Welcome to my world, where I juggle the roles of (1) being a mom to five energetic boys, (2) entrepreneur of two new businesses, and (3) the manager of our bustling household of seven. Balancing business and family life is no small feat, but over the years, I’ve learned invaluable productivity hacks that have allowed me to not only survive but thrive in this demanding set of roles. I’m excited to share my top strategies and insights for managing business and family with efficiency… and grace!

This is a three-part series on Productivity. Check out last week’s topic: Get your mind right and read on for this week’s lesson on strategies!

 

Today is part 2, create strategies:

Here are some really simple strategies that I learned in my professional life that I now use in my personal life.

 

Create your Family Vision

I know this sounds a little too “businessy” for your home life, but I use this in all of my roles. My vision for my consulting business is “To inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to grow the business of their dreams by providing them with the knowledge, skills and resources they need to create a solid operational foundation for a sustainable business.” The vision for this blog is to “Help all women feel more confident in their roles as mothers, business leaders and as the powerful women that they are by systemizing and simplifying how they can cover all their roles with joy.”

So what if I really thought about my vision for our family? Well, I have! My vision for our family, which is shared 100% by Luis is “To create lasting memories through meaningful experiences, to foster deep connections through quality time together, and to embrace the beauty of the world together.”

Because of this shared vision for our family, we are committed to prioritizing quality time over material possessions, cherishing moments that bring us closer as a family and we speak to the boys about this commitment, and why it is so important; it delivers our family vision.

Knowing your family vision instills your core values as a family and gives you a beacon so matter how lost you may be in the moment; you always know where you are going. This beacon enables better, faster decision making (does it support the vision, or not?) and allows you to prioritize what you do each day (does this align with and bring me closer to the vision, or not?).

 

Prioritizing Tasks Is a Must

We all keep a task list, whether it’s in your planner, on a napkin lost on a messy table, or a scramble of “oh no, I have to…” thoughts in your head. When I’m attempting to juggle pediatrician appointments, baseball games, dentist appointments, play dates, assignment dates, and everything else… times five!… I’ve learned that just remember them all in my head will NEVER work. I’ve also learned that while a simple bullet point list on a piece of paper may have worked with one or two kids, it also doesn’t work for five kids. However, having a priority list has made it much easier for me to keep things straight, and avoid that inevitable, “Oh my gosh, I totally forgot….!!!!” moment that wakes us in the middle of the night. And doesn’t it always seem like it’s the one night that the kids actually slept through the night, so why am I up?!?!

The point is this. Once you know your vision, it’s much easier to turn your jumbled task list into a list of priorities that make it easier to plan what you should do, and what you don’t have to do, each day. After I jot down what needs to be done, I make sure I know which items are a true priority (something bad will happen if it doesn’t get done), what tasks are really just nice to have (I will FEEL better if it gets done) and which items are really not a priority at all (if this happens or doesn’t happen tomorrow, no one will even notice).

So, if we have a bad night, or a bad day, but I’ve checked off the priority items, I’m not stressed. Prioritizing allows you to work around life’s little surprises on the fly and while you may not get it all done, you’ll know that you did what needed to be done to secure the family vision. For me, once my priorities are done, I can assess the situation. Do I need to do more “things”, or should I focus on investing my time in the boys to create memories or foster connections. Usually the latter wins, and it should.

Time Blocking Can Help

Ok, many people only use this at work, or may have never even heard of it at all. Time blocking is a great productivity hack where you create blocks of time to do similar tasks. An example at work would be:

8:30-9:00 am: Check and respond to all emails.

9:00-10:00: Find the correct photos to go with all previously written articles.

10:00-11:00: Write all content for the next series on organization.

The premise is simple, schedule blocks of time throughout your day for specific activities to allow you to focus on the task at hand and keep those pesky distractions at bay. Expanding my time blocking from just my professional life, into my family and personal life helps me maintain a balance and prevents one aspect of my life from overpowering the other. Marry this with prioritizing and if your professional life needs the attention today, that’s ok, move the block of personal needs to tomorrow. So instead of doing 1 of your personal items and not even feeling the benefits of crossing it off the list, you can tackle the whole block the next day and feel reinvigorated that you’re getting all the priorities done when they are needed.

 

Assemble a Team

Never be afraid to outsource! I have actually learned to outsource whenever feasible and possible, much like the housework I’ve written about in the past. Whether it’s hiring a cleaning service or delegating certain business tasks, outsourcing frees up my valuable time to focus on the things I can’t, or more importantly, don’t want to outsource. One of the boys is home sick, my time is best served with cuddles and couch time. One of the boys has a field trip, my time is best served marching 4 classmates around the museum for the whole day.

The more I can outsource at work, the more I can prioritize and the less stressed I feel in running the businesses. And outsourcing can be done right in the home! Luis and I assign age-appropriate responsibilities to our boys. They help with these tasks, which lightens our load and teaches them the importance of teamwork and the value of their time and ours. I also involve my boys in organizational tasks in an effort to teach them the skill of decluttering too. We are a team, we help each other, we share the load, and we prioritize our family vision. The more they pitch in, the more time we have for more memories, more experiences and more family time.

 

Conclusion

I hope these strategies help you to tackle the never-ending responsibilities of managing multiple roles with a bit less stress and a lot more joy! Make sure you join us next week so we can wrap up this series with some key takeaways on setting yourself up for success and prioritizing yourself within the rest of your responsibilities.