If you find yourself working long hours in order to complete the amount of work on your desk, talk to your manager about distributing the work among the people in your department.

When possible, collaborate with a team of co-workers. By sharing the work load, you’ll be able to free up some time.

Use your time wisely and efficiently. Find ways to use your commute productively, or at least enjoy it. Listen to books on tape, play your favorite music, or use a digital voice recorder to record an audible to-do list, an email or report to be typed up once you get to the office.

All moms need some “me time”. Why not take your lunch hour and use it as your “me time” and read a novel, paint your nails or meditate, anything that relaxes you.

Likewise, try to use your lunch hour in a productive manner. Consider this your “me time” and read a novel, paint your nails, or mediate.

Moms that work outside the home can use these time management techniques to blend a better harmony between their working life and personal life.

Here are just a few time management tips to help work at home mom blend both the work world and the home world together:

Set your business hours and stick to them.  Post your business hours for your clients and family members and as a reminder to yourself of when your work day is done.  When it’s closing time, do just that. Close the door to your office and enjoy family time.  Remember if you worked in an office away from home you’d leave at closing and any calls you need to make would wait till the next day.  Apply the same thinking to working at home.

Outsource administrative tasks to a virtual assistant.  Doing so will free up some time in your schedule allowing you time to market your business.

Limit the number of times you check your email inbox.  There is no need to check your email twenty times a day.  Check it every morning at the beginning of your day and say an hour so prior to your closing time.  This is also a great time saver.

Avoid surfing the net just for fun during working hours by unplugging your internet connection if you can.  Once, you’ve completed your task plug it back in.

Networking via the internet can be good for your business when kept in check.  Participating in forum or social networking group can consume a lot of valuable work time unless you limit the sites you visit and how much time you spend there.  Be selective and join just the ones you really like and can benefit you.

Enlist childcare help.  If you have small children at home during the day consider getting some help to watch over them while you work or if you are comfortable with the idea, a two days a week or a few hours daily of daycare.  This will allow you time to build up your business and your kids will remain taken care of.

Implementing the tips above will help you get more done during your business day and allow you the freedom to spend time with your family.

Some people prefer electronic planners such as a PDA or via their email program such as Outlook or Google Calendar while others may be more comfortable with paper planners, which are available in daily, weekly or monthly formats and in a variety of sizes.  Another option though not portable, is a large dry-erase board or bulletin board hung in your home or office.

Make sure the size of your planner will fit your lifestyle.  If you are going to carry the planner with you a lot, find one that will fit inside your purse or bag comfortably or briefcase.  If it doesn’t fit well, or is very heavy, it is going to be more of a hassle to carry it with you.

On the other hand, if you are going to keep the planner on your desk, consider opting for a large 8 ½” by 11” size.  This will provide you with plenty of room to write notes on.  An additional plus, it that this size is often divided into fifteen minute increments, which can serve as a very helpful tool.

If you decide on a paper planner,you can give yourself a visual image by color coding your tasks with highlighters.  For instance, assign the color blue to all of your personal and family obligations, such as doctor’s appointments, soccer games, family reunions, etc. and your business activities another color.  This way you’ll be able to see what you should be doing at a quick glance.

Choose various color for various activities or part of your life.  Choose categories that suit your needs best. If you have a day job and a home business, you may want to assign a specific color to each.

Once you’ve decided on your color and corresponding categories begin highlighting activities in your planner.  If one particular color seems to be dominating your week, you may want to consider re-evaluating how your time is being spent.

With the improvement in technology, digital planners can perform similar highlighting functions.  Smartphones combine a cell phone, planner, and even an Mp3 player all in one little package.

If you like the idea of keeping track of your schedule electronically, but don’t want to spend a lot of money on a PDA or smartphone, use a program such as Outlook or Google Calendar.  One of the features of Google Calendar is that you can share your calendar with other users.  This can be helpful if you plan a lot of events (such as pot-luck dinners, game nights, etc) and want to let all of your family and friends know about them easily.

