Stop wasting your brain space on forcing yourself to clean the bathroom between client calls, or check off your new water-drinking habit!
(Yes, really – this is coming from a time management expert!)
Because you’ve GOT to have a structure of some sort for your day, and that means you need (or already use!) a system.
Now, I get it – systems is a boring word. Downright restrictive, in fact. But swap in routines, or rhythms, or household anchors, or even plans and time budgets. You’ve got to have a structure of some sort for your day, and there’s plenty of synonyms you can pick for it.
Got your preferred word in mind? Great. I’ll keep calling it systems for the duration of this episode, but you replace that in your head with your own language.
Okay. So if we look over your day, you’ll see you have a system. A system for what to do when you get up, how long it takes you to get the kids ready for breakfast/school/or chores, and a system for how to decide what to eat for lunch.
(Even if that system is just looking at the fridge!)
Everything is a system. And if you’ve been thinking that because something isn’t working properly, it can’t be a system, well, I’ve got news for you – nobody said systems always work well. (Horrors!)
So if you don’t like the way one of your systems is currently running, you can change it. Because you’re right, you DO need a system right there – it’s just that you need a DIFFERENT one.
So, that’s a short look at home systems, ‘cause I know you’re most familiar with that. But what about business systems? Ooh, now we’re getting corporate-y.
No, not necessarily – remember, a system is just a repeated set of habits you set up. A certain order you do these tasks in.
Do you have multi-step tasks in your business? Sure you do.
Well then, you have a system. (Or at least you better have one!)
Say it’s scheduling an email to your list. (Whether you’re doing it, or your VA!) That’s got all kinds of little steps in it, from logging into your email software, clicking on the right tab, opening a new draft, titling it, copy pasting in your pre-written text from somewhere, reformatting it, and adding any graphics necessary. And we haven’t even gotten to the subscribers’ tags, aka “send to” part, or when you choose to send out your emails!
But that, right there, is an email-sending system. A newsletter system, or a broadcast system, or a nurture email system – doesn’t matter what you call it.
If you’re sending regular emails to your list, you’ve got it. And so what we do, in life and now in business, is write down the steps of each system so we don’t have to remember it every time.
I want you to save that “perpetually deciding” brain space for something else – like what kind of headline or hook you want to write, or how exactly you want to pitch this client your 6-month coaching program.
Let the SOP or document or template do the remembering for you.
You’re going to save so much brain space, so much worry that you didn’t do it the same way, and so much anxiety over whether you’re getting repeatable results (heck, like even being able to hand a new content process off to your VA!) when you have a system.
And lastly, let’s get personal. Let’s bring this home to your habit life.
I don’t want you to waste brain space here, either. Don’t fuss at yourself, trying to remember eleventy-different habits at all different times of day.
Set up a system, aka a habit reminder chart, and just cross things off at the end of the day if you did them.
Don’t leave it up to your mom-and-CEO brain to remember whether you’ve had 8 cups of water today or just 6. Use a system.
(That can be as simple as a scrap piece of paper next to your glass with a pencil and a tally mark!)
Or me – last week you’d have caught me setting a yogurt timer for when I needed to stir the starter in, and losing myself in copy updates for an hour – only to be totally startled when said timer went off.
(My headphones were in, so I didn’t even hear it! But one of the kids told me, and *then* I remembered what I’d set that timer for.)
And you know what? I had *zero* guilt for forgetting that I’d put “do yogurt” on my mental task list in the first place!
THAT is what your reminder, or timer, or SOP is actually for – to de-guilt you (AND make sure you meet all your obligations).
Because you deserve the *confidence* that everything your business needs from you today got done – and it’s going to happen by delegating. Delegation to your copy template. Delegating what you don’t have time to do (and would be so easy for another VA to handle for you.) Delegating to your off-my-plate *system* – and *that’s* what I’m going to help you do.
Free up your brain from all this remembering so you can actually ENJOY working from home like you’re doing – not constantly stress about whether you remember which client call you’re having 3 hours from now.
Leave that to your spreadsheet. Planner. Notion. Google doc. Whatever.
You be in the moment, and let it handle the rest.
THAT’S how to rely on your system to save you every day as a work-from-home mom.
(I bet something just came to mind for you right now….)
Where do you need a NEW (or better!) system in your daily schedule, right now?
