If you are a stay at home mom trying to work out schedules of non-parent entrepreneurs, I’m sure you are having a tough time there. Things are a bit complicated for you given you have a very demanding set of responsibilities. Understandable.
You might occasionally feel you are not giving in your best like other fempreneurs out there. This could be because of hundreds of distractions when you sit to work on your business or because you are forced to work in broken chunks.
You are not alone. This is what every newbie work at home mom feels like. Yet, we have countless success stories of moms who have proven it that they can accomplish it despite all limitations.
This post is for all you busy mothers trying managing their homes and businesses side by side, rising amazing kids and acing all this without excessively burning out.
We’ll also calculate how many hours you can actually get for your business every day and every week if you follow these time management tips for busy mompreneurs.
10 Time Management Tips for Busy Moms to manage their Blogs or Businesses
1. Wake up early – Fajr is the best time
Talk about increased productivity and problem-solving abilities entrepreneurs need all the time. The best time for such a mind is right after a sound sleep in the early hours of the morning. If you are struggling to find time for your business, try early morning hours.
Right after Fajr (morning prayer) is the best time to get into business mode. This is usually the time when the home is a quiet territory and you have a good hour (at least) to your self. Not only that, since you can focus well, aren’t tired or worn out, but actually fresh, you can accomplish something in one hour that would otherwise take you around 2 to 3 hours in routine.
Make use of this time. Get into the early to bed early to rise squad.
Approx. time saved = 1 to 2 hours (depending on how early you can wake up)
2. They sleep you work
Yes, utilize there nap times. If your kids are young, you might have to look over them 24/7. This is when you need to look for slots when you can free an hour or even 30 minutes to yourself.
First things first, you need your kids to have some routines. It’s going to be x10 times more difficult to squeeze out time for anything if you or your kids do things on random. Every day becomes a new challenge.
Start by getting into the habit of waking up and sleeping around the same time every day. Once done focus on establishing routines for eating, playing, studying and working.
Approx. time saved = 30 minutes to 1 hour
3. Listen more read less
There are a number of ways researching for topis. A good way is through listening to podcasts, audios, videos and other things of the sort.
How does this help?
It helps you gather ideas.
You can do your everyday chores while you listen to a podcast.
You can jot down points while you are commuting, waiting in queues, and many other instances.
Remember to always carry your notepad with you. Any idea could strike like thunder anytime.
Approx. time saved = variable
4. Have a To-do List
To-do lists are important. Not only for your business tasks bur for your everyday tasks as well.
When you sit on your desk you should know exactly what tasks are up your sleeve. This is only possible if you set aside some time beforehand for planning. Depending on you, you can go for weekly plans or for daily ones. I personally thing weekly ones work better.
You have a birds-eye view of what important appointments you have in the coming week and can adjust your business hours accordingly.
Working from home needs some crucial time management skills. You could either be burning out every day or designing systems that work for you around your other commitments.
Approx. time saved = variable
5. Get Help – Outsource
As a business owner, you have many tasks at hand. There is only so much time in a day you can squeeze out. You, of course, have to prioritize, important tasks are for you.
Why not hire a virtual assistant to handle some of the other tasks you don’t have time for. Some of the tasks you can outsource are:
- Keyword research
- Blog post research
- Writing/proofreading/formatting blog posts
- Designing landing pages
- Website maintenance
- Social media graphics
- Social media management
- eBook designing
- Designing and handling email campaigns
Approx. time saved = 1 to 2 hours
6. Batch tasks
If you are someone who sits down to work and is occupied with 3-5 tasks at a time, you are trying to multi-task. The productivity graph falls down as you try and do multiple tasks simultaneously.
Perhaps you are trained to do one task after the other, without multi-tasking, and think there is no other way out. Well, there is. And that is batching tasks together. Doing laundry every day vs. doing all your laundry one day a week can save you time.
Similarly,
- plan your meals on a weekly basis, even prepare them one day a week to save you time every day
- Iron or press all your clothes one day a week
- plan your business tasks in batches as well
Approx. time saved = 1 hour
7. 15-minutes before bed
Set a routine of giving 15 minutes before bed to one of your business tasks. It could be, planning the next day, scheduling posts, keyword research, designing graphics, roughly drafting ideas for a post, anything.
