If you've eschewed office life for the benefits of working from home, you'll have left your secretary, if you had one, swivelling at their desk. Managing your own schedule means you can balance your home business and your home life. Here are 5 tools to keep you on time for both.

1. Waking up and getting up

If, like me, your computer plays (and works) an important role in your business and your lifestyle, it can be used in a number of ways to help you manage both. Ever fallen asleep watching The Wire on your laptop in bed? Let it wake you up with your favourite music, radio station or podcast with an alarm clock application. Awaken for the Mac lets you do just that, as well as run an egg timer for timed tasks or the occasional (note: very occasional!) nap.

• Awaken ($15)

2. Calendar keeping

Need we extoll the virtues of Google Calendar? Here are 7 reasons, from its website, to use it in your home business and lifestyle: 1) share your schedule, 2) get your calendar on the go, 3) Never forget another event again, 4) Send invitations and track RSVPs, 5) Sync with desktop applications, 6) work offline and 7) it's free!

• Google Calendar (free)

3. Managing events

While you can easily arrange a meeting with Google Calendar, for more sophisticated event management you might want to try something more bespoke. Eventbrite lets you build an event page on the web, promote it with e-mail invitations and even start selling tickets (for a fee, of course). For less formal get-togethers, like parties and meet-ups, harness the social networks of Facebook and Twitter.

• Eventbrite (free; 99c - $9.95 per ticket depending on your ticket price)
• Facebook Events (free)
• twtvite (free)

4. Meeting deadlines

Remember the Milk is a cleverly named web-based task manager. And why's it better than scrawling a to-do list on a scrap of paper or sticking post-it notes to your fridge door? Well, you can take your tasks and your reminders anywhere (Google Calendar, Twitter, BlackBerry, iPhone, instant messenger, email, text messages), locate your tasks on a map, share them with co-workers or clients and add to them wherever you are.

• Remember the Milk (free to $25 per year)

5. Time tracking

As well being a pretty slick way to invoice your clients, web application, Freshbooks, also does a neat job of tracking the time you spend on projects. It can then use that information to generate nice looking PDFs, bill and manage your business with your clients and much more.

• FreshBooks (free to $149 per month)

Feedback

What kind of software do you use to keep your home business on time? Let us know in the comments below.

– San Sharma

San Sharma is a creative thinker, blogger and designer, as well as a writer on popular culture, technology and business.

• www.sansharma.com