Creating Routines The rituals you need to keep-and how to stick to them

Q: Oneof the reasons I decided to become self-employed was the rigamaroledemanded of me while working for someone else-forms to fill out,justifications, other people's schedules to keep, and on andon. But I know that to run my business successfully, there arethings that regularly need to be done. What are they, and how do I"make" myself do them without feeling the resentment Idid while employed?

A:Larger businesses can hire people to whom to delegate routines, butanyone operating a one- or two-person business from home has tasksthat, if not done regularly, produce unforgiving consequences.While each business has its own demands, some common tasksinclude:

		LearnMore "PutFire In Your Belly," and you'll never cheat on yourroutine again. Information overload can sabotage any good routine. If you'vegot "SoMuch To Read.So Little Time," take a few minutes toread this. "MakingThe Right Connection" with the right telephone servicesshould be part of your routine, too.

Making (and keeping) marketing contacts
Billing and following up on unpaid invoices
Paying bills
Reconciling your bank statements
Filing receipts
Making tax payments and filing required forms and reports
Processing snail mail
Answering e-mail and phone calls
Processing orders
Sending thank-you notes
Reading newspapers and other periodicals
Filing and cleaning up work in progress
Ordering supplies
Running business errands

Of course, communications technology enables small businesses toincreasingly use off-site office support personnel, such as virtualassistants, to delegate many of these tasks. But if you're notfinancially able to or willing to delegate, you must find ways toget yourself to do things that pile up when left undone, resultingin growing irritation as well as additional time, energy and coston your part.

Essentially, a routine involves establishing a regular time,space and manner for getting things done. Although setting upregular routines and rituals may seem confining, they actually makehandling of administrative minutiae into habits, meaning things getdone without you having to think much about them.

Here are several rules of thumb for creating effective routinesand rituals:

Identify those things that must be done over and over in sometimely fashion, and then ask yourself how you can get them tohappen automatically. Do you need to remind yourself to do them,putting them onto your electronic calendar as repeating tasks? Ormaybe they can be tucked seamlessly into what you already do eachday, week or month through what we now call multitasking, likeanswering e-mail while you're "on hold" making phonecalls.

Assign repetitive tasks to a convenient time, place and procedure.We, for example, have always had a file cabinet in a closet nearthe front door, so when supplies and materials arrive in the mailor we return home from purchasing them, we can simply take allreceipts out of the packages and put them right into the properfile. Because there's no home delivery where we are, we go tothe post office just before it closes around 4 p.m. each day. Thenwe open and process the mail when we get home.

Give your routines trial runs. Once you've identified when,where and at what intervals you wish to carry out various tasks,commit to following your routines diligently for at least sixweeks. If, during that time, you find yourself avoiding orresenting them, it's a sign you need to make adjustments.Either the routines you've established aren't functional,or you need additional help to manage them because they'retaking up too much of your day. Effective routines simplify, notcomplicate, your life.

Blend the things you like with the tasks that are most difficult orunpleasant to you. For example, if you hate filing and enjoy aparticular kind of music, play it while you take on the filing, andturn this into a ritual.

The best routines and rituals enable you to dispense with themin the quickest and least intrusive way, freeing you to focus onwhat's really important. Think of them as the power flow inyour home office, always in the background, but forever enablingthings to work while you go about your business.

Small-business experts Paul and Sarah Edwards' latestbook is Changing Directions Without Losing Your Way(Putnam Publishing Group). Send them your start-up businessquestions at www.workingfromhome.com or incare of Entrepreneur.