Managing an online business isn’t easy. Add kids into the mix and you’ve got yourself quite the challenge. As a small business owner, you wear many hats and there is always a long list of things to do. But when you try to manage your business with kids at home, it can be hard to even make a dent in that list. Here are some tips for scheduling your work week so that you can get the most out of your time and be sure to check all of those important boxes each week.
Determining your priorities
The first thing to do when trying to figure out how you’re going to do it all is realizing that you won’t be able to – and that’s ok. You can still run a business successfully without doing it all. There are always some things on the list that can wait until later, but there are probably a few areas of your business that need attention and maintenance each week.
Mapping out your schedule
After you figure out what needs to be prioritized, you can put the most important tasks into different categories based on your business. I use marketing, clients, offerings, and internal tasks. Then assign each category to the best day of the week that you need to dedicate to that particular task list. With this method, you know that no area of business gets left behind while you focus on another.
To keep up with what needs to be done each day, you can keep a running list in your favorite management tool (I love using Clickup) for each of the areas. When that day comes, you don’t have to spend time thinking about what you need to do, you can simply pull out that list and get to work. It is also helpful because if you don’t get to something one week you know you will have dedicated time next week to work on it and don’t have to worry about the next chance you will get to do something.
How I schedule my work week
Let’s be honest, there really is no “typical” work week with kids at home. But I do have an ideal work week mapped out so that I can stay on track as much as possible. Here’s how I schedule my work week:
Daily: Every day I will answer emails, engage with leads, and manage social media. I have systems in place for each of these to minimize the time I spend on each task and give me more time to work on my main tasks for the day.
Monday: My Monday focus is marketing. I focus on all marketing-related to-dos like content, email marketing, sales funnels, etc.
Tuesday: On Tuesdays I focus on client work. This is when I dive into my 1:1 projects and spend a lot of time strategizing, designing, and developing for clients.
Wednesday: The focus for Wednesdays is on the shop. This is when I work on product development, marketing, or support related to shop items. I also use Wednesdays for design day intensives, accelerator calls, and consult calls when needed.
Thursday: This is also a heavy client work day for me. Thursday looks alot like Tuesday and when I try to check in with all my clients for the week.
Friday: I use Friday for all my internal tasks. This is when I work on all my admin duties like bookkeeping, email follow-ups, and analytics. This works out great because it helps me close out all loose ends at the end of each week and allows me to keep up with how the sales were for that week. I also use this day to catch up on anything pressing that didn’t get done earlier in the week.
Recap
Even though I have limited time to work, I am making sure to touch each of the most important areas of my business every week which allows me to be more focused and productive in moving the needle forward. The key is to have one goal for the day and an action list of things to help you accomplish that goal instead of the dreaded, never-ending, unorganized to-do list that only seems to add stress to our lives.
Next Steps
If you’re trying to manage your business at home with little ones around, I know it can be a little stressful at times. Test out this method to see if it works for you and make adjustments until you get into a good flow. But also – don’t forget that running a business and being a mom requires ultimate flexibility so if things get chaotic every now and then just now that it’s part of it.
More Resources
- How to confidently handle entrepreneur decision overload
- Benefits of growing your business slowly
- Why you don’t have to make 6 figures to be successful
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