Written by: Ana Parra Vivas, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Working moms who are also entrepreneurs have a lot of responsibilities to manage, including work-related tasks, household chores, and parenting duties. It is hard for working entrepreneurs to find the time and energy to implement new habits and practices, especially if they feel stretched thin or overwhelmed.
I know this because I am a working mom entrepreneur. I remember the times when I felt exhausted every day, burnt out with no motivation to wake up in the morning.
I have spoken with a lot of working moms who are also entrepreneurs, and they feel overwhelmed by the prospect of making significant changes to their habits and practices. They worry that they will not be able to keep up with the demands of their business, or that they will fall behind in their existing work and personal responsibilities. This is a terrible cycle because the worry of not practicing productivity tips attracts more things to worry about.
I decided to become an entrepreneur in July of 2016, I was already working for a Fortune 500 company within a high-level marketing position. On top of this, I had a toddler at home, and did I mention that I did not have family living in the same city I was in? All of these things led to stress and anxiety because I did not know how to be a productive working mom.
After making several changes to my mindset, I discovered a system and habits that helped me to overcome stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Here are three of those habits and changes I implemented. They look simple, but they will make a difference in your personal, business, and family life:
1. Overcoming time constraints
First, we have to understand we cannot manage time. Everybody has the same amount of time, 24 hours a day. Therefore, the only thing we can manage is the activities we do during that day.
Earl Nightingale was an American radio speaker and author. He spoke on the topics of motivation and human character development, saying that we can only manage activities.
A great productivity tip I learned was time-blocking. Here is how it works. On Sunday I decide the 3 main goals for the week. These goals can be related to your business or day job. You can have 5, however, I don’t recommend more than this. If you have more you will stress out because you may not complete them.
Then in your calendar block the time when you will work on these activities. During this time, you will not check your email, check social media, cook, listen to audiobooks, or do anything else.
I even recommend leaving your cell phone in another room. There is research done that proves that our productivity changes when we have our cell phones too close to us. Here is the article “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity”.
In addition to business or day job goals, allocate family time. For example, reading a book to your children, going to the park with them, or just talking and listening to them and really paying attention to what they are saying.
Time-blocking techniques will help working mom entrepreneurs allocate specific time slots for both business and family-related tasks.
With this productivity tip, you will feel sure that you are dedicating the time necessary for your business and family.
2. Prioritizing self-care
Now that you understand how to use time-blocking techniques, let's also block time for you.
It is not selfish to block time only for you. This is key so everything works in your life. We attract what we feel, so if we feel stressed out all of the time, we will attract more things to be stressed out about.
A book that I love is Feeling is The Secret by Nevile Goddard. He explains more about this concept, so get the book to understand why it is so important to have good feelings all day. An example of a good feeling is being grateful.
Time for you does not necessarily mean getting a massage every week, however, if this is what you like to do, go for it.
Healthy habits that you could implement are:
Morning Routine where you pray or meditate.
Read good books that will help you keep your feelings positive.
Exercise at home or at the gym.
Enjoy nature, like walking outside or sitting outside in a quiet area where you can listen and smell nature.
It is also important to learn how to say no or set boundaries. This helps you to protect personal time for self-care.
Speak with your spouse and children about the changes that you are implementing and how they are important for you and for the whole family. Happy wife, happy life. Let them understand that you have been struggling and are under stress and this has made a negative impact on your reactions towards them.
Therefore, you will need their cooperation to implement healthy habits, so you can be more in control of your emotions and be the calm mom and wife they want.
Prioritizing self-care is essential to be a successful working mom.
3. Nurturing healthy relationships
One of the things I learned, during my process of balancing business and family, is that I had to find a supportive network for my new way of living.
It was hard to realize that the friends I made in the past may not be in this new network that I needed. Yes, there were friends at work who had children, but they were not starting a business on the side. Therefore, it was hard for them to help me or support me.
They thought I was crazy, and that I should just quit this idea of becoming an entrepreneur. This became very discouraging, and I started feeling lonely.
It is important that you start connecting with other fellow mom entrepreneurs, family members who are also entrepreneurs, or mentors so you can share your experiences and find guidance.
In addition to finding a support system, practice spending quality time with your family members.
It is not just the quantity of time, but the quality of the time spent with your family is most important. This time should be reflected in your calendar, so you know when you have to focus on your family members.
During this time don’t bring your cell phone and really leave your work at work. Don’t start thinking about the things you have to do the next day or the next week. Remember everything is under control, it is your calendar! You don’t have to keep thinking about it, it is there!
I know you have read this before and you are thinking “I know all of this” but you keep struggling.
Negative habits take time and repetition to change into healthy ones. So, I created a reminder of these work-life balance tips. I send them out every week on Monday. They are called “Manifest Mondays”.
You can subscribe to Manifest Mondays, here.
Ana Parra Vivas, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Ana Parra Vivas can help you reconcile your personal and professional life to achieve a successful and well-balanced lifestyle. She can guide you to manifest the life you dream of.
After achieving success in a high-level marketing position at a Fortune 500 company and in her family life. She felt frustrated and guilty that her career was taking away time with her children and husband. She did not feel fulfilled as a woman. All of these negative feelings and thoughts caused her stress and anxiety.
Drawing on her own experiences, Ana has created a unique program that teaches women how to discover the root cause of their problems. This program implements healthy mental habits to eliminate fear and anxiety and create a thriving, peaceful, and harmonic life.
