You know what hours you’re working, and what hours you’re playing mom. In fact, you even know how many hours a week you can expect to devote to your business!
That’s great. Wonderful. But do you know… what you’re going to do next? Which project you should be working on once you sit down in front of that computer or crack open that laptop?
Here’s why you need a business to-do list – and why it needs to be every bit as regimented as your household to-do list.
If 3 item to-do lists work….
All right. If you’ve been in #Momlife Made Easy for any length of time, you know I’m a big believer in 3-item to do lists. Why?
Because they save you the guilt, bother, and overwhelm of always wondering if you’re doing enough (and never actually getting around to crossing off those last few line items for today).
So. Why not use the same approach on your business?
You’re working the 2nd shift to make time for this – you still have kids around/to pick up – and you might even have babies or be homeschooling.
Aka, you’ve got a lot going on, and you definitely need a plan to get everything done.
See, the single girl who starts an online business can go work 40 or 50 hours a week and not really care what’s on her daily to-do list, hour by hour – you can’t.
You have to know when you’re going to work, what you’ll do when you crack open that laptop, and approximately how long it’s going to take you.
In other words, the ninja business mom skills.
(And yes. If you can send your kids off to school for the day, and don’t have littles at home, you still need a 3-item list. Don’t let yourself get distracted by the housework.)
If this isn’t making sense to you quite yet, or you need some help cutting down your daily to-do list to just 3 items, hop over to #Momlife Made Easy and I’ll get you started with all these techniques for the #momlife side of things.
Once you’ve learned *how* to implement a 3-things-on-my-plate schedule, it’s a lot easier to transfer that knowledge to your business. So make sure your home life is in order, too – it’s going to make being a work-at-home mom much easier.
(Believe me, with 5 kids, I *had* to get my home life straightened out before I could even *think* of adding a business!)
What goes in each day?
So, moving on, what should you actually put on said business to-do list?
This is where essentialism comes in. Don’t just cram your biz day with all sorts of “should get done” items.
Since you only have 3 slots, each one has to be ultra-essential.
- What TRULY has to get done for your content platform each week?
- To support however many clients you have?
- To interface with team?
Don’t forget to add in your project blocks for prepping for a launch, recording that new course, doing some guest interviews, that sort of thing.
Now we’re getting a good, hard look at what’s actually going on in your task management system (whether that be software or a simple piece of paper) – and whether your current business expectations are anywhere near realistic.
‘Cause if you’ve got no team, a nursing baby, and 10 hours a week to work? Your progress has to be laser-focused on only the most top, move-my-business-forward essentials.
You don’t have an additional 30 or 40 hours to faff around with “might be nice to get done” tasks.
Now, don’t get too caught up in making the perfect estimates for each of those essential weekly tasks and client support projects. Just give yourself a rough idea what each podcast episode, YouTube video, copywriting project, or website refresh is going to take you – err in the middle.
If you get done early, you’ll have time for something else. What you DON’T want to do is constantly have your eye on the clock, scolding yourself for being 3 minutes late turning in one task, which will then snowball into not wrapping up everything in that entire time block.
So that’s why we deal in estimates.
Start living in grace for what you can realistically accomplish.
I’ll give you an example. My business has a podcast, as you know. That’s my preferred weekly content. So how long does it take me to write up each new episode, and how many do I cram into a single work block?
Well, I *can* get one done in 30 minutes – but that’s if I’m rushing. So what I *don’t* do is put 3 episodes in each 90-minute time block for 2 days straight and say I’m good.
That’s way too much pressure. Something’s going to go wrong.
What I *can* do is plop in the next 2 episodes, give myself 35 or 40 minutes for each, and leave the rest of that time block for getting a head start on episode 3. (Or see if I have a little extra time today for an hour and 40-minute time block, which means I can do all 3 episodes without rushing.)
You see where I can’t depend on perfection? I’ll tell you, that’s a bad idea when your 2-year-old wakes up by throwing up all over her toddler bed….
You want to have the margin in your work time block, morning or afternoon, to say, “I was almost done anyway. I can go attend to her, get things settled, and go 5 minutes over to get this done and dusted.”
Not be sitting there moaning that now you’ll be an entire day behind your launch schedule, and how will you ever make up the time?
That’s not living with ease and flow.
Miscellaneous is okay (sometimes)
Now, there is one more note I’ll make about what you should be putting in your time blocks.
You will find that every once in a while, you really need a round-up session to get to all the little, one-off tasks that have stacked up here and there.
No, it’s not as satisfying as making a huge chunk of progress on your launch emails or that affiliate webinar – but it’s part of being a solopreneur.
So I recommend you have a few “lots of miscellaneous stuff” time blocks as well as a number of “making significant progress on projects” time blocks in your weekly work calendar – or at least schedule a catch-up week once a month if you’re going hard on projects in weeks 1-3.
Pro tip: You’re totally allowed to vary the frequency of these 2 types of work sessions to suit your needs, your brain, and your personality.
Just because I can get away with one session of wrap-up per week doesn’t mean that you can – or maybe you *like* dealing with all of those little to-do’s for 20 minutes each day before you close up.
Do what suits you.
In summary, what you need here is a combination of ruthlessness and grace.
Ruthlessness to pare back that business task list hanging over your head into something achievable each and every day.
Grace to move through that 3-task to-do list with ease and margin between each one of your tasks.
Because life’s going to come up, and you need a bit of flex time to flow around all the minor obstacles inherent in it.
That’s it.
There’s no special secret to being a work-at-home mom.
There’s just scheduling, pinpoint focus, and grace-filled determination.
Determination to fulfill your calling.
Determination to take care of your kids.
And determination to enjoy the process.
We’re not here for burnout, ladies. We’re here to be kingdom changers.
So let’s get this done.
Go grab your next day’s schedule, cross off all but the 3 most important tasks on it, and push the rest off to next week or month.
It’s time to start living in grace for what we can realistically accomplish.
That’s all God asks of us – and His grace is enough.
Let’s do this.
