Title: Using Time Word Count: 397 Summary: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.” - Benjamin Franklin One of the primary keys to developing a home-based business is an understanding, appreciation and proper use of time. Time management is hard to manage even in the pressure of the corporate world. It becomes even more difficult when you are the only one accountable for your time. “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”... Keywords: home business,home based business,entrepreneur,online business,internet business,time management Article Body: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.” - Benjamin Franklin One of the primary keys to developing a home-based business is an understanding, appreciation and proper use of time. Time management is hard to manage even in the pressure of the corporate world. It becomes even more difficult when you are the only one accountable for your time. “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The development of time management techniques often begins with consistent list-making routines. These lists are an important means of helping you stay on task and complete the goals you have for the day. One of the ways many entrepreneurs manage their list of ‘to do’ items is to place the most difficult and most immediate items first on the list and then tackle each issue in order – one at a time. The natural inclination is to sort through the list and find the things that are easy to do and tackle a few of those. This would be all right except the end result is simply the completion of less than essential items that typically replace those things that really need to get done. "Sweet childish days, that were as long, as twenty days are now." - William Wordsworth One of the things that can pull a home-based business off track is when there is a lull in business activity and the owner lavishes their attention on so many ‘fun’ activities that they find it difficult to move back into work mode when they need to. The Internet is a playground of fun activities that exist alongside legitimate means of ecommerce. This can provide a detrimental temptation to home-based business owners. The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow - the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it. - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi One trait of the best home-based business is an effective use of time. It is nothing to be wasted and it can’t be saved it can only be used wisely or irresponsibly. Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce? - Ralph Waldo Emerson