Have you ever taken a cruise? If so, you recognize that feeling of a BIG ocean with a small ocean liner on it. Yes, that cruise ship sounded large when you booked your trip. But now that you’re on the open seas you recognize the immense space you’re a part of.

That same feeling of space applies to your time. Using the illustration of a cruise again, you may have had the sense that you had hours of free time. No appointments. No email. No phone calls. No deadlines.

It’s this sense of space, particularly of time space, that you need to cultivate in your business. Without it, your days are packed full of activities, leaving you with no time to do the long-term thinking you need to grow your business.

So how do you get this space in your schedule? Here are two methods that work.

1. Schedule it. Actually block out days on your calendar to “do nothing.” While this might initially seem counter-productive, you will find the insight you gain with that space is worth every penny of lost productivity.

You may find that you do best with taking a week at a time, every six to twelve months. Or you may do better with taking every Friday off. It depends on your preference.

2. Add it in. When traveling to a conference, build in an extra day before the conference to clear your mind of day-to-day concerns. You’ll get more out of attending the event.

In addition, add an extra day or two onto the end of your trip. You will have time to process your notes, revise your action plan based on the new information you just received, and generally have some time to think.

3. Repurpose your current time. Much has been said about the value of listening to audios as you commute or exercise. But what if you used that time to listen to your internal thoughts instead? You might be surprised at the results when you allow yourself that quiet, as you drive or walk.

Naturally you don’t need to do it every day. But try not listening to audio programs or the radio as you drive to work on Mondays. You will be surprised at the result!

Now that you have the time, how do you use it?

There are two major approaches that seem to work for most people. Try each and see what works best for you. For the first method, you can just “be”, letting the thoughts flow through your head randomly. If you are a creative thinker who grabs unrelated ideas out of thin air and combines them into new thoughts, this may be your best bet.

On the other hand, you may prefer “planned thinking.” With this method, you list the specific things you want to put your thoughts to, then focus on each item in turn. Some people find it helpful to write the thoughts down as they are coming to you – essentially creating an internal dialogue.

Regardless of the methods you choose or the time you take to do your thinking, it is invaluable to create that time space you need to let your mind wander – and your business grow.

If you’re ready to capture those ideas with your new “time space”, then you need to use the Idea Organization System at OrganizeYourIdeas.com

You already know that there is a difference between planning and actually implementing the plan. And the difference lies in your Planned priorities and your Action Priorities.

Planned priorities are those that we plan to take to help us reach our goal. So in the morning you may PLAN to write a report, set up an optin page, then generate some traffic from Facebook.

But then there are your Action priorities. These are the things that you end up actually DOING. Things like checking your email, responding to customer support tickets, answering a question, commenting on blog posts, preparing for your upcoming webinar.

Now while all of those actions were helpful – and maybe even necessary – they aren’t what you planned. And if you’re not doing what you planned, then you’re not going to reach the goals that you set.

So where’s the gap? Here is a simple process to narrow down WHY you are not making the progress in your business that you want.

1. List your PLANNED activities for this week. These are your Planned priorities to achieve your longer-term goals. So under ideal circumstances what would you like to get done this week to move your business forward?

2. List what you typically DO in a week. Write down EVERY thing you do. Those are your Action priorities. They may be  dictated by prior decisions or present circumstances. But regardless of the cause these are the Action you are taking.

3. Now compare your Action priorities to your PLANNED priorities.

What are you NOT doing?

What are you doing in addition to what you planned. Why?

4. Many small business owners focus on Reactive Actions – responding to one demand on their time after another. Ask yourself why? Why do you allow outside forces to determine how you spend your time?

5. Now it’s Decision time. You can continue to React and merely take Action. Or you can Plan your actions – in order to achieve your goals.

If you are not moving forward in your business, it’s probably because you’re not achieving your Planned actions. And where do you get those actions? From Planning Your Online Business, of course!

