If you own a home-based business, you may have found that you are spending more time working and less time with your family, the reason you started a home-based business in the first place. So how does one find balance when trying to juggle a family and a business?

You can successfully balance your home and business but first you have to realize what you can and cannot do. Then you need to organize yourself so that you complete your daily tasks more efficiently. The key to finding balance is by first controlling your time.

The first step is to get organized. When you begin each day knowing what you need to accomplish and how you are going to do it, you will get more accomplished without excess stress.

A schedule is crucial to your success at work, but even more necessary if you expect to have any time left for family obligations.

Realize that you cannot do everything in one day, and when it is time to quit, leave your desk and give your family time the same importance as your work. While you cannot schedule family time as specifically as you can business matters, you can have a time that you quit work and stick too it. All the pressing business matters and unfinished projects can wait until the next workday. You will find that when you make a schedule for each and every day, you will have fewer unfinished business matters at the end of the day.

Here are some ways to use your time more effectively:

Prioritize. Write down everything that needs to be done and then prioritize the list.

Keep it simple. Don't make everyday tasks harder than they have to be. Learn the quickest, easiest way to deal with the task and do it that way every time.

Where are you going? If it's your first time driving to a new location, get directions. A big time waster is driving aimlessly around trying to find a place that you thought you knew how to get to. Instead, take 5 minutes to check out MapQuest.com and get driving directions.

Are you done? When you are organized you know what's been done and what still needs to be taken care of. Using a to-do list is one of the easiest ways to keep track of your tasks.

Declutter your office. If you don't need it, want it or use it. Why have it? By eliminating clutter, you not only free up space but the time it takes to move all that unnecessary stuff around because it's in your way.

Eliminate unnecessary interruptions. A pet peeve of mine is to be half way through a time consuming project that requires my complete attention (ie: working with financial papers) and the phone rings, someone barges in and "needs something done right now". For times like this, let your voicemail/answering machine take your calls, give family members a 20 minute warning ahead of time so they can get all their questions, requests and so forth out of the way before you begin. For smaller children give them a quiet activity that they can do while you are working.

Handling Mail. When going through the mail have a wastebasket next to you so you can toss any junk mail that you may have. Better yet, toss it at the post office before you leave! Buy stamps by the roll and envelopes in bulk.

Plan your attack. Whether you are shopping for groceries, clothes or office supplies, you need to make it as quick and painless as possible. Instead of making short shopping trips every day, plan on doing all of your shopping once a week or if possible twice a month. Make a list of what you need and where you have to go to buy it. Know your route and plan to do shopping for non perishable items first and end with groceries all while trying to avoid backtracking. Only buy what's on the list! As much as this hurts me to say - if you don't have shoes on the list, stay out of the shoe section.

Prepare in advance. Mornings will run a lot smoother if you set out the kid's school clothes, hair accessories, shoes & backpacks the night before. This is true of business tasks too. At the end of the work day, set out anything you know you will need to have the next morning. If you make all your calls first thing in the morning, leave yourself a pen, paper, any account information and the rolodex out so it shaves off a few minutes the next morning.

Ask for help. If your business has grown to the point that you can no longer handle it alone, you may want to consider outsourcing certain jobs or hiring a virtual assistant. You can have routine jobs or special projects completed by others and for a reasonable price. Virtual assistants are great at doing all the tedious, time consuming tasks that take up so much of your time.

You can balance your home and business lives if you get organized, manage your time wisely and set realistic goals as to what you can accomplish in one day.