Ep 08. My family friendly weekly work schedule + business boundaries
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I love hearing how business owning mamas use their time so in this weeks episode I’m sharing what my work schedule looks like. As a mama of two sweet little boys, family is my priority and I love that I can run my business in a way that allows me to be a peaceful and present mama. I hope this episode gives you some practical ideas on how to make business work for you and your family!
I share:
How I plan my work weeks
How I run my business in 10-15 hours per week
The tasks I do in my business each week
What I outsource in my business
The support I have that allows me time to work
How I include time for learning, self care and personal growth in my weeks
Learn more about the Abundant Mamas Mastermind here.
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Episode Transcript (unedited)
I hope you're having a really beautiful day. And thank you so much for joining me for this episode where I'm going to take you through what my weekly work schedule looks like. It's something I've been asked by some of the beautiful Mama's in my mastermind and a few times on Instagram as well lately, so I thought what better way then to share it with you in a podcast episode. Before we get into it, I'm going to share you my funny mama moment because I had so many people messaging me about when I did that for the first time. So we recently went on a family holiday down to Denmark and Alberni in the south of WA, which are just beautiful, incredible places. If you haven't been there, definitely pop them on your list or have a quick Google and you'll see the beaches are just magical and lots of big tree forests. And it was just so so nice to have a week of just the four of us 24/7 together and lots of time out in nature. It was really beautiful. But we discovered that there is a new member of our gang when we were down there. And his name is Gary. And he is Lucky's imaginary friend.
So Gary first joined us when I was playing with the boys in the bush on one of the places one of the Airbnb that we were staying. And we built this little like house at a bar can look he was like, Oh, that could be for Gary. And I was like, Okay, who's Gary? And he was like, you know, Gary, Gary, my my friend. He's standing right next to me. He's like, look, this is Gary. I'm holding his hand and I was like, oh, okay, can you tell me what Gary looks like? Gary has spiky hair. This is according to lagi he's got smooth shoulders and a smooth body. He's very small. He can like fit in the palm of your hand or fit in your pocket. And then we went for a walk and like he kept on stopping and I was like, What are you looking at? And he's like, Oh, Gary keeps stopping to play with rocks. So Gary would stop and play with rocks. Lucky would keep walking and then would look back and yell Hurry up, Gary. So that he would hurry up and then you know we had to hold hands with Gary. Gary decided to spend the night down near the water at the inlet that we were staying near. His mom and dad were coming down there apparently to stay with him and then he came back in the morning and his two friends came over as well. George who's his neighbour apparently and then his friend Matilda who's not small like Gary she's big like Locky it was just hilarious. It's so fun seeing his imagination like he's turned three a few weeks ago. And man it's just it's hilarious. So Gary this morning came to the river with us and played with jellyfish lucky would like pick up two jellyfish out the river and go oh, Gary found this one and I found this one. I don't even like I love that he's called Gary. It's just the most hilarious name. So yeah, that's kind of the new addition to our gang which is very, very entertaining for us. And luckily Gary likes doing a lot of things that Locky doesn't like doing so you know Gary's pretty good at brushing his teeth and he's really interested in seeing what you do things Like packaway is toys. So Gary has been helping us out a lot, which is very handy. Okay, enough about Gary, let's get into what that weekly schedule looks like. Because it's really helped me to simplify my life when I know what things are going to look like in my business. And what work I'm going to do each day when I sit down. And I want to preface this by saying every week doesn't look like this. In fact, probably most weeks I would be tweaking things and moving things around. But this is kind of the general idea. And I think it's so helpful to have a really clear idea if you're someone who feels like you're a bit scattered in your business, or you're a bit all over the place, or you're kind of reactively doing everything at the last second, when it really really has to be done. The first place you can start is just by writing down all of the tasks in your business, what are all of the things that need to be done in your business on a regular basis. The wonderful thing about doing this as well is that when you start to arrange your tasks like this and get really clear on like, what is the task and I'm think talking like breaking it down to scheduling emails. And that kind of thing is you'll start to see what you can outsource as well, you'll start to go, oh, this is like a recurring task, I need to schedule emails out before this