I thought that my schedule was hard last year but it’s nothing compared to this year. You see I wasn’t yet introduced to the school drop off and pick up. I have a beautiful four year old daughter who has started kindy this year and my thinking was that she would be at kindy from 8.30am to 2.45pm and that gives me 5 ½ hours give or take 2-3 days a week, WRONG!
I found that once I got home from dropping my daughter off I’d make a coffee, put the washing on, do the dishes and then before I knew it I only got like an hours’ worth of work done. And yes I have now learnt that even though they finish at 2.45pm I have to leave home at 2.00pm even though I’m only 10 minutes away. But this family life and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Running a small business you have to be on the ball. Your clients have tasks that they need completed and as a WAHM this has to be scheduled around family life but completed in a timely manner.
As a WAHM you need structure I found that in order for me to stay productive and get some actual work done I needed to schedule schedule schedule! Between Google Calendar and my task management program TickTick I have my day worked out even down to dinner time. Yes my week resembles more of a checkerboard than a calendar but you see I am a visual person everything is colour coded and set out in a weekly calendar view and it’s enlightening to see where your day actually goes.
I schedule;
- School Drop Off / School Pick Up
- Paid Client Work
- Housework
- Exercise
- Dinner/Family Time
- Social Events/Networking Events
- Any Appointments (work/personal)
I do sometimes divert from the plan but at least I have a guide to stick to and I am able to tick some tasks off my list.
I think there is a misconception that WAHMs have all this free time to get stuff done when in actual fact our schedules are pretty much full, sometimes so full that we are up late at night working. It can be a juggling act and it keeps you on your toes. However having the ability to dictate my own schedule and be available for those precious moments with my daughter I wouldn’t change for the world. Being able to drop and pick her up from school, attend parent days and just overall have the flexibility to be both Mum, Wife and a Small Business Owner.