7 ways to make balancing being a mom and entrepreneur easier!

Managing Your Time and Willpower:

The key to balancing being a mom and being an entrepreneur is to protect your time and willpower for the important things! 

Research has shown that Willpower like energy is a finite resource.

As much as you might want to pack lunches, take the kids to school, write all your content, go to conferences, appear on podcasts, do sales calls and more…

You can only do so much.

Research also has shown that most people can do about 3-4 hours of focused work per day.

For more information on this check out Cal Newport’s awesome book; Deep Work.

So in order to balance everything you’re going to need to manage both your time and your willpower.

Your time is easy, in just a few minutes we’ll talk about how to create 2 schedules to manage your time. 

But as you manage your time, try to keep track of your willpower for the day as well.

You probably already know what it feels like when your willpower is depleted.

You feel tired, unmotivated, and simple tasks like getting groceries or preparing a presentation seem like a giant chore. 

Try to keep track of where your willpower levels are during the day and make special notes of those tasks and activities that drain your willpower. 

There might be some willpower depletion tasks you can outsource to a professional, your spouse or even your kids!

Now that we’ve talked about willpower and time management Let’s get into 7 ways to balance being a mom and entrepreneur: 

1. Make 2 schedules: The first step to being able to balance being a Mom and being an entrepreneur is to create two separate schedules; one for home and one for work. You should try to plan your entire week out both personally and professionally every Sunday night. Yes, things will come up and plans will change but when you start with a clearly laid out schedule it’s easier to say no to things that pop up and aren’t vitally important.

2. Take care of yourself. Do you know what really drains your energy and willpower? Being sleep deprived. Not eating healthy nutritious foods. Or just not eating. Working even when you’re sick and should be in bed. If you’re going to balance being a Mom and an entrepreneur you’re going to need to take better care of yourself. Make sure you get 7-8 hours of sleep, eat healthy, exercise, take time off. The better care you take of yourself the more resilient you will be when things go wrong! Don’t neglect your own health, well-being, and sanity for more productivity because in the end that is only begging to get burned out.  

3. Find other Mompreneurs for social support. Emotional support is one of the bedrocks of personal and professional success. Research has shown “Poor social support has been linked to depression and loneliness has been shown to increase the risk of depression, suicide, alcohol use, cardiovascular disease, and altered brain function.” Additionally, positive social support leads to healthy choices and behaviors, increased stress resistance, and improved motivation. Family support is integral to success as well, but finding a group of other like-minded entrepreneurs will let you tap into the “Mastermind principle” and really harness the power of positive social support. You can find other Mompreneurs through meetup.com by attending local business meetups. You can also find social support online in forums like The Mom Forum, GirlBoss and Scary Mommy. 

4. Know when to say no at home and work. One of the biggest problems Mompreneurs have is saying yes to everything. You don’t want to let anyone down, so you overschedule yourself to the point of exhaustion. And people are STILL let down. So instead of trying to make everybody happy and failing start focusing on saying no to everything that isn’t vital to your goals. That means saying no to lunches, or volunteering, or helping a friend with their business for free. Your priorities tell people what is really important to you. If balancing being a mom and being an entrepreneur matters, start saying no to everything else. 

5. Create weekly family rituals. One of the best ways to help you balance Mom life with being an entrepreneur is to create weekly family rituals. You might not be able to make every soccer game or play date but if you create weekly rituals like dinner or a movie night you will be able to get that quality time with your family every single week while meeting your business goals. Just remember that once it’s in the schedule it’s an appointment and treat your family rituals with the same respect you would an important sales call or proposal! 

6. Be fully on or fully off. One of the problems all entrepreneurs struggle with is multi-tasking. You’re watching your kids but also checking email or looking at sales data. There is a lot of research to show that multitasking doesn’t actually work. You’re just doing a bad job at more things. Additionally, there is a lot of data to suggest that taking time off actually rejuvenates you creatively and makes you more productive!   So instead of paying half your attention to two things, focus on one thing at a time. When you’re working be fully immersed in work. No distractions like social media or texting. When you’re not working be fully off. No checking email, sales data or thinking about what you need to do tomorrow. By being fully on or fully off you’ll stop multitasking and start actually being in the moment! 

7. Include your family in your business. Last but not least, find ways to include your family in your business! It’s never too early to get your kids interested in being entrepreneurs! Family time can be business time if you get creative and find fun ways for your kids or spouse to get involved!  

Being a Mom and an entrepreneur can be stressful! 

You have pressure from everywhere to be all things to all people. 

You can do it! 

But you need to manage your time and willpower! 

In this article, you learned 7 different ways to manage your time and willpower to help you balance being a mom and entrepreneur.

If you can manage your time and energy you too can have it all! 

Remember what Dorothy Canfield Fisher once said

“Mother is a verb. It’s something you do. Not just who you are.”