Time management for WAHMs with young children at home

Did you decide to start building a business while you’re home with your kiddos? FUN isn’t it? Challenging right? I know because I have been there! I believe that I have perfected the art of getting through the hard days of work and caring for your child or children. Here are my top tips for time management for work at home moms (WAHMs) with young children at home:

MULTITASKING: you need to think of your time, and how you spend it: example, think of every pocket of time as a chance to multi-task something. I use play time as also clean up time, depending on how old your children are, make them help you with laundry, cleaning, folding, baking.

MEAL PLANNING! Set aside time every Sunday to grocery shop and meal plan for the week ahead. Go for little or no cook, healthy meals, like salads and sandwiches and pre-wash and cut all your produce when you get home from the grocery store. For a couple hours of annoying work on the weekend you will thank yourself during the week!

KEEP KITCHEN CLEAN start the week with the kitchen clean and sparkling, you will not regret it, Monday will be so much better when you are getting breakfast ready for the kids and yourself and trying to catch up on some emails too! As a matter of fact, set aside time every night after dinner to clean up all the dishes so you have an organized kitchen the next day. Better yet, get someone else to do it! ;)

BEST TIME BLOCK (or power hour-or two!) Figure out when your best time block is to get at least 2 hours of concentrated work done. In my case, it is during nap time. From 1-3 pm every day I get the most and best work done, and if I have everything organized and set up I can just close all my distractions for that chunk of time and get started.

TV/IPAD WHEN YOU REALLY NEED TO DO SOMETHING IMPORTANT: If you’re really stuck and don’t have an alternative, you can use some screen time. Make sure you only take out a favourite show when you absolutely have to get some work done. You can’t always wait until the kids are napping, sometimes you need to address something quickly with minimal distraction, just make sure it’s a short task so the kiddos are not glued to the screen for hours.

15% BUFFER TIME: This one is so important! When you calculate how many client hours you can/want to work per month, calculate a 15% buffer time for admin stuff like checking emails, sending invoices, checking Facebook for prospects or even connecting with your fellow service providers, just make sure you don’t book yourself to the max of what you can handle, believe me I have been there and it’s not pretty. You do NOT want every free moment to be filled with work, you need downtime too.

TRELLO AND DUE DATES: Use something like Trello or Asana, they are both free and your tasks will all be organized with colored due dates so you will never be late on anything and not have any surprises.

TIME VAMPIRES: Figure out what is sucking your time: is it email correspondence? Start charging for that! Facebook scrolling? DON’T keep that tab open when you are supposed to be working! Is it learning something that you don’t know how to do perfectly yet? That’s ok, just don’t forget about your time buffer!

TAB TRICK: In the morning before you start your day, take a few minutes to open up the tabs you need for 2-3 different tasks and then minimize each batch separately. That way when you’re ready, you can choose one of the tab groups for your chosen task so you won’t waste time opening up all the tabs you need when you sit down to do your power hour!

ENJOYABLE TASKS DURING RELAX TIME: After kids go to bed: Save easy, fun and sometimes even mindless tasks for Netflix time. You can watch in the background when the kids are asleep! You can do some graphic design or work on a website or send your invoices, and other easy tasks. I used to run large-scale FB ads for an agency and it can be repetitive, so I need music or tv to listen to while I am working. This is important though: Make sure you have at least half an hour to yourself at night to unwind. There’s nothing worse than working right up until you go to bed, you will get nightmares-trust me!

BE KIND TO YOURSELF: Workout, get your favourite coffee, go get your nails done, go to the spa, go to a nice restaurant with the family so you don’t have to dirty any dishes. Do something that will make your life easier from time to time, you need it to keep going, you are doing a heck of a lot of juggling and balancing, so please take time for yourself. I like making my smoothie in my Vitamix in the morning and getting my 30 minute workout in to feel normal and ready to tackle the day. :)