group programme or whatever it is, and you'll be able to go, that's actually something I can outsource. And then you can have a really concise list of these are the things that I want to outsource. And you could start looking for help from a VA or a more specific assistant in your business, so that you don't have to do this work. But it's really good to know, these are the tasks in my business. And this is how I'm going to fit them in, especially as mums, because I know that we don't have much time I know that I don't have. I don't like saying that out loud. Because obviously that your words become your reality. And I really do believe there is an abundance of time. But I know that we get these smaller pockets to work with. And compared to life pre kids, when I was like I could fly by the seat of my pants a lot more, I didn't have to know exactly what was happening when because I could drop stuff and do it when it needed to be done. I did have a pretty full client schedule. So I did practice being quite organised so that I wouldn't have to like work in the evenings and that kind of thing. But since being a mom, I become very efficient and very clear on all of the tasks that needs to happen in my business. So the first step is to map out these are all the tasks that needs to happen in my business. And I like to use a two week block to lay everything out, I find that if I try and fit everything into one week, it feels too stressful and overwhelming. And I can do things in a two week block. So what that looks like at the moment, I'm working Monday mornings, usually from about eight or nine till one ish. Then I work Tuesday afternoons from about one till five. And then I'll usually either work a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, especially when Trump's home I'll work one of those afternoons for four or five hours, when he's away, I will usually get maybe an hour or two on a Thursday afternoon I can I can take the kids over to my parents place. So it looks a little bit different when he's away. But I sort of plan for that as well. So I'm going to talk you through Week One. Monday morning, what I like to do is sit down and record podcast episodes. So I have planned these the previous week. So I'm not sitting down and going into that planning brainstorming space. I'm sitting down and I've mapped out these episodes, I've usually just do a few dot points to kind of guide me through an episode and then I talk, you can probably tell that none of this is scripted. So I sit down and I record at least two podcast episodes. If I have time, or inspirational energy, I will do more than that. Because I found the more kind of I can have in the bank easier my life is of course. So I'll sit down and record those episodes, I will then send them to my editor to edit them and he'll add in the intro and the outro and take out any weird pauses or coughs or anything like that that I do. I will also quickly then upload that episode to a transcription site that I use which is auto A Oh double like auto like the animal ott er.ai, which is awesome for transcribing audio. I like to have a transcribed version because I know I've been trapped under a sleeping baby when I've wanted to listen to a podcast and I couldn't. And when a transcription has popped up as an option that's always been really great. I'm also aware that some people can't hear podcasts that easily so I want to have it there as an easy way for them to access what I'm sharing without having to go through their own kind of transcription process if someone's hard of hearing. So I pop it into the like all of these tasks take next to no time chuck it on the transcription. I'll have a quick skim over the transcription I give myself a maximum of 10 minutes with it to edit it and that I'm they're mostly very unedited. If you've ever read a transcript it's pretty much exactly as is in the episode but I'll edit it if like a word is completely wrong. I give myself a time limit because otherwise, I know I could spend so much time in there like tweaking it and making it perfect make it sound right. Obviously, it sounds very different to like how I would normally write something because it's how I'm speaking. So I give myself a time limit with that. To edit the transcription, I also write the show notes because everything's fresh in my mind, and I'll brainstorm some content ideas around that episode at the same time. So usually, that'll take me that Monday morning, then the Tuesday afternoon, I then come to that creating that content that I brainstormed ideas for. So sometimes that content will be new content that I'll be sharing only in my mastermind, for example, sometimes it'll be content for Instagram, sometimes it'll be email content. But that's kind of my content creation time that I can get into a very deep flow of creative work I've made that time happen. And I also should say that on the week's when Travis away, will actually every single week, our babysitter comes Monday mornings and Tuesday afternoons. So when Travis away, as Teddy gets older, she was able to have both of the boys a little bit more. But it's still a little bit of a juggle, because he's breastfeeding, and I'm putting him down for naps and that kind of thing. So I am in and out a little bit when Travis away at work, when he's home, which is most of the