How Being a Stay-at-home Mom Prepared Me to Run My Own Business - Quarantine Edition!
Two years ago, I wrote this blog piece about how stay-at-home parenthood gave me many tools that I use every day while running my business. Since the coronavirus has pushed most everyone back to home, those tools have again proved very useful. I’m re-publishing the piece with a few added tools that have proved especially useful during this Quarantine Time.
Routines - Morning and Evening Routines are a no-brainer and they work for both maintaining the home, your health, and your business. During this time of everyone at home, trying to manage all. the. things., having some simple routines to lean on is helpful for everyone. We start distance learning in earnest next week and we’ll be relying even more on routines than ever. Here’s a simple sketch of the building blocks we’re using:
Morning Routine - we have a list of items the kids must get done before a certain time in the day. They include some simple chores like making the bed and self care items like hygiene and devotional times to get the day going.
Afternoon chores: We brainstormed a list of things that need to be done weekly. The kids choose their one chore and mark it off the list. We start over every week. These chores are things like vacuuming, filling up the bird feeder, laundering the towels, etc.
Learning Time/Productive Time/Free Choice Time: These are blocks in the day that we rotate through, depending on the work calls that are in the schedule. Learning time is for school-directed time. Productive time is for craft projects or for when I have the energy to direct a more in depth fun project like slime or cooking something fun. Free Choice Time is a time when the kids can do anything they want to do that doesn’t require a parent’s permission that isn’t a screen. We’ve brainstormed this list and add to it as we think of other ideas. Then I want to peek at the next day's calendar to make sure I'm prepared for any meetings or deadlines coming up. In the mornings, my goal is to spend time right away doing a business building activity before diving in to client work. I also spend a couple of minutes reviewing the task list and prioritizing my day to match its needs.
Time Blocking and Timers - I was in a Facebook group and people kept talking about "doing one Pomodoro" for this or that task and I was so, so lost. What is this Pomodoro thing? Well, thanks to google, I realized I've been using this method of time management for over a decade!!! It's basically setting a timer to get a task done. I use timers ALL. THE. TIME. It used to be to engage all the kids in a 15 minute flash room pickup where we all ran around our bedrooms putting away stuff for 15 minutes. It looks a little different now, but the method still works! With my husband working from home and kids’ online learning schedules to manage, sometimes I only have short blocks of time to get things done. Deciding to work on something for 15 minutes and then putting it down when the timer goes off helps everyone keep their sanity AND helps me feel like I’m continuing to move forward. Now I’m setting timers also for break times - dance parties, deep breath breaks, etc.
Don't stress about the job getting "done." There are just some items that will constantly be on your to-do list. They will never be "done." These are the laundry and dishes of work life. There will always be emails to read and respond to, social media posts to create, websites to update, invoices to create (and collect!), expenses to track, etc. I don't worry about getting any of these items complete, but I do stay engaged with them every day. These items should be worked into a weekly routine so that you're never buried under a mountain of unmet expectations.
Pick Your Battles. As a parent of preschoolers, you learn pretty quickly that you just simply cannot let your day be derailed by every little item where you have a different concept of life from your preschooler. There are some details that just don't matter and they need to be shrugged off so you can get on with your day. This rule holds true in my business too. I'm not talking about choosing when to confront a client, but I am talking about knowing what your priorities are and knowing when to stick to your guns. Sometimes your business model needs to flex with what your clients are looking for but there are other cases where you will need to shift your client's expectations instead.