CONQUER THE MYTH OF NOT ENOUGH TIME.

Most moms feel there isn’t enough time to start a business. But there is—the key is to figure out where it’s hiding, and I have three places for you to look.

It’s 9 p.m. and with the kids tucked into bed and the dogs snoozing in the other room with my guy, the house is uncharacteristically quiet. I consider turning on the TV, but I don’t because that’s a luxury I save for date nights and laundry. Instead, I tell myself I need to work on my website and write another article.

Plopping back down in my chair and automatically navigate to Facebook. As I hover on the link, I silently berate myself as I recall a client conversation earlier in the day.

Hours earlier I had a come to Jesus moment with a client who gave roughly 27 excuses for why her homework was incomplete. When I ever-so-respectfully called her on her BS, she called me on mine.

We both acknowledged how much time we waste on social media. A space that doesn’t always add to our quality of life.

Somewhere over the past 11 years, I learned there IS enough time.
The key is to figure out where it’s hiding, and I have three places you should look first: 

(1) Social Sites

(Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, online groups/forums/shopping, etc…)
The amount of time we spend online is ridiculous. And embarrassing. If you think you might be wasting time online, take a week and catalog the time you spend looking at a screen (phone, tablet, and computer). If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll easily find an hour a day that you’re online. Probably a lot more.

(2) Saying YES

Many of my mama friends have a hard time saying no. They’re giving, compassionate people and often put other people’s needs before their own. Teach yourself how to realistically estimate time commitments before you commit to a request. What seems like a quick little trip to the store to help your son’s teacher out could actually be a 3-hour detour in your day.

(3) The belief that it takes too much time

There is a huge misconception about the time it takes to start and run a business. Does it take time? Yes. Is it a ton of time? Possibly. But if you’re a mom who works from home, you aren’t looking to create the next big thing, “time” isn’t a roadblock. Get cleaver with it.

It's YOUR thing.

You get to decide how much time to give it.

Let’s look at ways you can find that extra time, shall we?

(1) Stay up late once a week

It’s not reasonable (or fulfilling) to work into the wee hours of the morning every night, but doing it once a week to bang out a project or get in some quality work time is a fantastic way to find time. 

Recently I’ve taken to waking up at 5 or 5:30, and the few hours of quiet before the house comes alive has been bliss (not to mention productive!).

(2) Find pockets during the day

This is a new one for me, and I have to say it’s a favorite. I recently discovered working on the road (well, at the side of it). I’ll go to my crazy babies' school 30 minutes before pick up and sit in the car and work. I’ve grown to value this concentrated time because I am free of distractions (no internet, and I turn my phone off).

I also use this work-at-home mom tip for when my kids are in an activity. Instead of running off to do a few errands, I’ll stay in the car and work.

And while we’re on the subject, we’re all in agreement that “dashing off” to do a few errands ALWAYS takes longer than we initially planned, yes? So why waste that time? Is there a better spot on your calendar for those errands?

(3) Biggest bang for your time (the 80/20 rule)

This is quite possibly the most genius way to find extra time because working from home gives you the illusion that you have loads of time to do all sorts of extra things (shopping, cleaning, gardening, volunteering, etc.). It's critical that if you want to run a business from your home, you need to treat everything you do as a legitimate time expense and not as an afterthought.“Oh, I can be the auction chair because I work from home and have flexible hours.” Nope. Not true.

Having flexible hours is not the same as having unlimited hours.

So, rather than be the school auction chair, I apply the 80/20 rule and volunteer in a smaller, more impactful way visible to my children. If you’re looking, give the least amount of effort for the most significant return, and I get the greatest return (my kids get to see me in their classrooms or on the occasional field trip).

I've tried the more involved volunteering, but it had the same emotional effect on my children as me working… mommy is busy. Mommy is absent. And I can tell them 100 times that “I’m doing this for your school!” and it still sounds like, “I’m not doing anything with you right now because this is more important.”

Naturally, you can use this concept of more bang for your time in nearly every scenario in your day - work and home (check out Pareto  Principle or the 80/20 rule for more detail). If you've ever been to my house, you've witnessed this magic in action. Before company comes over, I clean my home areas that will yield the biggest impact (the front porch, living room, kitchen counters, and a quick wipe down of the bathrooms).

When I save a little time cleaning or shopping, I'm giving myself more time to work on my business. So burn this rule onto your brain. It's a gift from the work-at-home Gods!

Be sure to check out my article about charging for time and why you need to avoid doing free work.

Creating your business starts with realizing that you can. (Guess what? You can.)

P.S. Need help finding your "thing"? I can help... you know...because I mentor busy moms and help them find a life outside of motherhood (sometimes that means starting a business).