time that he's home, then he's able to take Teddy and take over the naps. And I might express or I'll probably just he'll bring Teddy in and I'll feed him while I'm working. Okay, so she comes Monday mornings and Tuesday afternoons just so that I know I've got that regular time to work, it also means I've got regular time that is child free, that is a little bit of a break. And so Tuesday I've created the content in some way, shape, or form for different all the different places that I'm sharing content, then that Wednesday or Thursday afternoon time slot, I will go in and finish any unfinished tasks from the week. So this might be replying to emails, this could be jumping into my always Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, jump into my abundant moments Facebook group, and respond to anything that's happening in there. I also will do any scheduling of podcasts and emails, these are things that I also outsource. So sometimes that's something that I do other times it's something I'm outsourcing, it's I'm at the moment where I'm just feeling into kind of a new framework for the team that I'm working with. So I'm doing some more of these add many tasks than I would usually do as I kind of just find my right team. But a lot of these little things are things that I will be handing over in the very near future. In fact, I probably will have handed them over by the time you're listening to this episode. So that kind of covers off week one. And then week two of most pre scheduled work is on Monday every fortnight so every second week on a Monday morning. That is when I respond to the submissions from my abundant Mama's mastermind is so I love this day, I look forward to this Monday morning so much because I love working with these women. And so they will either have jumped into my voice messages on boxer and left me questions and sort of started a coaching discussion there. And I'll be able to get back to them respond to any questions that they have, or they have submitted, copy like an email sequence or a sales page or a sales funnel or something that we've been working on creating together for their business. And they will submit that to me. And then I can give them feedback and edit suggestions and review that copy for them. So that's what happens on that Monday morning. Once a month, I also have the coaching and alignment calls for the abundant members mastermind and these happen on Monday morning and a Tuesday afternoon. So those will either happen on that week where I'm recording podcasts, or they'll happen on this week where I'm responding to submissions, the calls usually go for about 60 or 90 minutes so I can fit that in and get the other work that I need to get done that day as well. And I also love those calls and look forward to those so much. So my submission responding usually takes up that whole Monday chunk of work and and the call if it's happening that week. And then on Tuesday, I like to use this Tuesday afternoon and a second week for learning and skill development. This is a time where I can do a course like spend an hour or so doing a course that I'm doing or working with a coach that I'm working with. This is also a time that I check in my finances I pay myself I check in with anything that needs looking at within the finances of the business and just make sure that everything's kind of covered off I have a bookkeeper and an accountant who do most of that but sometimes they're a little things that I need to go in and reconcile that they don't have details for. So that's what I do on a regular basis on Tuesdays. That's something that's been so game changing has been making sure I check in regularly with my finances. This has been a block for me what used to be a block for me early in the business. I just felt sorry overwhelmed by like, how do I do the accounting and bookkeeping. So that was one of the first things that I outsource, I have a great accountant, I have a great bookkeeper who take care of it all for me. And so I know that everything is like above board, they tell me you need to put aside this much for tax, you need to this is how much like you pay yourself. This is how we're setting everything up. So I know that all the financial stuff in my business is all taken care of. It's all really clear. It's all really about board. And I think this is so important in business that if you're like me, and you're not super financially minded, that you have a system where you know that this is taken care of, because it can be such a huge block to bringing money into your business. If you feel murky around. You know, what happens to that money when it comes into my business? Should I be putting some aside for tax to how do I pay myself? What do I do with all of these invoices? Do I need to like am I using accounting software, all of that kind of thing. You need to know what's happening to your money in your business, you need to know how much of it you can give to yourself how much you need to put aside, you need to have a savings plan in your business for future investments. You need to know how much your business is costing you to run in terms of like how much of your systems and programmes and things like that costing you? How much are you investing in coaching or in professional development in learning more, so that you can serve your