You’re a full-time entrepreneur. You’re a devoted mother. You’ve got this! Don’t let the stress of managing your responsibilities bring you down–here’s how to be an involved mom and get work done without damaging your mental health.
Our modern culture is abundant with charming on-screen superheroes who exhibit feats of incredible strength to fight for goodness. Some of the most popular larger-than-life characters include names like Batman, Spiderman, Thor, and Wonder Woman.
But there’s also an abundance of off-screen superheroes who never fail to impress us with their outstanding skills for managing work and life. Yes, you guessed that right; I’m talking about mom entrepreneurs.
Women-owned businesses now represent 42% of all businesses, employing 9.4 million workers and generating revenue of $1.9 trillion. Many of these businesses are run by women who are also mothers.
Mom entrepreneurs are our most popular real-life superheroes in a cape that handle household chores and professional work with confidence and competence. They masterfully juggle between home and entrepreneurial work, looking after children and managing employees, and at the same time ensuring nothing is disregarded.
If you’re a new mom entrepreneur and want to learn how successful female business owners manage the daily challenges of maintaining a work-life balance, you’re at the right spot!
As a mother of two and a businesswoman who has founded four successful companies, I know a thing or two about being a superhero to myself, my family, and my employees.
Here are six tips I want to share with you:
-
Scheduling Is of the Essence
One significant benefit of using a scheduling system is setting up tasks from low- to high-priority. You’ll be able to focus on those tasks that are more crucial or have tight deadlines first.
You can either schedule your tasks using a software system or by keeping a planner. If you have plenty of deadlines and priorities, I’d recommend using a software system such as Todoist or Evernote .
Creating a daily routine and schedule will make your days predictable, and you won’t be caught off-guard. For example, you’ll know that your pilates exercise is at 08:00 am, your lunch break is at 2:00 pm, and 6:00 pm is the time when your workday ends.
I’d also recommend keeping a schedule for your kids. You can’t make your days predictable if your children’s schedule is all over the place. An example of a scheduling system for kids includes establishing bedtime and activities they can do on their own while you’re working.
You can even experiment with a few different schedules until you’ve found something that works for you and your family.
2. Be Willing to Make Some Sacrifices
In a perfect world, you have time for everything that’s meaningful to you. In the real world, you have to be willing to make some sacrifices.
Although it may sound terrible, I’m afraid it’s the best way to ensure you have the time to be the best parent and business owner you can be.
For example, before I had kids, I used to attend five to seven conferences per year. I love attending conferences as I’ve found they’re a super-effective way of growing my business and networking with like-minded individuals, but they can be extremely time-consuming. So, in order to manage my time the best way I can, I decided to eliminate several conferences I attend every year.
I’ve also set clear boundaries that I will never skip on family time. I finish work every day at 6:00 pm so that I can join my family for dinner. Sundays are also reserved for quality family time when we usually do something fun like a picnic at the park or visiting a cool spot nearby.
Source: Pexels
3. Plan Your Work Around Your Kids’ Activity Patterns
When creating your schedule for the day, consider your kids’ activity patterns. For example, if your mornings are quieter because your kids are busy watching videos, strive to do most of your work during these hours.
If they’re attending school, this is another excellent window of opportunity for you to complete your most urgent tasks.
The idea is not to ignore your family when they’re around. I’ve recently read in an article that kids who are ignored stop using their usual tactics such as crying and whining. Instead, they become somewhat numb and continue displaying this attitude even when they grow up.
4. Become an Expert of Batching
Personally, I think batching is one of the most effective time management tactics for managing work and home tasks.
The idea behind batching is simple: you group similar tasks together and you do them all at once instead of doing them sporadically throughout the day.
You can batch things like email, article editing, meetings, and brainstorming so that you can access flow states which enable your peak productive performance. You can also batch home tasks such as cooking, cleaning, or playing with your kids. If you need more tips for how to do batching like a pro, add this article to your Pocket folder.
5. Let Go of Control
One research titled The evolutionary roots of human collaboration said: Humans’ ability to collaborate to obtain otherwise inaccessible goals may be one main cause for our success as a species.
In other words, if you want to obtain your goals, you may want to let go of control and start delegating or outsourcing tasks.
For instance, you can consider hiring a team that will handle time-consuming tasks while you focus on the business side of things. If you train them well, they’ll be more than well-equipped to handle any task you throw their way.
If putting together a team is impossible at the moment, you can always outsource some tasks to freelancers on platforms such as Upwork or Fiverr. For example, you can hire an expert to build your website or a content writer to write articles for your blog.
Source: Pexels
6. Don’t Ignore Your Well-Being
Just living is not enough, said the butterfly, one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
You can’t be the best parent or the best entrepreneur you can be without working on yourself first. You have to learn how to embrace self-care in your life. Attending to your well-being will not only boost your confidence but will also benefit your cognitive and emotional health.
Have a dedicated time in your schedule to do the things that you enjoy–not as a mom or a business owner–but as an individual. Embracing the little things like a 10-minute meditation or a 30-minute pilates workout is simple if you make time for them. And the best part? They can be done from any location!
Here are a few more ideas:
- drink at least 10-12 glasses of water every day
- follow a simple and clean diet
- go on a walk whenever given a chance
- get at least 7 hours of uninterrupted quality sleep
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neha Naik is a mom, a serial entrepreneur and a coach. She knows firsthand the journey of building an empire while also raising a family – she has lived the rollercoasters of failures, self-doubt, and overwhelm. So now she shares her story to help other moms find better work/life balance.
“Quit Your 9-5 Moms” Facebook group
*priority publishing
