Time and time again I’m asked “How do you find time to run your business with a little on running around”
Sometimes I just have to sit back and laugh because there are days I literally have zero idea how I do it. 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 these days.
I’m a stay at home mom I have an hour here, an hour there, sometimes I have twenty minutes here, twenty minutes there where I can get my to-do list done.
That’s I usually answer the famous recurring question. I run my business in twenty minute to an hour chunks of time. Each morning before the baby wakes I’m up and working a bit, during nap times Im working a bit, and after the kiddo goes to bed I am working a bit. I try to dedicate certain times to my wonderful other half and one on one attention to my kiddo. During those times I focus solely on them and not on my business so that I can be true to my purpose for running my online business- them.
Being able to find time is just that, it’s about finding time in your day. It’s about making adjustment to how you currently go about your day in order to make your dreams a reality. You must find moments of unused time during your day and dedicate them to your business if you want to further yourself.
I’ve been to a number of seminars in my time and the biggest take away I ever got that I apply to my business still today is what Roger Love called the 80/20 rule. At the worlds greatest speaker trainer Roger Love explained how 80% of your results came from 20% of the work you put in.
Being a mom means you have your head going in a million places at once throughout the day. Whatever time you have during the day counts for something important. What I can say is that not everything you do throughout your day is productive. I know right now it seems that everything you’re doing matters but I promise that when you really look at your day I can say with certainty that you have time throughout your day that can be reallocated.
If you’re anything like me, which Im almost positive you are, you have insane amounts of dishes to do, you have toys to pick up, you have mounds and mounds and mounds of laundry to do, you chase your kids from here to there, maybe you run them to and from events, chat with friends, sneak time in for your other half and maybe, just maybe you get 20 seconds of quiet time for yourself. Sound familiar?
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Just reading all that you’re probably thinking “sooo how am I supposed to get to the 80/20 rule in my business”. When I attended the conference I didn’t have aforementioned kiddo so it was SUPER simple. But NOW…. lets just say it takes adjusting too but when you find the balance it’s truly smooth sailing as my Mr. always says.
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. For me… in mom life… I had to learn to cut down on the dishes throughout the day (I simply didn’t need to do them after every meal, once a day was fine), I didn’t need to pick up the toys after every single play session (once after the kiddo has gone to bed was enough), I stopped getting on the ooo so glorious Facebook 100 times a day, I set specific laundry days (and my family sticks to those days for the most part).
I do laundry on Tuesday and Fridays, I do a deep clean of the house on Tuesdays (bathrooms, floors, sheet changes, etc), on Sundays I lay out my week of To-Do’s and get organized for the week ahead (work and personal life). All the things that are necessary for a well balanced day get scheduled before I start adding anything extra to our days. Plus, by scheduling your day you tend to free up more time throughout your day when can lead to more time to build your business.
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.
BUT—You MUST remember. We all have the exact same amount of hours in our days. You are no more busy than any other over exhausted mom on this planet. It’s simply a matter of how you choose to spend the time you have each day.
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.
xoxo,
Lauren
P.S. If you found this helpful I encourage you to share it with another mommy you know who could use some extra time during her day!
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