Staying organized and reasonably efficient in a home business means having a good idea of what you are doing with your time, energy and resources. Just because you have a plan or an “idea” of what you imagine you are doing as you work at your business does not mean that is actually what you are doing. It takes some honesty and self-examination, but periodically it is a good idea to review where it is that you are actually spending most of your time?
When I first started my writing business, I figured up a budget based on all the time I imagined I would spend writing. In reality, the first few months were spent laying groundwork, networking, sending out proposals and queries and trying to drum up business. It had not occurred to me how much time I would really need to spend on getting the business off the ground and find clients who needed my efforts. Now, nearly three years later, I spend less and less time drumming up business (more of it comes to me but it has taken YEARS to get to this point), and most of my time is spent producing the work. Knowing where my time is going is important so that I can compare that with what I SHOULD be doing, and what actually results in getting the work done and keeping the bank account filled.
If you “plan” to spend the day working and then find that you get pulled away to take care of children or do household tasks, it is important to be honest about this. Having an accurate understanding of where you are spending most of your time within your business operation (and without) will help you to evaluate how you can make improvements and better structure your time as you work.