How to manage a business and a day job

I have often been asked how do you manage your time? Between a day job and running a business? Work on your business after working hours?
Although I have business partners now, they are only responsible for their own products. You can read our business model here.

Diy Paradise is still very much a one-man operation. The job involves

developing new products. Design, build, test, listen, mods…
production side. assembly and testing, (Do not buy anything from folks who do not test their products!) inventory, packaging…
shipment. Fedex, post office, meeting with customers to hand over stuffs…
the IT stuffs. Emails, website content, forum moderation/contribution, blog, web administration…
accounting/bills. The accounts, paying suppliers, Fedex…
lots of lots of communication. With suppliers, business partners, customers…
browsing the Net for information, learning new stuffs…

As you can see, I got my plate full, and this is just the business part! Add in my day job, 24 hours just doesn’t seem enough at all.

So how should we manage this? By prioritizing tasks and making every second count.

I start off the day with a list of priority items to do which I have already planned the previous night. While going through these tasks, there’s usually time to spare. For example, waiting for your turn at the post office, waiting for my customer to setup his machine for me to fix (part of my boring day job’s routine), waiting for the ultra sonic cleaner to do its job…

I fully utilize these “waiting” times by checking/replying emails and SMS. It’s just amazing how much work could be accomplished here. When I’m done with emails/SMS, I surf the Net for info. Oh yeah, it helps my company “lends” me a Blackberry.

When I’m driving, I’m usually on the phone with business partners/customers, with a hands-free kit of course. This makes Kuala Lumpur’s crazy traffic jam a lot more palatable. Less negative energy generated from being stuck at traffic jams! More positive energy at another completed task! (unless I’m stuck with some customer persistently ask for a discount…)

So make full use of technology to help us here. No Blackberry? It doesn’t matter. A cellular phone with push email technology works just as well here. Or grab a quick lunch then spend the rest of your lunch break replying emails whether in the office or at a cyber cafe.

The point is keep yourself busy. Keep on doing things. Once we clear up tasks early in the day, the momentum can be easily carried forward through the rest of the day. Hence we accomplish more each day.