clients even better, it's really, really important to have all of that be really clear. And if you're like, oh my god, like I don't want to do that, or that feels really big and scary. I so feel you because that is my inclination as well. But I give myself this little push. And I give myself this time every second week in my calendar to sit down and be clear as heck on all of the finances in my business, so that the money can flow really easily. And it made such a difference. As soon as I did that, I noticed I didn't have any hesitancy or blocks around bringing clients on. So it's something worth looking at. If you feel like I'm not getting, you're not getting the flow of clients that you want that your business isn't earning you as much money as you want it to earn. Have a look at that. And just check in with yourself like do I feel super clear around all the financial stuff in my business. So that was a bit of a tangent, but an important one, I think. So that's what happens on that second Tuesday, then that following Wednesday, or Thursday that I have to work, I will plan the podcast for the following week. So to do this, I'll often sit in meditation and see what comes through earlier in the week, I've usually put out there to the universe, I'm always putting out there to the universe, like tell me what my ideal client wants to hear from me, tell me what my audience would love to hear how can I serve them in the next podcast episode that I share. And so I usually have a big backlog of ideas, I just put them in notes in my phone, and then I flesh them out with dot points when I get a chance. And that's usually pretty much what I sit down with and record from. So what I'll do on that Wednesday, or Thursday afternoon is I'll sit down and I'll go through, okay, these are the podcast episodes that I'm going to do when on Monday when I'm recording. And from there, I will map out okay, this is what's going to go in them. And these are the call to actions in the podcast. Because the podcast is something I find is so easy for me to naturally mention the work that I'm doing, it always makes sense. And so the call to action from every podcast is either to download my ideal client meditation or to sign up for some kind of waitlist, for example, for my abundance embody programme which we'll be launching soon. So there's always that that mindfulness around where am I going with this? Where am I leading people that they can further engage in my work and where I can further support them. But it's not overly strategic. You know, it's not something that I'm like, Oh, I have to do a podcast that is selling my abundant Mama's mastermind. It's never done like that. I know that almost every episode I'm going to have something to talk about that will lead into those things. And naturally, I talk about the other aspects of my work and the different programmes and things that I'm running. So but it is important to have content that has a call to action in your business. So I then love that the podcast is a beautiful central piece of content that I create, I love that it's longer form that I get this chance to sit down and actually chat with you because I'm finding that trying to squeeze myself and my thoughts into an Instagram caption doesn't really light me up at the moment. So it's so nice to have this to sit down and talk through, you know, the full scope of something that's happening in my business or something that could help you in your business. But then I can also chunk it down into smaller pieces and either go into my mastermind Facebook group and expand on something that I mentioned in the podcast, or I can chunk it down and turn it into content for social media or emails and that kind of thing. Okay, so then that Wednesday or Thursday, I have gotten clear on the podcast episodes for the following week. And that's also my like any unfinished tasks, time. So this is when I'm going to do that final check in with any conversations I've been having with my clients in Voxer. for that week, I'm checking in with what's happening in my abundant Mama's Facebook group, I'm jumping into my inbox and making sure I'm responding to everything that needs to be responded there. Same with my Instagram, DMS. So that's really a time for me to like, tie up any loose ends, so that then I can switch off from my business. And that's probably been one of the best things about laying out my weeks like this is that it's given me even greater ability to switch off from my business. Because I know and so many, so many of my clients say this. And so many people in general with businesses say like, I just can't switch off, I like go to bed at night. And my brain is just worrying with ideas. And what I'm going to do and when I'm going to do it, and how it's going to work, and I can't switch off and I'm feeling a bit stressed about that. And I'm feeling like I'm in kind of that fight or flight state more than I'd like to be because I'm always thinking about my business and switched on in my business. And I can fully empathise with that, and I think it's not really the most fun place to be. And so if you're feeling like that, you might find that if you can map out your week, and map out all the tasks that you need to do, because then I know, everything has space to get done, it's all going to happen. There's nothing