Working for yourself is the best and craziest thing ever at times. I love the flexibility of it, but if I am being totally honest, I struggle with time management. When I was a teacher, my day was scheduled for me. I ate when it was “lunch time.” I started class when the bell rang, and then ended when it rang again. Every 42 minutes (or 85 in the HS block schedule) I knew exactly which students would walk into my classroom and exactly what we’d be doing that day.
Enter motherhood and all ‘scheduling’ went right out the window!! Baby’s dictated everything and as soon as we seemed to settle into a nice routine, a leap or growth spurt would happen and it all went to heck. I survived it, like all mothers do, and really just became adapt at ‘bobbing and weaving’ as my husband so lovingly calls it.
Now that I have one child in full time school and one in 3 half day pre-school classes, and a real estate business to run, I find myself sometimes going a little batty. As I sat in on an another amazing Serve Sell Live Well class with Sam Sagot, she had a guest speaker present on time management. I believe I have gotten better, but man I feel like I am still not always finishing what I started, as I get so distracted easily! She said that our brains take 23 minutes to focus back on the original task at hand, and that multi-tasking is BAD (which I know) but gosh, it’s so hard to break this habit! I feel like kids (who are 4, little and still quite needy) constantly interrupt my flow–whatever it may be. I could be working on marketing, book-keeping, renovation details, talking to a contractor, paying taxes, you name it! I could also be folding laundry, doing the dishes or trying to vacuum. As I sit here and type this blog I just realized I have a pile of wet laundry behind me that needs to be hung.
I guess the point is, as much as I love giving tips, help a mama out!! I am working on “time blocking” but how do you stay on task? How do you make sure that you finish what you started? Working from home can be tricky–hello, I cannot leave my kitchen a mess and just walk by it without cleaning it!? How do you do all the housework, cook, take care of kids and get all your work done and still find time every day or week for you?
I also listened to the girls talk about having one day where they do not work. Day of rest. I know that Sunday should be that, but sometimes that the only day Joe & I can catch up and talk about business stuff without other work interfering. So, this week I think I will take Tuesday off…maybe my “Day of rest” will be Saturdays. And mamas, by rest I don’t mean my feet are up all day and I’m not hustling around the house, but I mean one day off from “WORK.” I LOVE what we are doing with our real estate company and I truly feel empowered to step into my role better each day, but I am sensing a little burnout and I simply can’t help but wonder if it’s because every day I “do” a little real estate work.
What are your thoughts, do you take a day of rest from your “job”? Do you work every day and never feel a burn out? What do you enjoy doing on your day off? I would like to use my Saturdays to catch up around the house, play with the kids, write, workout and let my mind take a mental break. At the same time, I realize that we all have seasons of work, and I feel like right now maybe it’s more of hustle season, and it’s hard to break because we have a lot going on right now. Maybe it’s okay to work a little every day, as long as you build in ‘down time’ every day and stick to it…
Maybe this blog makes zero sense, but I felt like getting my thoughts out of my jumbled mind, so feel free to chime in! I feel like it applies to stay at home moms, work at home moms, working moms—all the moms! We take care of SO many things in a day, in a week–and don’t get me wrong, I know men do a lot too, but I’m just speaking about myself who’s a work at home mama…
Happy Sunday!
