My tips 4 - 6 (of 20) to survive the holiday rush of a cottage industry

(Picture of seamstress borrowed from this website)
Good morning, it's 8 am and I am off to a new day. Yesterday I reflected on mental preparation, supply stock and taking care of our health. More ideas:

4. Social Networking, well, if you have enough orders already you may just want to cut back on it in order to save time. A blog is actually a wonderful tool to accumulate all your news, thoughts or even write down your own schedule as a to-do list. Share your new items (with lots of keywords so that potential buyers will find you on Google) and direct friends to your blog to catch up on your life. And if you love forums as much as I do, just take 30 minutes every evening to hang out in there when your work is done. As a reward for all your discipline during the day. As opposed to waste time during the day.

5. Multi tasking, oh don't we all just hate that word. But it can benefit us when done right. I don't believe in doing 3 things at one time, but 3 things one after the other without wasting time in between. Thanks to my wonderful international buyers I go a lot to the post office these days. So I like to combine my chores while running around. Post office, bank, pick up a few fresh groceries if needed, stop at the general store for printing paper (if there is a sign of getting low on every day staples). And one thing I actually enjoy is turning up the volume of my favorite oldies station (classic rock and soul) and jam and sing along while driving.

6. Organization, well this could fill pages, but a few simple tricks help us break down our chores for the day. I always print out every invoice immediately as soon as I receive the payment for an order. They have a place next to my pc. Every morning I work on these first. I pack up sold items for the post office and whatever is paid after my items are packed/shipped, will go into the pile for the following day. That way I get a feeling of accomplishment. A stopping point like the work whistle blows at a plant. Mission accomplished. Grab a caffe latte and enjoy this time of the day with your feet up, go onto the patio or watch the news. When we don't have a set schedule (and thank goodness there is no boss other than ourselves), we need to create our own schedule. There has to be a starting point and a finish line for every day.