The dry-erase board/bulletin board option is great for those that are very visual or those who like to have a lot of space to make notes.  One board can be hung in the kitchen as a reminder to all to keep track of everyone’s appointments, games, and so forth.

Another board can be kept in your home office to keep track of your work, bill payment schedules, and the like.  If you work on multiple projects, you may want to have several boards, so you can easily see what needs to be done for each project.

Before you can reduce the items lying around making a home look cluttered you need to decide what is needed or wanted and what isn’t.  Once you’ve done that, if you still have a lot of items remaining without a place to put them storage for those items is going to be needed.  Go through each room and identify where extra storage space is needed.  Once you’ve decided where you need the storage space, it will be time to decide on what type of storage pieces to purchase.

Many storage solutions are available, everything from bookcases and chests to ottomans.  The room in which you need the storage in will somewhat dictate what type of storage you will need to purchase.  For living room storage consider an ottoman with built in storage, for a closet there are many options for organizing from hanging shelves to shoe storage. Is your storage in your bedroom limited?  Try under the bed storage pieces or nets that hang from the ceiling.  The nets are a great option for storing kids’ stuffed animals.

Now that you’ve got your storage it’s time to tackle de-cluttering your house.  Don’t feel like you have to de-clutter the entire house all at once.  Focus on one room at a time or if that is too overwhelming for you do one drawer at a time.  Start small and work your way up to the bigger things and you will find that you have de-cluttered the entire house.

Just a couple tips to help you accomplish your goal of de-cluttering and keeping it that way:

When sorting, make several piles: a keep pile, a sell pile, a giveaway pile and a trash pile.

Schedule a thirty minute clutter cleaning session once or twice a week; this will keep you from having to spend several days clutter cleaning once very few months.

Once you are done reading a newspaper or magazine dispose of it, either in a recycling box or in the trash.  If there happens to be an article you want to read later just clip the article.  It will take up much less space this way.  Post it somewhere you’ll see it such as a bulletin board so you’ll remember to read it and then get rid of it.

Put items away when you are done using them.  Leaving things on counters can pile up fast and make a room look messy and un-kept.

Each night go through each room in your home, place items that belong in that room but are out of place where they belong and place the items that are misplace in a large basket.  Then go through and place the items in the basket in the rooms they belong in.  It shouldn’t take long and it will help clutter stay at a minimum.

Make use of every minute.  If you happen to be on the phone, grab a sponge and wipe down the counters, fold laundry or take care of other quiet chores.  A hands free earpiece works great for this.  Allowing your hands to be free will give you the opportunity to be multi-tasker and keep your home clean and neat.

Use these tips and your home will be and stay free of clutter build up.

For toddler, start simple with a night time routine to get your little one used to following a schedule and going to bed at the same time every night.  You may want to begin your routine with a soothing bath after dinner, then into their pajamas, a calm relaxing story and then off to bed.

Once that schedule is somewhat easy for him/her to follow, start a morning routine.  Wake them in the morning and follow their routine for getting started with their day, including getting dressed, having breakfast, playing with toys for a bit then running the day’s errands with you.  Once the morning routine is in place and running smoothly, add an afternoon routine and then gradually a dinner routine.

Routines aren’t just for toddlers though, children of all ages can benefit from having some type of schedule.  Elementary school aged children for example can have an after-school schedule in place so they’ll know what to expect after their school day is over.  It could include a small snack, which will give you a few minutes to review any paperwork in their backpack, homework and then having a little bit of play/relaxation time while dinner is being prepared.

Middle school and even high school kids can benefit as well.  Usually at this age, pre-teens and teens have a lot going on besides school.  Having a schedule of homework, after school activities or sports and of course their social life can get a little hectic for a teen so you may want to supply them with their own planners to help them get and stay organized with it all.  Teaching them to stay organized is a great life lesson that will benefit them tremendously once they are off to college or the working world.  Not only will you be teaching them about scheduling but you will also be teaching them about setting goals and priorities, all of which will benefit them in the long run.