I work from home, but I’m a full time SAHM of 2 with minimal help. My 2 year old goes to a preschool Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-1pm, and that’s it. The rest is on me (and my husband when he is home). No family in town. No babysitters. But I also blog, work with Rodan+Fields, and work freelance PR. Finding time to work from home can be tricky, but it’s important to me.
I’ve had to streamline my No’s and Yes’s over the years.
I always knew I wanted to be home for my kids, but I have found that I am not the type of personality that can just mom it. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not because I think it’s easy by any means! Being a SAHM is my hardest, never ending, lowest paying (oh so rewarding… I have to say that, right?) job. But without something else to focus my mind on, I would lose it. I need a thing that’s just for me. And personally, I like that thing to make money too.
Here are 3 things I force myself to do as a Work From Home Mom…
Carve Out Quiet Hours.
During NYFW prep these hours are usually late at night. I used to be able to take the 6ish hours Reegan was at school and max out those, but with Julie on hand they aren’t always my clearest. Getting up before the kids or staying up past my husband gives me silence and clear thoughts. I really enjoy these hours to focus and push the ball down the court.
It’s usually when I catch up on 90 Day Fiancé too.
Use Trello.
Using a calendar like Trello helps me see heavy days and move things around.
Trello is free, and you can download a template board here. I have a color for each category of my life and put everything into my board weekly. Then I moved things around accordingly.
There are things that can’t be moved, like doctors appointments or dance class, and then moveables, such as writing time, phone calls, when to clean the house or head to the post office. If I see I have work and 3 errands scheduled for Wednesday with Reegan’s gymnastics… It’s not gonna happen. I adjust.
The visual is so helpful.
I even list all my post ideas for the month so I can see which ones are done and which need work. I can have notes in the board like hashtags I’m supposed to use, or tracking links. Paper calendars and agendas have never worked for me, but for some reason this does.
Plus, I can access it from my phone or computer. AND you can share boards too, making it perfect for projects too.
Outsource.
You need to check yourself. Don’t be a toddler. This is not the “I do it” time of your life. This for sure the “Yup, you do that” season.
There is nothing more freeing and powerful than running your life like a CEO runs a business. Know where you want to spend your best billable hours.
If that’s playing with your kids instead of cleaning, then know that a maid needs to enter the budget. If that’s date night instead of putting together emails for your business – OUT SOURCE!
Girlfriend… do it! It’s ok! You don’t have to do all of the things all the time.
In fact, you just can’t.
I love blogging, but taking and editing photos, while fun, is time consuming. It’s just time I don’t have right now. I’ve learned that if I can pick things that I enjoy having other people do, I’m more sane. So I hire a photographer to come by the house for an hour every few months and take a ton of photos. I come up with lists of feature posts and this gives me a shot list. Then I can plug photos in as I write post. It’s 1,000x easier. I’m looking to outsource the blog SEO soon as well. (If you know someone… let me know!)
I’d love to learn all of the things, but I need to recognize the season of life I’m in. And this season is all about accepting as much help as I can. Next season – I can learn all of the things myself.
Thank you so much to iMedx for sponsoring today’s post. All thoughts and opinions are genuine and my own.
“iMedX serves an impressive array of medical professionals across the globe. Clients include numerous large academic facilities, Integrated Health Delivery Networks, community hospitals and multi-specialty physician groups. Because clients deal with a variety of diverse IT systems, regulatory requirements, security mandates, and a wide range of employee skill sets, iMedX creates implementation plans that are customized, multidisciplinary, and thorough… As one of the leading providers of health information and clinical documentation services worldwide, iMedX continues to grow rapidly through client referrals, new sales, and industry acquisitions.”
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