Over a series of blog posts, I’ve shared a few tips on getting more done with less time and obviously, our focus has been on keeping things together through the many wonderful distractions of summer. But keep in mind, the approaches we’ve discussed can certainly apply all year round. Most of us started our businesses because we wanted freedom and really, we have it right here for ourselves when we need it.

My time here is done (for now), but I thought I’d do a little wrap up of what we’ve talked about, so you can create the schedule for your business that you want.

• Be Disciplined: It may seem contradictory to tell you to be disciplined when you’re actually seeking freedom, but the more disciplined you are, the more time you will have to do what you really want to be doing. Setting your work hours and planning your work days go a long way to ensuring you have time to do everything you set out to do.

• Be Flexible: On the other hand, not everything has to be written in stone. Sometimes we take on more than we can chew. Other times, we focus on things that just don’t work and we need to make a change. Don’t be afraid to make changes that are good for you and your business.

• Get Help: I can’t stress it enough, but don’t go it alone. If you’re doing everything, you’ll forever be chained to your computer. Hire an assistant, take on a business partner or even barter where you can.

• Focus on What You’re Good At: When you have a team in place, it’s easy to focus on the stuff you like to do and do well. It’s much easier to stay disciplined and motivated when you get to do what you love.

• Plant the Seeds Now: Whether you’re planning a vacation or something unexpected happens, having things in place will help you go far. That includes building your team, growing your mailing list, developing a steady stream of traffic and all the things that you need to keep your business moving along.

I appreciate the time you’ve given me here and I hope that the time you’ve invested will give you back manifold. Enjoy the rest of your summer and enjoy every moment of what you do.

In other posts, I’ve talked about answering emails being a huge distraction, but there’s a bigger distraction lurking about 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. Yes, I’m talking about social media. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest, it’s easy to get sucked into the virtual social world.

While there can be plenty of benefits to using social media for your business, it’s important to evaluate the time you spend on social media. It’s easy to get carried away looking at pictures of mouthwatering food on Pinterest or reading clever graphics people post on Facebook, but is it growing your business?

As a general rule, social media shouldn’t require your constant presence. Think about it, your website doesn’t need your constant presence to thrive. Neither does your mailing list, but it sure can bring in a lot of profit. Why should social media take over your working day? If you’ve got yourself into a trap where social media does require your constant presence, it may not be your most effective marketing strategy and you may want to reconsider how you’re participating.

Once you’ve figured out how much time you really need to dedicate to social media, it’s much easier to come up with a plan to keep up with things in the summer. Here are a few approaches you might take:

• Schedule Social Media in Down Time: I mentioned this a few posts ago, but if you’ve got limited time to work in the summer, keep that time focused on your core business activities like email marketing, content creation, product development and promotion. Use downtime to catch up on tweets and work on your Facebook Page.

• Share Responsibilities with Your Business Partner: If you have a partner in your business, create a schedule that helps make sure social media is covered while one of you is busy. Also, having both of you participate creates even more interesting experience for your followers.

• Hire an Intern or Social Media Assistant: If you don’t have a partner, there’s still no reason you can’t hire a helper or have a small social media team. Make sure you set up a very detailed and clear social media policy so that anyone posting on your company’s behalf knows exactly what’s expected.

• Preschedule Your Updates: You can also automate your social media using a tool like Hootsuite or any other service you prefer. You can preschedule your updates, but make sure you drop by now and then to keep the conversation going and respond to comments.

Whatever approach you take, it’s important to realize that social media is simply a small part of your business and it should be managed accordingly. Scheduling your time, enlisting some help and even automating some of your social media can help you achieve the right balance.

In an ideal world, we would go on vacation, leave the laptop at home and never give business another thought. Unfortunately, we don’t live in the ideal world. For most business owners, going on vacation means having to tote the laptop, iPad or other digital device. However, just because you bring it, doesn’t mean you have to have it attached to your hip. Here are some tips that might help.