in the business that just I hope will happen, and I don't have time for it. Everything that needs time, there is time therefore. So what I'll also do on those Wednesday and Thursday afternoons is I'll schedule in Clarity Calls or calls, if I have any of those books from people who are interested in the mastermind, either people will talk often I end up talking to people in DMS on Instagram via voice messaging, and they'll sign up from there. But sometimes people want to jump on a call. So that's usually what I'll do on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon as well, if that works for them. Obviously, that kind of thing. Sometimes I try and be flexible with the timing of. But that is really the exception when it comes to my business that I am that kind of thing that I'm doing outside of these work times. I would also pop on Instagram Stories occasionally. Because I find that really quick and easy. I really don't like using my phone in front of my kids. So I'll do it when I have a chance, you know, 10 minutes if traverse home, it's easy for me to go can I have 15 minutes, and then I'll pop in, I might quickly you know, respond to a couple of things on Instagram and fire off an Instagram story that's easy to do. But generally most of these work, things will happen within this work. This work containers that I have created because I know everything that needs to happen will happen in that time. And then I'm not feeling like oh my God, when are things going to be happening. And I don't feel like I have to be switched on thinking about my business all the time. Because I know I can switch off and go, Okay, I know that I've planned the podcast episodes are not like shit, when am I going to record them, I know that that happens on Monday. So I can put that aside and put it out of my mind. And then it helps me be so much more present with my kids and with travel and just in my life in general outside of my work. So a couple of things that I wanted to add there as well is something that I've been playing with lately is leading into my work time with a meditation and some movement, especially when traverse away and I'm parenting on my own and I don't really get much time for those things. So it's so nice to be able to go I'm gonna give myself half an hour at the beginning of my work time. And I'm going to, you know, do a 20 minute workout and jump on the exercise bike 15 minutes, do a meditation with 15 minutes. Break up that time, however feels right for me that day and use that time to look after myself. This is so important as mums in business that if you are coming to your business and you're feeling depleted and you're feeling even if you're in like a lack of scarcity, energy and you're feeling like things aren't working, or you've got that desperate energy, like oh my God, I need to do that I need to post on our Instagram I need to send this email to make more money. Every action that we take amplifies the energy that we're putting behind it. And so if our energy isn't really beautiful and great and magnetic and feeling abundant and expansive, when we sit down to work on our business, we're going to amplify this like desperate, tired, don't want to do this. This is hard, whatever it is that energy that is not going to magnetise beautiful clients and beautiful abundance to our business. So when you're mapping out your weeks, you might like to consider maybe insert you know 10 minutes of meditation or journaling or movement or whatever kind of fills you up at the beginning of that work time and that beginning of that child free time that you have so that you can put yourself in this period If we're energetic state, and our mind tells us like, no, no, we've got no time, like, we've got to hit the ground running and just work, work, work, work work. But you know, it doesn't work like that. I know, it doesn't work like that, when we do these things that look after ourselves, we buy ourselves time, I find when I sit down, and I do that meditation, or if I do a yoga flow or a bit of exercise, before I start, I am so much more focused, I'm so much more present, I just feel so good as I'm working. And so I'm able to create such potent work and such, I'm able what I create is so much better than if I don't do those things. And I'm just more productive as well and more focused and more productive. And so you definitely earn that time back plus more when you take that time to look after yourself. And the thing that we need to be really careful of as mums in business is that we don't have time like Mark, we're either in format mode or in business mode. Because there's no other time because we end up filling every gap that we have, where we could be using it for a break, or we could be using it to look after ourselves, we end up filling that with work, it's really, really important that we don't do that. So every week on Friday morning, my mother in law comes and takes Locky to the park, Teddy usually goes down for a nap while she's here. And that is my time. That is not a time when I usually do any work. Occasionally I will check in and do a tiny bit like literally 10 or 15 minutes. But usually that is a time where it's just for me it's time where I can, you know, do a yoga class on YouTube, or I can do a meditation or do some journaling or just like do some decluttering