It doesn’t take long for moms to realize that working from home isn’t as glamorous as some think it is. Juggling your house, children, deadlines, husband, appointments, (….. and the list goes on) feels like a scary joke at times. I know.
This post is all about how to be successful while juggling all the things. I get deep in to how women are the leaders in this territory, and how never before has there been the role of both running a business, and being a home maker, at the same time. Without our example of how to do both, our husbands and children have no one to look to for how it can be done.
With a few systems and these essential hacks you can absolutely be the model for what working from home and keeping house, and being a patient parent and wife looks like. I’m so excited for you to listen so what do ya say, let’s dive in.
Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast
First Hack-Plan
I know, you hear this a lot and I know what you’re thinking, “what does having a plan look like? I have no idea where to start?!”
Here’s what I mean when I say you need to have a plan.
Everything you are doing in your business needs to be pre-planned. No more flying off the cuff and trying to manage motherhood and business without a solid foundation on how you’re going to get it all done. I preach the life of being prepared in motherhood; just check out any of my previous blog posts (like this one on meal planning) and you will see that setting up your systems in caring for your marriage, home, and children have to come first. But, that isn’t to say you shouldn’t also have a plan for what you will be doing in your business.
Here is what I suggest.
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Once a month sit down and write out your content in a planner on the month spread. This allows you to see everything you need to get done in the week and becomes the major pillar of all the work you do. For example: in my Horacio Printing 2020 Dream Planner I sit down just before a new month starts and write out all my podcast, blog, social media, email, and Facebook group content topics.
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Get yourself some matching pens and highlighters. My favorite highlighters can be found here. I got my matching pens from the dollar store. Categorize your work into 3-5 groups and color code them accordingly.
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Your social media also needs to be planned. You are no longer allowed to post on a whim and be haphazard about this portion of your business. There are programs like Planoly, or Preview that will allow you to upload your images and captions and auto publish for you for free (or paid for fancy upgrades), but I like to use Canva.Com for my social planning. I design my entire month of images in one image, then use an app called PicSplit to make my 15 images for the month, then self publish with captions in real time. The whole point of this is to make sure you are not trying to keep all of this information in your head while you are juggling kids and life 7 days a week.
Second Hack-Work Flow
Now this can be a big hairy scary concept for people, but I PROMISE it doesn’t have to overwhelm you. So, let me break this down.
I like systems. And I want you to like systems. Systems are the outcome of you looking at repetitive steps you are doing in any portion of your life and weeding out the inefficiencies.
Thats exactly what a work flow is. It is all of the work you have to do on REPEAT every week fine tuned in a way that allows you to be uber efficient.
So, how do you make this happen?
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Well, you start by getting a piece of paper and writing down everything you do in a week. Then, just like any other organizing project you do, you start grouping things in to like piles. You also are getting rid of anything that is not necessary. This means you need to take everything that you do in one portion of your business and put it in a “bucket” or “group/category” and label it clearly, like BLOG POST, or MARKETING, or INVENTORY… and so on. Then anything to do with that specific topic all gets put in to that bucket. You will use these buckets to guide how you FLOW through your work each week (hence the word “workFLOW”)
Huge Tip
It is free until you want to upgrade for unlimited features. It allows you to easily create labels for the work you need to do, add a note, check lists, assign individuals to the work, TRACK YOUR TIME spent on the task, and move the work from in progress to completed. This means no erasing 125 times to get your workflow dialed in. You simply just move things around and within an hour or so you will have your first attempt completed.
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The next thing you need to do is give yourself a week to live out your first draft. Stick to the workflow you created loosely and take note where changes need to be made. Then, fine tune as you go. The next weekend when you sit down you will clearly see what did and didn’t work and can make and adjustments need to really dial in the efficiency meter.
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Lastly, commit to giving your business time each weekend to set up your work flow for the week. Allow time on your calendar each week to tackle your to do list and dream projects that only the CEO of your company gets to do.
“You cannot grow, and forget about reaping the abundance of hard work if all your work is going to remedial tasks that simply get the job done.”
Make Time to Plan
You cannot grow, and forget about reaping the abundance of hard work if all your work is going to remedial tasks that simply get the job done. I know it can be extremely challenging to force yourself to sit and plan each Sunday, but if you’re truly invested in doing more than just “getting the job done”, then you will commit to making this happen. Brendon Burchard preaches at his events that the successful people in business are the ones that plan their year, month, weeks, and days.
Your children deserve a mom that looks them in the eyes, and takes time to teach and love deeply, not frivolously. Your husband deserves a patient wife that loves him above all else. And your business, well girl…. that deserves the badass brain and heart that GOD gave you.
Take the time to plan your week, every week, and you will be able to do it all.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I find the perfect paper planner?
My very favorite is the Horacio Dream Planner from Horacio Printing. It is simple, beautiful and perfect for time blocking. These planners will even help you set up your fundamental needs. If you need some more guidance, check out this post to help you make your decision for the perfect planner that will help you be more productive.
