Late last week I came down with something – food poison, stomach flu…whatever it was, the feeling was a lot like what I imagine getting run over by a train would feel like.

Luckily my schedule for Friday was fairly light and flexible, so I was able to cancel everything and just take a day to relax – that included the opportunity to curl up on the couch at about 3:00 in the afternoon and settle in for a nap.

A nap!  Quiet in the house – just me and the dogs…an honest to goodness nap!

By my estimation, I haven’t taken a nap in probably 5 years or more and although I kind of felt like a kid playing hooky…I have to tell you it felt really good!

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photo by geckoam 

The clock’s running down
The team’s losing ground
To the opposing defense
The young quarterback
Waits for the snap
When suddenly it all starts to make sense

He’s got all kinds of time
He’s got all kinds of time

- Fountains of Wayne, All Kinds Of Time

Although the song is about football, the idea that things are coming at you fast (trying to tackle you) also applies to owning your own business.

You’ve got clients / customers asking for help…you’ve got people asking you for money…you know you’ve got to pull together a marketing plan, a strategic plan, something to make 2009 better than 2008. 

You’ve got employees that don’t show up – or do show up, but don’t do what they’re supposed to do.  You’ve got a family that would like to spend some quality time with you.  You’ve got prospects that want to buy from you, but you haven’t had the time to follow-up with them.

You’re being bombarded and everything is just moving too fast!

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Do you ever feel like you’ve just been run over by a car (or decided to lay down dramatically in the middle of the road?)    You know when you’ve got a ton of stuff going on, you haven’t had a free moment to yourself for quite a while and your work is piling up figuratively and literally.  You walk into your office and immediately feel drained and a bit defeated.

Have you ever felt that way?  Do you kind of feel like that right now?

There is a sure fire fix that will get you back on your feet, energized, focused and ready to take on the challenges ahead of you.

Now this fix isn’t a permanent solution, although it can be done more than once and if it becomes a routine I’m pretty sure your productivity overall would improve.  I haven’t gone far enough down the path – at least consistently to prove the long term benefits, but I can assure you that my outlook this morning after doing this is much better than it was yesterday!

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photo by ePi.Longo 

I’ve been hearing from clients and business owners a lot recently that their biggest issue is that they need is more time in the day.

Unfortunately you can’t create time – technically you can’t even manage it, it marches on pretty much at the same pace (although subjectively it can certainly feel faster or slower).

Although you can’t create time, there are several things you can do to make that perceived time crunch much less of an issue.  Previously I talked about 10 Ways to Get More Done and covered some great ideas to help make you more productive but the focus for today is from an angle of simplicity.

I’m inspired by Leo Babauta – author of Zen Habits – here’s a post on 10 things you can do to simplify your life that I thought was compelling.

What can you do to ‘create more time’?  Below are some ideas to get you started.

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Photo from Library of Congress collection 

Do you ever feel like there’s not enough time in the day to get everything done?

Sometimes you just feel flat out tired.

As a small business owner, you’ve got it worse than most.  You’re wearing a bunch of hats, a lot of times you’re covering new ground and ultimately the buck stops with you (to paraphrase President Truman).

There are a lot of strategic ways to work smarter, you can work on systemizing your business, you can get a coach to help you focus and prioritize or you can hire the right people and delegate stuff.

But your first step should probably be to work on your Personal Effectiveness and finding more effective ways to getting things done.  Here are 10 ideas / resources that might help to get you started.

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