The Unbusy Mom - take your time back strategies for business moms

Balancing Both Ep. 9: The REAL truth about scolding yourself for not checking enough boxes yesterday in your WFH business….

Alyssa Wolff - Work/Life Balance Coach for Business Moms

Have you ever created this amazing schedule for yourself to follow, started your day, and then realized that you lazed around during two of your key periods and didn’t get everything done?

This is the exact problem a client came to me with at the end of our work together, and here’s what I told her.

Because I don’t think you’re actually skipping out on work.

You’ve got this!

Alyssa

Love your daily life as a work-at-home mom: https://yourunbusylife.com/ 

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'Cause there’s no need to flirt with burnout to hold both the high achiever & the present mom identity.

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This is the Unbusy Mom, and today we’re talking about what to do if you’re scolding yourself for not checking enough boxes yesterday – plus what’s REALLY going on instead.

Have you ever created this amazing schedule for yourself to follow, started your day, and then realized that you lazed around during two of your key periods and didn’t get everything done?

What’s a productivity-oriented mom to do then?

This is the exact problem a client came to me with at the end of our work together, and here’s what I told her.

Go straight back to those foundational principles of being unbusy. Release the expectations and the self-guilt.

Instead of beating yourself up for not using your time well, remember to cross off all work prep time as WELL as your home laundry/Insta pot prepping time from your schedule. 

You probably have a lot less time in your day than you think after subtracting necessary housework (this client had non-school-age kids, so no outsourcing there) plus all the stuff you have to do to get ready for your job and interacting with coworkers (she worked in a face-to-face industry).

What’s left – maybe it’s only 1 or 2 spots – are where you can put your handful of tasks per day. Aka, don't overbook yourself!

If you’re doing “necessary but uncounted” things during your “supposedly free for projects” hours, you can’t scold yourself for not doing useful things – you just forgot to add ALL the useful things to your main to-do list!

(Sometimes that happens, as moms.)

So go back to your day – especially those “not being productive enough” time blocks – and look at what’s actually happening. 

Are you REALLY skipping out on work? I don’t think so. I think you’ll find that you were doing OTHER necessary, almost invisible house-or-business-running things that took priority.

So give yourself permission to shrink your to-do list, get real about the unstated chores on your mom list, and add a heaping helping of grace to your day.

You’re doing enough. 

It’s going to be enough.

And  honestly, you can use this “just be calm and regroup” strategy for most anything in your mom life. 

Like the time I was super calm about the internet being out for 3 hours - even though that shot my best work hours that day - and just figured out what else I could do to kill the time between now and then (read: groceries and homeschooling); made a “where can I squeeze in extra overtime tonight and tomorrow” plan for how to accomplish those 3 hours’ worth of work (because yes, this time it WAS high priority and had to get turned in); and then took the mental space/break needed so that I was AVAILABLE for it being an energized “burn the candle at both ends” session, not a “hustle till you’re through on fumes” one.

Because when it’s a bedrock level value for you that everything your business needs this week is going to get done - but it’s happening on YOUR terms, at YOUR energy levels - what you’re REALLY leaning on is mindset. 

The mindset that I GET to take breaks every single time I’m out of ideas; I BELIEVE that everything’s going to fit when I get to the end of my day (or week); and I TRUST that the right calendar shifts, schedule rearrangements, and just-this-once delegation strategies are going to occur to me to help me get through this day. (Thanks, God.)

So if YOU’RE needing some help with the bedrock mindset piece - of ALLOWING yourself to take THIS kind of time off each and every day, as you need it, while still knocking out all of your essential to-do items - come talk to me about Mompreneur Made Easy. 

Because I want YOU to experience this “too good to be true” level of entrepreneur life, even with the kids - ‘cause I’m homeschooling 5 kids on TOP of running my business, so I know YOU can have and do and live this, too.