Today, Laura Morris of Rentabuggy gives us her top five time management tips for mumpreneurs. Rentabuggy is a pushchair rental service that you can use if you’re on holiday or just want to try out a buggy for a couple of weeks before you buy. You can find out more about how Laura started Rentabuggy here at Business Plus Baby this Friday 30th July.
When I started my business I was married and even though running a business was tough at least I had two pairs of hands to ease the workload. Now a single mum to my daughter Ashleigh, who will be shortly 4 years old and also now running not only my own business www.rentabuggy.co.uk but co-running another one, has definitely been an insight into a whole new world that has taken a lot of adjustment.
My work day life now revolves around meal times, school runs, piles of washing and various other duties, not including my ever growing workload. Trying to maintain a routine has been tough and if you are a mother yourself as you will know sometimes illness and a variety of other stuff seems to pop up in the middle of an important meeting or deadline! Here are my top tips on managing your time.
- I work in blocks of 30 minutes. I have found that if I have sat at the computer all day I seem to not get as much done. Seems silly when put in such context but if you try the ‘30 block trick’ it works a treat as you get a break and your mind has time to be restored and focus. I.e. Breakfast 30 minutes, Phone calls 30 minutes, School Run 30 minutes etc
- Every morning when you wake up write a to-do list. Many people keep there to-do list within their head but it is important to write it down. The biggest reason for this is that when you cross items off it you can see the progress you have made and this gives you more motivation.
- For a long time I had a massive guilt that as I was not only trying to be a role model for my daughter and earn an income I was also not spending enough time with her. In reality I was but it is a massive guilt every mother seems to carry. My daughter is now old enough to love the fact of helping around the house and by doing this together she knows she is helping mummy but we also get to chat about our day’s and share some time doing stuff together even if trivial.
- It is very easy when running a business from home to basically get sucked in and to work all night every night. In all honesty, I am quite a sucker for this but I recently decided that to actually be more effective I needed to switch off some evenings. Again, for the first few nights I sat there racked with guilt (especially after a big bar of Galaxy!) but the next morning I woke up feeling refreshed and more focused. We all need to switch off. Even if you had your own office somewhere, you would have to come home at some point!
- I recently was at an event where there was an Inspirational Speaker that I really connected with. She was telling the story that every morning before she switches on the computer she goes for a run. She say’s when she comes back she feels refreshed. She says she sees the time as working as it sets her up for the day. Unfortunately, I don’t get time to run every day but this is something I do 2-3 times a week. It really helps me de-stress. So remember who you are and still keep passion in any hobbies you may have!
‘Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent’
