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When you have littles in the house, getting anything done can be difficult. And when you have a house and work, you have a lot to get done.
Even if you work outside the house, you may have a side hustle or business that you are trying to get off the ground. Or maybe you have a blog like me. Either way, when you are at home you need to balance child care, home care, and work all at the same time.
Working at home can be a tough balance. You don’t want to ignore the kiddos but you still want to get things done. Here are some quick tips for fitting work into the little pockets of time during your day.
Wake up early (or hustle at night)
Do 5 or 10-minute work tasks during the day – create a new pin, draft an email, outline a project
Use the Pomodoro technique
Have a process for creating content with a checklist so you always know what you are up to
Learn to type faster – take a typing test and practice every day
Do the highest ROI tasks first – sales funnels, emails, eBook chapters, course lessons, Facebook Lives
Turn off your notifications
If you can’t work, brainstorm the steps you need to take to complete your project
Use your Instant Pot or slow cooker for quick, healthy meals
Outsource parts of your business to a Virtual assistant or freelance writer
Hire a babysitter to watch your little one a few hours a day
Get family to help out!
Pick up around the house during every Pomodoro break
Run a load of laundry or dishes every day
Use wipes to quickly clean the bathroom
Double up your chores – prep dinner and empty the dishwasher, or sweep the kitchen and wipe down the counters
These quick tasks can help you manage your business and house during the day. But, of course, you’ll need more than just this to work at home with little ones around.
In order for mamas that work at home to have good time management, there are two big things you need to incorporate in the overall plan: tactics to balance your family life and work life and creating a workable routine so that you can have a successful and long-lasting business.
Time Management Tips for Balancing Family and Business
There are five main tactics for managing your time when you work at home. These tactics should be considered before you officially start your business.
Before I started my blog, I had to make sure I had the time to devote to building a business. I had to find time between work, and home, and raising a toddler.
Many mom bloggers become pregnant again while having a successful blog and continue to work their business during that time. I did it twice! But, it definitely took a lot of planning, and it also depends on the temperament of your kiddos. There should be no guilt for taking a break from business for your babies (or yourself for that matter).
You should start your business when it feels good for you and take breaks when necessary.
These tactics will help you formalize a business plan:
1. Create Goals Around Your Business
Goals are a huge motivator for many of us. They inspire us to take action and make things happen.
When you’re starting a business, you are both boss and employee. There is no one telling you what to do which can be good and bad. You choose the tasks and it is up to you to stay motivated to work on your business.
Your goals will change throughout the process of creating and growing your business. Setting the right kind of goals will put you on the path to success.
Your goal at first may relate to creating products, then getting the word out about your business, then monetizing. As you work on your business your goals will grow and change as you discover what your business needs and what you want out of your business.
2. Write Down Home Tasks and Business Tasks
Think about what needs to be done during the day for home and what you feel you need to do for your business. Your business may require:
Posting to social media
Working on your products
Writing blog posts
Making freebies for your email list
Connecting with other influencers in your niche
Making a list of your home tasks can also help you figure out pockets of time for your business. It’s a good idea to make a schedule for your chores. This is something that will likely change as time goes on and your kids and business develop.
As far as your business tasks, make sure that they align with your goals. While there may be a million things you could do to grow your business, you only should do the tasks that will help you achieve your current goal.
3. Create a Workable Weekly Schedule
With your home tasks and business tasks in front of you, you can now create a weekly schedule using block scheduling. This schedule will change over time depending on various factors including what season it is, the age of your children, or if you become pregnant.
For me, my working schedule has evolved to what it is now:
Morning – Kitchen Chores
With three littles in the house and a night owl spouse, the morning is when I get a little me time. After a quick workout, prayer, and meditation practice, its off to the kitchen to put together lunches and breakfast.
Since I’m in the kitchen anyway, I use this time to wipe down counters, do some dishes, or put clean dishes away. I’ll often listen to an inspiring or informative podcast at the same time. Then I get self care and cleaning done all at the same time.
Evening - Other Chores
In the evening I try to fit in at least one other chore. Generally, this is tidying up and/or folding laundry.
I’m lucky to have a husband who pitches in a lot with the majority of the dishes, running the washing machine, making the bed, and cleaning the bathroom.
Things like vacuuming and dusting, I save for the weekend.
I don’t do all of these chores every day, but I space them out throughout the week (unless they are daily tasks). This helps me stay on top of everything (most of the time) and not feel overwhelmed.
I also get help from my littles. My girls love to help me out with chores like setting the table and putting away groceries. My boy loves to help with organizing things.
Lunch – Main Blogging Task for the Day
During my lunch break is when I perform my major blog task for the day. Depending on the day, this might be writing a post, promoting it to social media, or writing my newsletter.
The Rest of The Day - Quick Tasks
During the rest of the day when I have a few minutes I fit in other tasks like writing and responding to emails, posting to social media, updating blog pages, etc. Basically anything I can do quickly to help move my business along.
Nights When My Husband Works
My husband is with the kiddos during the day but when he is in a show, he is out of the house several evenings during the week.
On those nights, once the kids are in bed, I work on other bigger blog projects that aren’t part of the regular schedule. This has included creating optins, creating products, writing my book, and working on yet to be released courses.
This is definitely not every night that he works. It’s also important to enjoy some relaxation and alone time, so that we don’t burn out. We can do it all, but we can’t do it all at the same time.
Your schedule may not look like this especially if you only work at home. But, it is important to create a schedule that works for you.
4. Batching
Batching is when you focus on one task or activity until it’s done before moving on to the next task.
I like to batch both my business and home tasks. For example, if I’m running an errand, I think about where I’m going and see if there is anything else I can do on the run like pick up groceries, or return a toy while on the errand.
For my business, I like schedule all my Facebook posts for the week all at one time and all my Pinterest pins at one time as well.
This saves time when you do one task instead of multitasking. You can get on a role and be able to do the task even quicker when you do it all at once.
5. Prioritize Your Tasks
Do you know that even if you have as little as 1 or 2 hours a day to work on your business, you can actually be more productive than someone doing this full-time?
It’s true. For most people, if we were only given four hours to do all our work for the day, we would be much more productive than if we were given a full day (8 hours) to do the same work tasks.
This happens because when we think we have a ton of time to complete a task, we will use it. We will procrastinate and delay and use the full time to complete the task. We’ve all experienced this.
Tasks are either:
Important and urgent
Important but not urgent
Not important but urgent
Not important and not urgent
Many of us focus on important tasks that aren’t urgent instead of prioritizing the important and urgent tasks.
Dividing tasks into these 4 groups is called the Eisenhower Matrix from author Stephen Covey, and it can help mompreneurs with doing the important tasks first.
So, when you have been working at home for a few months and you feel like you have no time to do anything, look at the actual tasks you are doing and determine if they are important and urgent or not so urgent.
This can help you prioritize your tasks for that day!
Are you a mompreneur? Do you want to be? How do you fit in working and momming into your day? Let me know in the comments.
Cheers,
Emily
