Did you believe these 2 myths when you first started work-at-home days with your kids?
Here’s myth number 1. Which is: You can’t ever work if your kids are around.
So as soon as they get up, it’s close down the laptop for you – quit recording those reels the second you hear that crib squeak – and back to work in childcare land. No more break for you!
(As if marketing your online business is a mental break! Uh, you don’t know ANYTHING about lead gen and what it takes to consistently sign clients, do you?)
Listen – the reality of a mom’s day is that you can’t keep all your eyes on *all* your kids at every second. In fact, if your kids are school age and up, you probably don’t *need* to have eyes on them perpetually!
So long as you’re breaking up the sibling squabbles and making sure the chores get done and keeping an ear out for any *major* deviations from their “supposed to be doing” school schedules, you’re actually fine to go do some sort of project.
(That’s what house cleaning is, by the way – it’s a project! You’re not usually doing it *with* the kids literally right there next to you; it *is* a chore on your to-do list; and you don’t feel at all bad for leaving your kids playing in the backyard and doing it. Right?)
So why can’t you apply this way of thinking to your welcome sequence writing and website updating?
“Hey kids, I’m going to be working on the laptop in here for a bit till lunch. No yelling or I’ll send you each to your rooms and *no one* gets to play on the trampoline.”
Then off you go to said webpage, open up WordPress, and start editing. Easy peasy! And at lunchtime, you shut the computer down, get out the specific leftovers you want your kids to be eating, and switch to “supervising lunch and kitchen cleanup” routine.
What’s the harm in that?
Now let’s move on to myth number 2: You most *certainly* can’t upend your kids’ schedule so that you can work – it’s the leftover hours for you!
(That’s what a good mom does. Duh, right?)
Err, no. If it doesn’t matter to your kids – *that* much – whether they play outside before or after lunch, but it *really* matters to your recording brain or on-camera energy – then you sure as heck get to rearrange the recess schedule to make it suit your recording needs!
That’s just basic CEO scheduling, right? The kids need an outside break for x length of time, I need to turn out 5 reels for next week, and my brain is freshest then. Okay, that’s when I’m popping in the “trampoline games for all” time this week. Okay, done!
It doesn’t have to be this huge, angst-y “what if I’m disrupting my precious kiddos’ preferred lunchtime and art time schedule and they never forgive me” thing.
Tweaking your schedule little bits (or even medium bits) so it suits *your* energy flow isn’t going to muddle up an ordinary kid. So go right ahead.
- Swap that errand day.
- Move grandparent Facetime to 2 hours later.
- Quit bathroom cleaning on Tuesdays and do it Fridays after supper.
I don’t care, do whatever *you* need. You’ll know what doesn’t fit (because it never sits right in your schedule).
And you know what my *favorite* way to do this is? Asking my kids to respect “ovulation recording day” and running off to the bedroom with strict instructions to *not* go crazy in the living room while I’m batching 2 hours of recording.
(Yes, I’m allowed to take a break partway to rein in the little monsters.)
*And*, I get to make my smoothie ahead of time for lunch; plan what snack or tea time pick me ups I’m going to need (both for my voice and my energy, due to all that recording); and tell the bigger kids they need to keep each other accountable on chores (because I’m not there to do it).
‘Cause it’s only 1 day of the week (or 2 days of the month). And that’s okay.
Do you see how all these real-life, working mom examples all come back to *mindset*?
If you have the right *mindset* about what you are and aren’t allowed to do in your business (and your family’s daily schedule, and your kids’ playtimes), then no mom guilt is allowed. It just doesn’t exist. It’s not a thing.
All because *you* got straight in what your role is right here, right now; what your kids can handle (as far as being away from you); and what *you* should be doing with each and every precious ounce of non-kid-focused energy.
And *that’s* the clarity that’ll get you to 6 figures and beyond – whether you’re putting in 15 hours a week on your business, or 30. Doesn’t matter. You are *going* to get there.
Because you’re *so* crystal clear on what you can and can’t do, and you’ve got *zero* mindset gunk (aka mom guilt) about it.
Which is why working through your daily/weekly mindset kerfluffles is 1 of 3 key pillars in my program – because I *understand* how the *lack* of that daily reframe prevents you from seeing the momentum in your business. And because the *right* work/life balance is ultimately all about getting *you* (and your revenue!) unstuck. All right?
On to myth number 3: You shouldn’t swap your biz and housecleaning priorities to make the biz ones your frogs of the day because that would make you a bad mom.
Nope, that’s right out! You need to treat the laundry switching and dinner prepping and lunch making as the “will fit in somewhere” parts of your day and ditch the “super Pinterest motherhood” expectations you’re still holding onto.
(Believe me, your *husband* isn’t expecting you to do that! He *knows* you’ve got a business to run! And your kids aren’t expecting something they’ve never had from you, either.)
It’s all about what fits in *your* schedule, and how much brain energy that takes.
So yes, having food to eat is (arguably) more important than marketing your next launch. But in terms of how much brain power that takes?
*Way* heavier on the side of pre-launch marketing than the side of stir-up-curry-ing.
So let that free you up from feeling guilty about allocating your best hours to the biz side of the to-do list, rather than those necessary family tasks, when *you* know that the biz side is going to take *way* more mental prep work from you (than that stir fry ever will).
Okay?
Where did this give you a little more freedom today?
What are you going to shift in your work-from-home schedule (or your daily menu planner) so that you’re giving the bulk of your brain-time hours to the *actual* heavy lifting tasks in your business?
Go make those changes today – your lead gen and client retention and content creation routines will be *way* easier for it.
You’ve got this. You just needed permission to tweak it.