whatever I feel called to do that day. I have that built in time as well. That is for me that isn't just for the business. And I think if you can get that as well, that's so so important. And my evenings as well, I'm very protective over in terms of evenings, I don't work, I spend that time with Trav or I have that time for me to do something that isn't enjoyable for me whether it's you know, it might be watching a show or doing some stretching or just doing something that I feel like doing having a bath, having a shower, doing like getting things organised the next day, I might do some cooking, but really using making sure that your business does not feel every second that you have that you are child free, because those times can also be used for nurturing you. And that is such an important part of business as a mom, you have to have that time for you as well. So I hope that this episode has given you some ideas for playing with a schedule. And it is really important to remember that this is a process I never and I'm it's still a process. For me, it's something that I'm still looking at and tweaking as I go and going, alright that I can outsource as well. Or that doesn't seem to work for me on that day, or I never get to it that day. So I'm going to shift it over here and see how that works. It's really important to remember that these schedules have to work for us. We shouldn't become a slave to them. It shouldn't be you sit down, you decide I'm going to do X Y Zed On this day and x y Zed On that day. And it has to look like that. It's really about going with the flow and working with what is feeling good for you and designing the schedule based on that. So constantly checking in with yourself. Is this working for me? Does this feel good for me to do this now? And if yes, great, keep doing it? If no How can we tweak that? How can we make it work for us? We need the business to feel easeful. This is all part of letting go of that hard work. We don't have to push if things aren't feeling right. You can think about okay, how do I outsource this thing that I'm not enjoying? Or how can I do it in a way that is going to work for me and that's going to feel enjoyable. Another thing I mentioned that is because Teddy's still little and I'm breastfeeding or just because what this what my body's doing. I don't have a menstrual cycle at the moment. But when that returns, that is something that I do incorporate into what I'm doing each week and then I'll start does probably do things are more of a monthly basis. In terms of the perfect time for me to sit down and record podcast episodes is around ovulation because I'm feeling really clear. I'm feeling really chatty, it's an easy time for me to have the energy to sit down and do this kind of work. And then I'll use the alternate that I might have used to record podcasts to do more planning work or do more downloading in my in myself in my energy from my intuition what else I need to be sharing. So that's something I will definitely talk about in another episode when my cycle returns and I have more of a kind of flow of that with my business that I can share with you because I have done that previously I did that a lot. Pre kids is I really worked with my cycle and it was so, so amazing and it's amazing how easeful work can be When you work in tune with what feels good for you, and so that might be a cycle, you might be pregnant at the moment, you might not have a period at the moment for whatever reason. So you can work with the lunar cycle, you can notice how you feel on different days of the week, I find that Mondays I really need to do work that makes me feel grounded and present. Because otherwise I get caught up in like, oh my gosh, I feel like there's so much to do. But we're and so recording a podcast, it helps me feel really grounded, so does responding to the submissions and coaching with my mastermind is. So that's why I love to schedule that work them. As I said, it's continually a work in progress as yours will be. But start by getting clear on all the tasks that happen in your business and mapping out a rough idea of when each thing can happen. As always, if you have any questions for me, or if there was anything that I didn't cover in this episode that you feel like you're still scratching your head about, I don't want you to feel like that. So jump into my Instagram, DMS Amelia Anderson dot coach and ask any questions that you have. I'm so so appreciative when you guys tune in and you take that moment to leave a review or you take a screenshot and you share it on Instagram, it just means the world that you're listening to episodes and I guess I've had so many messages in the last few days of people being like I'm listening to episodes over and over again. And I'm getting something new out of it every time and I'm taking all these notes. And it just like makes me feel so grateful and so proud that you're doing that and that you're getting something out of this. So I really hope you found this episode helpful as well. As always, if there are requests if there's anything else you'd like me to talk through, let me know tell me on Instagram and I will definitely record those episodes for you. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm gonna let you go now enjoy your week.
I will talk to you soon. Bye beautiful.