whichever place you choose, it’s important to let your family know where you are, in case anything urgent comes up.

11. Prepare for the unexpected

One time, when my son was still a baby, I came home from work and discovered that my wife and son were taking a nap. I realized that I had an unexpected free time block to use without having to let anybody down.

Since I knew the next action that I should be working on, I headed to the work room right away, fired up my computer, and started working on my projects. Had I not known exactly what to do, I’d have just wandered around the house and wasted that precious extra hour.

If you win some unexpected time, it’s important to know what your next action is. This will help you to maximize the available time.

12. Watching TV

While I’m writing this article, my wife is watching television and my son is almost falling asleep. And I am working.

Whenever there is a TV show on, I’ll most likely do my own stuff on the computer while my wife watches the show. We do watch TV together as well, but if I don’t find her show interesting, I work on my projects instead.

13. Grandparents and babysitters to the rescue

We have a very fortunate situation as my son’s grandparents live very close to us. This makes it easy to ask them to babysit for us.

However, if you are not able to ask grandparents for help, you can always hire a babysitter to take care of your child while you are working.

When someone you trust is watching your children, you can fully focus on your online business, and you don’t have to worry about anything else.

Conclusion

It’s natural, especially if you have small children, that the time available to you for work may not be consistent. Instead, you might have time pockets spread out throughout the day. These small pockets, however, will definitely make a difference to your progress. Once you make sure you’re maximizing the time you do have, you’ll see the results.

Photo: Flickr / REGUSmedia CC BY-ND 2.0