We have witnessed an immense increase in the number of mompreneurs and working mothers in the past few years. As amazing as it sounds, it is equally challenging for mothers to work and manage their children simultaneously. If you are wondering how to manage your side hustle as a full-time mother, you are not alone in this struggle.
The thing is, women are readily accepting challenges and finding ways to deal with them. You are just one step away from finding your way out. And that step is to recognise where exactly you are failing and plan accordingly.
We are sharing 8 time management techniques other mompreneurs use to make their side hustle and parenting a success.
Manage Your Side Hustle: Analyse Your Time and Routine
Before starting anything you first need to understand where you are using most of your time and how much free time you have that can be used for your side hustle. Even a stay-at-home mother gets some free time here and there. For instance, when your baby is sleeping, or they are in school or out to play. Depending on the age of your child you will find free time for different reasons but you will certainly have some time that can be used more productively.
Analyse your routine and see what changes you can introduce in your routine to have more free time for yourself.
Use Morning Time for Your Side Hustle
Every individual who plans to start a side hustle is suggested this. Wake up early and use those hours to build your side hustle. It’s literally the best time when everyone’s sleeping and there is literally nothing you need to worry about. You can simply use those hours to work on whatever you intend to.
Even as a mother, waking up a little earlier than you normally would and sleeping earlier as well can give you some more time to yourself. You can use this time for yourself and your side hustle.
Keep Side Hustle and Parenting Separate
Do not mix work and parenting ever. It will not only create chaos for you, but the divided focus will also affect the quality of your work and parenting. Moreover, you will feel more exhausted than you should. Multitasking has more harm than good, avoid multitasking and try to be focused on one thing at a time. You will find yourself to be more productive, and less stressed, and the quality of your work will remain intact as well.
Write and Schedule Everything
Writing everything down and making a schedule can help you more than you can imagine. With a written, preplanned schedule you wouldn’t waste your time thinking about what to do next, you will know already. And writing down everything that crosses your mind will help you have a clear mind and have every important information penned down for later reference.
Write down your thoughts, plans, goals, and to-do list, and every day, write the three most important tasks that you need to complete by the end of the day. This way, you will have a clear map ready for the day.
Delegate Some Work
Don’t try to handle everything all by yourself. You are superwoman, we know, you don’t need to prove it to anyone, please. Assign yourself very limited tasks that you know you can take care of easily and the rest should be delegated. Hire people if you please or ask your family members and partner to help you out. Any task that does not require your immediate attention can be delegated. You can easily find people who are ready to work for comparatively low prices than the market rate.
Read more: Women, It’s Your Time to Shine. Start Your Business Online
Use Every Single Minute Wisely
If you notice, you get at least 5 minutes every now and then for yourself which you don’t really take into consideration. Every minute, if you decide to use it wisely, can be used in your favour. There are so many small tasks that don’t require a lot of your time. For instance, deleting emails, replying to an email, collecting inspiration from social media, watching informative videos, reading a blog, and applying for new opportunities. Everything requires you to use your phone for a few minutes and do something that can increase your productivity.
Make Sure You Are Taking Breaks
We are not going to lie, working and parenting simultaneously can be overwhelming. It is important to take your personal time and rest time into consideration while making the schedule. Add a few short breaks in your routine where you can simply breathe, go out, have some tea, or lie and stretch. Do whatever helps you relax.
Eliminate Unrequired, Time Consuming Activities
Finally, eliminate activities that are time-consuming and don’t add value to your routine, life, and career. One of the biggest examples of such activities is watching Netflix. Even if you think you are just giving it 10 minutes here and there, you need to add those minutes up to know how much time you are wasting on something that is not serving you at all. You can choose to use this same time in doing something better. Recognise the activities that are not serving you and replace them with activities that can help you.
Parting Words
A little reminder, the process is going to be exhausting, there is no denying that. But once you find your perfect schedule, a schedule that works for you, the exhaustion will fade away eventually. You just need to stick to a routine and keep working. Don’t let anything demotivate you. You know the reason why you are starting, keep reminding yourself why you want a side hustle in the first place.
If you need to learn more about starting a side hustle as a mother, we have a course for you. Hustlepost Academy caters to college students, mothers, and corporate employees, and teaches them how they can start and grow a side hustle that will not affect their usual routine. If anything, it will only change it for the better. You will be more productive, less stressed, and make more money.
Our “Side Hustle Formula” course covers everything from finding your niche and side hustle to managing your time the right way and building a side hustle that can generate six figures in income.
