Have you got kids at school and struggling to get everything done?

Have you got kids at school and struggling to get everything done?

Remember kindy? Kindy was awesome. I had so many hours of uninterrupted work each and every day.

But school hours, my gosh, they are a shocker! 8:30 am to 2:30 pm – if you are lucky. Plus it’s only 40 weeks of the year, yep – 40 weeks of the year. So I can totally relate if you are trying to get everything done in less time.

Here are the top five things I learned from working school hours!

Number One: Weekly Planning & Time Blocking

Ideally on a Sunday night, sometimes it doesn’t happen until Monday morning – I like to sit down and work out all the things that I want to achieve that week. This way I can see everything in that week in one glance. If I need to exercise, workout or run errands and I also like to break down the nitty-gritty of what work I want to get done. I might have client calls booked in, I might have to check Facebook Ads for clients, launch new Facebook Ad campaigns, create content, video recording and those types of things.

I start to block out the pieces throughout the week of when I can actually get stuff done. This means that on Monday morning, I don’t sit down and go, what am I going to do today and spend all of this time figuring out what to do because then we fall into like the scrolling Facebook vortex or let’s check email a million times you know this stuff.

Having that kind of clear intention upfront makes a huge difference in how your week is going to turn out.

Number Two: Mindset Shift

Number two is really a mindset shift. I honestly believe that the work we have expands to the time we have. Once we’ve planned out what we want to do and we’ve allocated time and it’s blocked out, do whatever you can to get the work done within that time frame.

Many people say and I 100% agree – done is better than perfect. We can always improve the work. It’s better to get the first draft done than to muck around and don’t actually achieve anything.

The mindset shift is about saying I’ve got two hours and I need to get this, this and this done. Just sit down and do the work, get the work done. Have the mindset that you can actually achieve everything you want within that allocated time

Number Three: Important Work First

Do the important work first. For me, this is income-producing activities. What is going to move the needle closer to you generating the income you want. It could be client work, following up with prospects, creating the course that you’ve been putting for a while.

It may be creating content for your social media profiles. Whatever that income-producing work is – you need to make sure that it is done first and done regularly.

Scrolling Facebook, scrolling Instagram, watching endless videos on YouTube is not income-producing work. Some of those things may be necessary, but they are not going to move the needle closer to the income that you want.

What are your income-producing activities? Do them first!

Number Four: Systemise

Wherever possible in your business, create systems and automation.

Can you create a system for creating content? Can you batch create your content? Maybe you can create a month’s worth of content in a couple of days, and then for the rest of the month, you’ve got more time and space to do other things.

Do you have accounting systems in place things? We recently moved to Xero and they have these handy bank rules. Once set up they make reconciliation a thousand times quicker. It’s basically a tick to say – yes that is correct and it’s done.

Where are the areas in your business that you can systemise or automate to save you time?

I know content creation is a big one. So stick around to the end, and I’ll tell you how you can actually systemise your content.

Number Five: Homelife

It is super easy to have boundary creep and it’s super easy to say – Oh, I’ll just quickly put on a load of washing or your partner might ask you to do something while you’re at home.

But it’s your precious work time to do the work. To do the work that you want to do – that you are meant to do.  You need to be really mindful that these things don’t creep into your precious work time, particularly when you’re only working school hours.

You’ve only got like five hours a day to get done what you need to get done. Some of there ways I make this easier are:

• Prep Lunch: I have lunch for the whole week prep, which means in my lunch break, heat up my lunch or grab it from the fridge. It’s already prepared – which makes the process easier.
• Housework: I make sure I do the cleaning of the kitchen before I start my work time before I drop my son at school.
• Errands: Wherever possible, try and group errands and deliveries on the same day.

You need to respect the boundaries of your work time if you’re going to get anyone else to do it. Be really mindful that you don’t allow other things to creep into your working time.

Lastly – Be Kind To Yourself

Be kind to yourself! Whilst we can all have these magical systems that are supposed to work 24/7 – stuff happens – things get in the way – kids get sick. A delivery driver might come to your door, or your dog might start barking.  These things happen.

Just be kind to yourself and do the best you can. Focus on what’s most important to you in that particular moment.