"I was wondering how a mom of three little ones (mine are ages 5, 3, and 1) can find the time to grow a blog without killing myself? - Sarah on Twitter
I often get questions from many of you who are wanting to build a business but feel frustrated by the lack of time you have to devote to it. Maybe you are like Sarah and have young children at home, or maybe you're working another full-time job and you're not sure how to find the extra time to devote to that business idea you've always had.
Whatever it is, here are a few tips to help you build your business without completely exhausting yourself:
1. Make The Time.
Look at your schedule right now. Is there another activity that you're doing that maybe isn't as important to you as building a business is?
Maybe it's social media, TV, mindless browsing on the internet, or something else. None of these are necessarily bad things to be spending your time on, but maybe you can find one activity to replace with business-building time.
2. Borrow The Time.
If every single minute of your day is filled with important things, maybe you can't make the time. If that's the case, you may need to borrow the time by cutting something else out of your life.
When you say "yes" to one thing, you have to say "no" to something else.
It could be a good thing that you have to cut, but if it's not as high of a priority as building your business, then you might have to choose to say no to something in order to borrow the time to put your business idea into motion.
3. Buy The Time.
This may not be something you're able to do in the beginning, but as you get further along in your business, it might be a great idea for you. Sometimes hiring help is so worth the time you get back.
Maybe you need to hire a babysitter to give yourself a couple hours each week to invest in your business. Maybe you need to hire someone to do your laundry. You could even swap services with someone - perhaps another mom who needs time to invest in her business, too. Maybe it's picking up takeout once per week to save time on making dinner and cleaning up the kitchen once per week.
In my book, Say Goodbye To Survival Mode, I tell the story of the moment when I realized the best thing I could do for my family and sanity was to hire a Mother's Helper. When my children were very young, I was stretched way too thin and found myself very overwhelmed.
So we hired a young girl from our church to come over one day a week and help us with laundry and other tasks around our house. I felt like it was an extravagant choice, but it ended up being one of the best decisions we every made.
photo from Melissa at the ATimeforEverything Etsy Shop
How Much Time Do You Need?
When deciding whether you need to make, borrow, or buy time, you need to set goals and figure out how much time you'll need in order to meet them.
Ask yourself what your goals are. Where do you want your business to be and where you'd like to be financially within 3-6 months, or even a year? What season of life are you in? What is realistic at this time of your life?
Set some realistic goals and then break those goals down into bite-sized pieces. This will help you figure out what kind of time you need each day in order to meet your goals. Once you have those time blocks figured out, add it to your calendar each day.
Treat it as an appointment, set your timer, and start chipping away at your goals slowly over time. This will help you gain traction towards your goals without feeling overwhelmed.
An Important Reminder
Everyone is in a different season and situation. Don't compare yourself to other people, or you will always feel like you're coming up short. You'll try to run yourself ragged trying to do what other people do.
If you can only work on your business for 15 to 30 minutes every couple of days, that's okay. Do what you can do, and focus on that.
Don't worry about what everyone else is doing. You have to give yourself grace if you want to be in it for the long haul and be successful without completely exhausting yourself.
What other suggestions do you have for finding time to build a business without becoming completely exhausted in the process?