Choose Your Device

The important thing is to have the device that works best for you. Laptops can be large, but smaller devices like netbooks, iPads or other tablets may not have the full functionality that you’re looking for. On the other hand, using a smaller device might make it easier for you to get less distracted by work and simply do what you need to do and get offline.

Accessing Your Documents

If you don’t bring your usual computer, you can still have easy access to the documents you need. You can use a popular service like Dropbox.com, but you will have to load the files you need ahead of time. Using an automated backup service like Mozy or SugarSync ensures that you can access ALL of your computer files, even the ones you didn’t think you’d need. Both services also include mobile apps for a variety of platforms, so you can access your stuff from a variety of types of devices.

Do Work Ahead of Time

When you know you’re going to be going away, get super focused and get a lot of your work done ahead of time. There’s nothing quite as motivating as knowing that you’ll be going on a fun vacation when all the work is finished. You can pre-write emails, blog posts, product promotions and get a lot of your work done ahead of time.

Plan Your Device Time

Just like when you’re at home, you should plan your work time while you’re away. Sure, it’s not always possible to know what will be happening every moment of your vacation, but the better you can set your work schedule, the more likely you won’t let work time take over your vacation. If mornings are most convenient, set aside an hour or two in the mornings to get things done.

Get Help with Communication and Customer Support

Having to worry about customer support or answering emails can be the kiss of death to just about any vacation. Hire a virtual assistant (VA) or someone to take care of the daily communication, so you can relax and only work on things that are absolutely necessary.

Plan Your Wifi

Wifi is available in many places, but it’s not everywhere. Find out which destinations will have wifi available to you or consider purchasing a wireless card through your cell phone provider, which can make it easier to get connected wherever you can get a cell phone service. Or many mobile phones can be toggled with your computer (either through USB or Bluetooth) and you can use your phone’s connection on your work device.

Keeping the balance between work and fun can be challenging, but if you plan ahead, things will be much easier. One thing I mentioned in this post was hiring a virtual assistant or someone to help you with correspondence. In my next post, we’ll be talking about outsourcing, even if you’re on a budget.

Just a short post for you today because I don’t want to keep you from getting your work done!

Summer should be about enjoying yourself, getting outside and hopefully getting away from it all. Of course, most of us don’t have the luxury of avoiding work all summer long. Sometimes, we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get busy, but it’s not always easy if you work from home. I’m sure just about any home or Internet business owner can relate, so here are some tips to stay motivated this summer.

Work hours are your friend: We talked about this in the avoiding distractions post, but it applies here too. When you know when you’re supposed to work, you’re more likely to do it. If you leave your days wide open and think you’ll squeeze work in somewhere, it’s less likely to happen.

Focus on what you like doing: There’s nothing worse than dreading something on our to-do list. Not only do we procrastinate from getting that one thing done, but it can remove our motivation to do anything at all. Always focus on what you’re good at and enjoy. Hire others or take on a partner to do the things you despise, but they enjoy. I’ve never understood why some people love crunching numbers and doing the accounting, but I’m so glad that they do.

Set summer goals: While you may not be working as hard in the summer as you do other times of the year, do set some goals for yourself. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals. Make them challenging, yet attainable and outline the steps you’re going to take to achieve them.

Reward yourself: When you accomplish a goal, give yourself a reward. Whether it’s a camping trip, a weekend away or simply an iced tea on the patio, everyone likes to have their work appreciated. Appreciate yourself readily!

Give yourself a break sometimes: As entrepreneurs, we can be pretty hard on ourselves. We try to pack so much in, create ridiculously long to-do lists, but it’s not really necessary. Always re-evaluate your work plan and adjust it to make sure you get the most important things done.

I guess the real lesson here is to know where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. Always have a plan, but be prepared to adjust it where necessary.

Of course, if your motivation has gone down because business has slowed down, we have another problem. We’re going to talk about reviving a slow business in my next post.