Hi. I am a Mom. I am a blogger too.How do I manage?

“I work-from-home. I am a work-from-home Mom Blogger and I feel that term describes it all. I ‘work-from-home’ and ‘work-for-home’ as well.”

I am a Mom and I don’t think I need to describe this part of my job in detail. I am a blogger and I love and enjoy blogging. In short – I’m always on my toes being a Mom- Blogger.

Sometimes, many-a-times, in fact, most of the times I’m too busy to tell people how busy I am.

Sometimes it feels good to be busy, but at times it gets tiring and frustrating.

It feels as though I have too much to do and less time in hand. I also get panic attacks about not being a responsible mother or a good employee once in a while. But then I manage to deal with those emotions after some point somehow and move on.

In all these months of being a blogger and working along with the full-time job of being a mom, I have learnt one thing for sure and that is, that doing something efficiently boils down to ‘Time Management’.

I don’t mean to sound like one of those management grads or big shots who give lectures on time management in prestigious institutes, but I just mean to get to your doorstep some cool, real and practical time management tips from real work-from-home Mom bloggers, who just like me, have found a solution to travel in 10 boats at the same time and that too happily and comfortably!

I discussed this issue with many women like me from all over the globe and these are what they had to tell me about their experiences as Mom- Bloggers.

Pretend as if you work-from-office

 

“I don’t get up to do the dishes or the laundry. I pretend they aren’t even there. I also don’t answer personal phone calls or check my personal email during my work hours.”

Melissa Gheen, productivity and organizing coach at Productive Difference

This is the best way to get things done on time. Don’t think that you have the whole day in hand to take bath, clean the house, cook and then settle for work. Get up early and finish off all your day’s work as if you had to leave for office at 10 or 9am. To make things look real, you can even dress up in formals and set up your office table as you would have done had you gone to office.

Discipline

“While it takes time, patience and experience for each mom to set up a system that works best for her, in the end it all comes down to discipline. Discipline and time go hand in hand.”

Weam Namou, mom-blogger at culturalglimpse.com

If you and your routine is disciplined, you can kick off things well. Discipline helps you save time, do things regularly so that they don’t pile up for later days and it also gives you the freedom to plan and execute things better.

“Managing family and work calls for dedicated discipline and selflessness. I have been all this for the past 20 years or so and I don’t overdo a thing. The responsibilities of all in my family are divided and designated and they even carve out time for relaxation and enjoyment.”

Loulou Szal, a mother of two, blogger , teacher and her husband’s business partner

Help! Help! Help!

Sometimes it’s good to take help from those around you. When we ask people for help, they feel really good about it because it gives them the feeling of affinity.

Asking your children for help makes them more involved on the home front, helping them grow into more knowledgeable and responsible individuals. Taking help from your husband makes him realise what you are going through making him respect and love you more.

Daniela Sulek, owner of Madamesque,a blog turned online magazine owing its high success rate, takes the help of her older kids to fold clothes and take care of the younger kids. Her husband does the grocery shopping for the week and also takes the kids to piano practice and dance classes.

Daniela also takes the help of her smartphone with all her emails in it. While standing in queues or travelling locally she sends emails, connects with professionals who want to contribute with an article, writes down her ideas, posts on FB, tweets – all using her smartphone.

Don’t be afraid to use preschool or hired help so you can have a few solid hours to get work done each day. Use naptime or quiet time.  Plan your to-do list early in the morning before your kids wake up so when naptime, quiet time, or preschool come, you are ready to hit the ground running.

Wake up before your kids. Take care of yourself first by exercising, then plan out your day. When your kids are actually entertaining themselves or playing quietly, use those moments here and there for quick things like social media or answering an email or two.

Bring your kids with you to the grocery store or on errands. (That precious alone time has to be spent working on the blog.) Pack snacks,
little toys, and a positive attitude. Ask them questions, teach them new things, and keep them engaged while you shop. Save cleaning for the weekend. Maybe the kids can spend time playing with Daddy and you can get some flash cleaning done.

Do one load of laundry every other day so that the task never becomes overwhelming. Pick dinners with 5 ingredients or less. Simple steamed veggies, rice, and seasoned chicken is a quick staple at our house.

Beth Anne Schwamberger from brilliantbusinessmoms.com 

Early to Bed; Early to Rise

Getting up before your child or family does is like buying time from Mother Nature beyond the 24 hours we get in a day. Efficiency goes up by 100% during these ‘happy hours’.

Crystal Paschal, a blogger and freelance writer from Indianapolis, wakes up three hours before her family does i.e., at 5 a.m. and finds this practice helpful for getting work done. She schedules out her day hour by hour to make the best use of her time.

“I wake up 2 mornings per week to go to a coffee shop so that I can get 2 hours of work done before my daughter wakes up.”

Robin Long, owner of The balanced life

Time your time

If we set a time for everything we do in a day, things will become easier, more organised and we will be able to make full use of our time as well.

Robin Long, from thebalancedlifeonline.com is a mother and a business woman who plans ahead and dedicates chunks of time to each project. She does majority of her work during nap times and sets timers to keep her on track, like keeping 20 minutes social media updates, 35 minutes email responses, and 60-90 minutes writing/blogging/bookkeeping.

This keeps her on track and ensures that she makes the most of her time.

 

   I got to know experiences of many work-from-home moms while writing this post and also heard from Stacy Geisinger of stacyknows.com and loved her crsip and smart tips on managing work and home together. According to her, one should always remember to wake up early, be alright with doing one thing less and have the belief that perfection is overrated.

I totally agree with her and loved the idea of doing one thing less. It’s not the laid back lady inside me that made me love this idea but just the feeling of getting worked up everyday trying to put up a one woman show, that does. It’s not bad to skip dusting to have a cup of coffee at leisure with your partner. The laundry can be kept for tomorrow to paint that picture with your kids.

Everything considered, managing time is all about discipline, having your to-do lists in front of you, putting things into action and being relaxed at the same time. If you are able to manage this, you’ll be able to manage your time well.

If you too have some cool tips for work-from-home bloggers that can help them manage their time and life better then please share it with all our readers in the box below.