How To Run a Business While Kids are Running Around
Welcome to my world! You’re now home, with your kiddos all day, you’re in charge of their time/fun/activities/meals/desires, and you’re working from home. Some of you are pulling your hair out and wondering if it’ll ever grow back. Some of you have considered taking up stock in wine. Others have found VERY cool hiding places in your house to “escape” for a few minutes/hours (please share your spots… please). BUT what maybe some haven’t quite figured out is “How To Run a Business While Kids are Running Around”.
Can I be honest, I sometimes just sit back and laugh at myself because there are days I literally have zero ideas how I do it all. Honestly, I’d love to say I sit down and knock out 8 hours of work in one sitting each day but that thought makes me laugh even more because that’s simply unrealistic. For me, I’m a stay-at-home/homeschooling mom all the time. That means I have an hour here, and twenty minutes there. Sometimes I only have a quick ten minutes to tackle a task from my to-do list.
With the kid running around all the time it begs the question: How To Run a Business While Kids are Running Around. Below we’ll talk about some things you can do to help feel in control of all the situations happening around you.
Let’s talk about “getting organized” so that you can Run a Business While Kids are Running Around
1. Work together
First and foremost, you are desperately just trying to get some work done. Whether you are running your own business or you’re working your job remotely from home it can be stressful. When the kids are driving you bonkers, when they just won’t let you sit for a few minutes to work. When they just want something again and again it’s time to create some “work together” time. I have clients with kids of all ages and this is something that works for all sorts of kiddo ages.
For me, like while I'm trying to type up this blog and he simply refuses to do his independent school reading work it could be stressful. I obviously can’t “skip” some of my tasks. What can be done is to involve the kiddo in the work that needs to be done. While my kiddo doesn’t write content or blogs for me he can “take notes”. If I’m at my desk and he simply won’t allow work time I’ll move to our bar top and include him in what I’m doing. I’ll dictate “notes” to him and he’ll write them down and he gets a kick out of it. It doesn’t have to be a big ta-do, it just has to make him feel involved.
Some other ideas for “work together” times
- Give them their tablet and let them sit next to you while you’re working. Nine times out of ten they simply want to feel included.
- If they are super little, give them an unattached keyboard and let them pretend type.
- Let them do homework with you while you work.
- Give them a brand new/special coloring/activity book to work on while you sit together.
- If your kiddos are older you can always assign them “tasks” during your work time so they feel as though they are being useful.
Kids want to be included and feel like they are important. You have tasks to complete and they want to be around you constantly. This easy compromise saves a lot of stress. This “work together” tactic works wonders for those mommas who are working their full-time jobs remotely too.
2. Plan ahead
Another “mompreneur” hack is to plan ahead! Sure, you can’t write in your planner that between 10-12 mom gets dedicated work time. I mean you can if your spouse is home or you have a sitter willing to fully watch the kids. But let’s be real, that usually backfires on us. No, I’m not bashing spouses… but I’m being honest! Kids still want mom over anyone else. What I do mean is that, if you know the kids can study independently between 9-9:30am you can schedule yourself a thirty-minute window of email answer/social media sharing/blog writing/etc time.
Planning ahead also means that you come prepared with a “list” of tasks that need to be done. Having a to-do list at your fingertips can mean the difference between getting tasks accomplished successfully or wasting time scrolling through social media. With a list of tasks, you eliminate the piddling around and simply accomplish tasks more quickly.
Before you turn off the lights at night and crawl into your nice warm bed, put together a list of tasks. These are tasks that you need to accomplish in your business for the next day.
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3. Shop Online
Ok, so let your kids work with you, work from a list, is all fine and dandy. But what about those days when you just have errand after errand after errand and you simply can’t carve out any work time for your business? Well, the good news is, you could easily swap out some of those trips with online shopping and delivery.
What I am saying is that if you swapped out the grocery store run with home-delivered groceries you:
-Free up the time it takes to get the kids dressed
-Bundle them into the car
-Get them out of the car
-Wonder around the store picking up things not on your list
-Pay
-Put the kids and groceries back in the car
-Drive home
-Unload said kids and groceries
-Then put them away
Instead, you could simply:
-Order what is needed online
-Wait for them to arrive and put them away
See how much less time that could take? PLUS I promise you will save yourself anywhere from $30-$100 because you aren’t picking up this and that while you’re at the store. It’s truly a win-win!
4. Cut Down On Repetitive Tasks
Don’t look at me like I'm crazy just yet, hear me out. You are doing some things throughout your day that simply are unnecessary. YES, I said it, you are doing unnecessary tasks multiple times a day. I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I've washed my dishes six or seven times a day.
There were days when I picked up every toy my kid had pulled out when he moved to a new room. Tasks that simply didn’t need to happen were simply sucking time away from other things that needed my attention. You must learn to cut down on the things that don’t matter throughout your day. You learn to put the priority things first and leave all the fluff for later.
Figuring out what tasks can be done on certain days may look like this:
- Doing laundry on Wednesdays and Sundays
- Deep cleaning the house on Sunday’s (bathrooms, floors, sheet changes, etc)
- Setting up your week on Sundays- To-Do’s, meal plans, school activities for the kiddos
- Meal prepping snacks for the kids on Monday so they have grab-and-go options that don’t require your attention during the week
- Setting out clothes for kiddos for the week
At first, you may not find extra “hours” here or there. You might start out with simply twenty extra minutes here or there. But you must remember that every little step counts towards the bigger picture.
5. Ask For Help
I save this for last because for a mom it’s usually the hardest part to do. We are very independent people. Taking on tasks and conquering them is something we do without blinking. We juggle multiple things a day and it’s just second nature to us. That being said we all need help now and then.
Right now asking for help may mean asking older kids to lend a hand with smaller ones. It may mean asking your spouse for an hour of time where you get to hide in your favorite hiding spot to work. If you have grandparents living near you it may mean asking them for some help as well. Whatever you can do to help balance out the tasks and have a smidge of focused work time for yourself matters.
Some things you may ask for help with:
- Switching the laundry
- Folding the laundry
- Making a meal
- Doing the dishes
- Watching kiddos
- Cleaning up around the house
- Playing a game with the kiddos
- Giving the kids a bath
- Yard work
The list could be much longer but you get the idea. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a little help so you can get that smidge of work done. The work that requires your undivided attention.
The mom life + biz life combo can be a tricky one to master, but it’s NOT impossible.
I HIGHLY encourage you to take a good long look at your week, then break it down to your individual days. You can start to identify areas where you can eliminate unnecessary activities in order to refocus on the bigger picture. Then you will be able to take that BIG idea that you have been stewing on and turn it into something even BIGGER.
BUT—You MUST remember. We all have the exact same amount of hours in our days. You are just as busy as the next overly exhausted mom on this planet. It’s simply a matter of how you choose to spend the time you have each day. But now you have some tools that will help you figure out How To Run a Business While Kids are Running Around.
Rather than saying “I just don’t have time” or “I’m just so busy” I want you to try to find just twenty minutes in your day where you can begin to cultivate some of your dreams.
WANT MORE TIME TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS?
SNAG YOUR FREE 90 Day Success Planner → HERE ←
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