How many of you block your time out each week? Now I know most of you will have ‘to do lists’ but do you also plan time each week for reviewing finances or planning your sales & marketing? Until the end of 2008 I simply wrote my list each day and didn’t properly plan ahead, that was until I started working with a business coach.

So what do I mean by a default diary? This a diary for the week whereby you block out time for tasks according to the hours available for you. For example because I have children my day starts at 9am and finishes at 3pm but I then schedule time 3 evenings per week and time over the weekend for additional work. My diary includes:

Working on the business
–    Increasing my knowledge, reading books or visiting business websites
–    Planning my sales & marketing
–    Financial reviews

Working in the business
–    Planning my clients events
–    Processing emails
–    Doing the sales & marketing (i.e writing a newsletter, posting press releases)
–    UKAWP
–    Dream Occasions Hire work
–    Researching & writing new posts for my blog
–    Family time
–    Timeslot for meetings (although flexible to clients needs)

Now there will be weeks when the diary won’t work, for example if you have a project that week you will be understandably busy with that. But in theory it will help you focus on the task at hand. Do you have a system like this for your business? I’d love to hear from you on what works best for you.

Do also read the SmartPlanner post on ‘using a block diary’ which is the same principle.

Bernadette Chapman is the UKAWP’s Owner and also owns Dream Occasions, operating throughout South East England. If you would like support with managing your time then consider hiring Bernadette as your business coach , to read more about how this service works visit our mentoring page