Best Practices for Entrepreneur Moms

I get asked for daily routine examples all the time by entrepreneur moms. And I’m not going to lie, one of the toughest parts about being a mom and running a business is figuring out the Daily Routine. 

There’s so much going on in your world that can stand in the way of your business growth if you let it. It’s hard to show up to work feeling your best when you feel like you’ve already run a marathon before the kids even get on the school bus. 

But hard and impossible are two totally different things. And you CAN DO THIS!

Before we jump into our daily routine examples, let’s talk about the difference between my routine and my schedule. My schedule tells me where I am supposed to be and when. It might be different from day to day or even week to week. My daily routine is my flow for how I run my days. It’s more flexible. The daily routine is what ensures that each day go well no matter how crazy the schedule. And when you find good daily routine examples that work for you, you’ll feel yourself settle into your tasks much easier. 

Here’s some general do’s and don’ts for determining your flow. (Check out my youtube video from this week, where I discuss these in more detail.)

Don’t

1. Jump into the work of your day
2. Overschedule
3. Expect perfection
4. Force yourself to be a morning person or a night owl. 

Do

1. Take care of you first
2. Get the family started
3.  Bare household minimums
4. Set a start time
5. Time block your days and batch 
6. Set a specific end time
7. Unplugged family time
8. Personal refresh
9. Plug back into work
10. No screens the first hour or last hour of your day!

Alright, now I’m going to share with you daily routine examples that I’ve used at different times in my journey as an entrepreneur mom.

Newborn routine- I know that sounds like an oxymoron because they don’t have much of one. But I started my business when my first was 3 months old, and I had 4 more while being an entrepreneur, so I’ve done this one many times. 

Tips: Go to bed early. Like every single night. When you burn the midnight oil, thinking that’s your only shot and then you’re up all night with baby, you useless the next day. It’s more important that you are sharp than that you get everything done. Get a baby wrap, strap on your little one and snuggle baby while you work. They want to be held all day anyway, and newborn snuggles are amazing. My newborns always woke up for an early feeding around 5. So I often stayed up and got started on my day before all of the older ones were awake. In general, lower your expectations of what you can get done in a single day. But still expect growth! My business always grew every time I had a baby. Because consistent daily effort produces growth. So give your business consistent daily effort even when it isn’t perfect.

Baby and Toddler Routine– Once they wiggle and make noise, the game totally changes. Working from home suddenly goes from best idea ever to “What was I thinking! I can’t get anything DONE!” I feel you sister!

Tips: I found working during kid time to be fairly unproductive. I could only get about 15 minutes in before someone was interrupting me. So we got creative to create longer blocks of work time. When we couldn’t afford help, I worked most evenings when my husband got home from work for an hour or two. I worked during nap time on the good days. I traded babysitting with a neighbor where I watched her kids for a couple of hours so she could run errands. And I worked while she watched mine. And use your cell phone for those small spaces. 15 minutes may not be a ton of time, but it’s long enough to make one phone call. Once we could afford help, we gladly hired an in home nanny so I could get work done, but still be available for mid day snuggles, stories and to kiss the tears away.

Young Children Routine- Now your kids are getting a little older and are (hopefully) sleeping through most nights. 

Tips: In this season, I found I could work nights and early mornings successfully. I also found it very helpful to get the kids involved from a young age in helping manage things around the house. My older 3 boys all made their own lunches from Kindergarten on. (My younger 2 are a little spoiled. It’s a work in progress.) They also picked up toys, helped unload the dishwasher and played with younger siblings. Getting the family into a good routine was as important in this phase as me having my daily routine. 

Older Children and Teens- Can I be honest? I think this is the busiest season of our lives. These kids have so much going on! And you feel like you spend half your life in your car.

Tips: Get it all done while they are at school. Like every single thing you possibly can. Keep facebook closed. Eat lunch while you work. Schedule as much as you possibly can so you can do the homework and chauffeur scene after school. You’ll need that time with your kids. It’s when they might want to talk with you about their day. It’s when you meet their friends and their friends parents. That time is really important. And as the time you have with your kids is much more limited, be greedy about it. You can also plug back in during the evenings if you want to. Let’s be honest, my teens don’t want to hang out with me in all of their free time. So tonight, I’m blogging while the older boys are all hanging out in their rooms enjoying their last week of summer vacation before we head back to school. I promise you no one is missing me!

My intention isn’t to give you a schedule. You get to figure that out. But I hope that sharing some of the Daily Routine Examples I used as I was growing my business will help you find your own flow. 

What are you doing that works well for you?