15 minutes is not a very long period of time and can help you accomplish one task out of your daily business tasks.
Approx. time saved = 15 minutes
8. Daily Family Time
Busy moms often feel their kids or families are being neglected as they spend a lot of their time solving their business issues. The best way out is to set aside 1 hour every day, maybe after dinner, like family time. This is where you get to hear the issues your kids or husband might be dealing with. The family can sit together and think of solutions.
This gives everyone a feeling of unity and makes your family realize that you are making an effort for them despite your busy schedule. Family time will serve as a vent for frustration to pave it’s way out of you or your family members.
This way you can focus on your tasks better and avoid all the time spent on meaningless quarrels.
Approx. time saved = variable
9. Train your kids and husband
Don’t be a one-man army. You are doing this business not only for yourself. Even if you are, some of its benefits will be reaped by your family as well. They’ll have more financial independence to do what they want to do in life.
This calls for them to play a bit of their part in the household as well. Train your husband and your kids to help you out in the everyday tasks of the family.
Kids can have their own buckets to secure their toys, your husband can do dishes for 1/2 of the time. He can help in grocery shopping over the weekend and the list goes on. This will save you enough time and exhaustion to work on your business.
Approx. time saved = 30 minutes to 1 hour
10. Avoid Unexpected Grocery Visits
For many of us, a major part of our lives is spent on deciding what to eat, buying things to eat and cooking our meals. We even work every day just to provide enough for living. A major part of it goes into groceries. This could mean unexpected grocery visits for you.
If you plan well, you can totally avoid unexpected grocery visits for yourself. Keep a list on your fridge and train everyone in the household to add to the list as they see things running out or utilize the last bit of it.
Do monthly shopping instead of weekly or daily grocery shopping. Buy fresh fruits and veggies over the weekend.
Approx. time saved = 30 minutes at the least
Bonus: Organize and Declutter Regularly
You need to work on your productivity and that can not happen without working on your living habits. Organize all things in your life, from your bedrooms to your cupboards, to your drawers to your stores. Declutter from time to time. Securing and managing extra unwanted load in your house is never easy. Get rid of the mess by keeping less. Oh, that rhymes.
So, these were my organization tips for Mom bloggers. You mommas are doing a great deal of work taking care of the families and spending time on your dream businesses as well. Just avoid burn out so that you keep shining.
How much time are you saving?
Let’s calculate.
- You add 1 to 2 hours a day by waking up early.
- Utilizing your kid’s nap time can add another 30 minutes to 1 hour to your business routine.
- If you outsource to a virtual assistant you can at least save another 1 to 2 hours of your day.
- If you batch tasks, meals alone will save you 30 minutes every day.
- The 15-minutes before bed obviously add 15 minutes to your business time.
- Training your husband to do the dishes saves you 30 minutes every day.
- Training your kids to secure there own rooms, closets, bathrooms, and drawers saves you another 30 minutes of your day.
- Unexpected grocery visits can save you at least 30 minutes if you shop locally.
This makes 4 hours and 45 minutes on the lower side and 7 hours and 15 minutes on the extremely optimistic side.
If you take the average you have at least 5 TO 6 HOURS A DAY FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
Go cash these hours ladies. Of course, there are challenges for single moms, newbie moms who need more time for the babies and moms who can not afford virtual assistants right at the start of the business. But you see there is a lot on the list, you can manage a good few, if not all, and save time for your business.
Believe me, you can. That’s how other successful mamas do it. You can too.
Summary
As a recap here are a few things you should be doing to save you time for your business:
- Wake up early and utilize that one extra hour of the day for your business.
- Set routines for your kids and utilize their sleep time for your business.
- Use podcasts, audios or videos to gather research for your blog as you work simultaneously.
- Maintain a to-do list for your business and everyday tasks.
- Hire a virtual assistant for your business tasks and yourself only focus on the most important ones.
- Batch tasks together to save time. This goes for your everyday tasks as well as for your business tasks.
- Save 15-minutes every day before bed to accomplish a small business task.
- Save an hour every day for your family to discuss important issues and resolve problems.
- Train your kids and husband to work with you on some of the daily tasks of the household.
- Avoid unexpected grocery visits by maintaining lists and monthly grocery shopping visits only.
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