Balancing a Teacher Business and Being a Work From Home Mom

Kirsten 0:01

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the creative Teacher Podcast. I am really amazed at how it's already almost summertime, it seems like two days ago Oh, it was December, January timeframe. And now we have just started May. So hopefully you're hanging in there. If you're a full time teacher, you guys are almost done, I thought I would share a little bit about how I attempt to balance a teacher business, while also being a work from home mom of three kids between the ages of four months to four years old. So I do get this question a lot, either in different variations, either on Instagram or just like in person or by Facebook. And most people ask, how do you fit in the time to work on your TPT and your service based business with three kids. So for all my moms out there who are working on TPT part time or full time, this episode is for you. Or if you just kind of want to listen on how I manage my time in my business with also the you know, household duties, mob duties, that kind of thing. I'm going to share with you eight tips on what I do. And hopefully you can take some tips away, or kind of validate that what you're doing is perfectly fine. There's definitely you know, a lot of variation based on the season you're in. So I definitely hope that this is of some help for you.

The first tip I have is prepping in advance. If I didn't do this in my business, I would like I'd be just doing random things all the time. I always begin with the end in mind. I'm always thinking of those Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. We were a leader in me school, I actually a couple of schools I worked at were Leader in Me schools. And I always think of that because it just it is actually very applicable and useful. But I plan a quarter in advance. If I don't have something on the schedule, it's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. So I actually take a day to plan out what am I going to do in quarter two or quarter three. And I think about like the product creation, I think about my content creation as far as what I'm going to post on my podcast in my blog for the next three months. I also plan when I'm going to create social media graphics. I'm not going to be planning out three months of social media graphics. You guys know me, I don't like it is not my favorite thing to do. But I make sure to put it in the calendar to do it. So just to kind of clarify, I'm not creating the content for like a whole quarter. I put on my schedule when I'm going to be working on certain things when I'm going to be creating certain projects, the days I have scheduled for clients, or I guess the day that aren't available on the certain months. So I kind of just pick different places. I also add in deadlines. You know, if I'm doing a conference, I have certain project deadlines that I need to meet and submit different items. So I put all of that on the schedule. And I do this all I used to do it on Asana, but I found something that I really enjoy. And that's clickup. It's very similar project management tool. I know many people use Trello, Monday. So whatever project management tool that you can utilize and customize, I like my color coded and kind of in a calendar format, and something that's also an app so that I can check each day to see okay, what am I doing today. So anyway, prep in advance, I do it a quarter, and I just spend just a day doing it, it doesn't take me more than a couple of hours, maybe one to two hours, I don't get super detailed. And then I just kind of put things in my calendar,

the second thing I do is make a schedule kind of goes into the first thing. But if I'm going to be putting out podcast episodes, for the month of May, I'm not going to be scheduling different tasks related to my content. Right at the first of May, I want to schedule something, usually I schedule it about a week or two before. And I schedule all of my content creation, usually just a week at a time, and I just spend that week working on it. And that also includes social media creation, email marketing, all of my content that I need to create for my subscribers or followers, that's when I do that, then I also schedule out four days a month for my clients, I just, that's how much I take on at the moment. And then I will schedule out like one or two products depending on what the products are for my TPT resources. And that's usually near the beginning of the month. I don't know, that's just kind of how it's been rolling for the last couple of years. And that's just something that I've continued with.

The third thing that I do is batch like tasks. batching is your friend, because for me anyway, I need to be doing things. Similar things, it's easier for me to work on blog posts for one day, it's easier for me to edit a blog post another day, it's easier for me to work on a product typing in all the questions for a certain resource spending that that hour or two. Here's a great analogy. Let's say you have a bake sale, that you volunteered to sign up to bring five German chocolate cakes, and you have to make it as efficiently as possible. I feel like it wouldn't make much sense to make the cake one at a time. Like you're baking the cake and you're letting it cool. And then you're decorating the cake. And then you go to the next cake and you start mixing and baking and decorating. And that seems like it would take a lot of time and it's not the most efficient. So that's why I would assume the most efficient thing to do is to batch the German chocolate cakes. Maybe you get some extra pans, and you put in the cakes two at a time you adjust the recipe so that it yields enough for five cakes, you're able to bake them at around the same time. They're cooling at around the same time. And then you can just decorate them all around the same time as well. It's just so much easier to batch certain things in your business. It's just efficient. And I think it's something that that as a mom, it's helped a lot. Especially when I'm dealing with maybe a kid is about to wake up from their nap or if they're screaming or something is going wrong. I at least can just focus on one thing and not feel like I'm doing a bunch of different things in a couple of days.

The fourth thing that I do is just carving a spot where you know, you'll get things done. I know that I will not get things done in the morning after breakfast or even so now right now before breakfast. The best times for me would be in the evening after they've gone down or when my two youngest kids are napping. Those are the most consistent times for me. And that's when I know I'll get things done. So I kind of estimate Like, I'm gonna have maybe a couple hours on a good day, in the middle of the day to work on something. And in the evening, you know, depending on how tired I am, I could go from maybe 30 minutes, if I just don't want to really do that much, or I can go up to, you know, late in the night, of course, I don't want to try to do that, because that's going to make it very hard the next day. But I know my times during the day where I can get things done pretty consistently. It used to be when I just had one kid, I could get up early at like 530, because he wouldn't wake up for another hour and my husband was also sleep, I could work for an hour before school started, since I was teaching in the classroom, then I could work a little bit after school before I picked up my son prepping little tasks that you can do in advance, like, you know, it'll take you about 30 minutes to do this task an hour to do this task, all those tiny little tasks that seem kind of mundane, or don't really make that much of a difference. Over time, it does make difference over time, it will your project will be finished. So it doesn't matter how much time you have, you can definitely fit in a little bit at a time. Don't feel like you have to have 40 hours a week, if you're full time. I think right now I average maybe 10 to 15 hours a week. So I really don't work that much on that business. It's it's just you know, to some weeks are busier than others. And so that's kind of how I'm rolling right now. And I like it, I like having that flexibility. Alright, tip number five is asking for help. This could be a spouse, or a family or a friend, or a sitter, if you have kids at home, you can maybe have a nanny or somebody to kind of watch your kids while you get in an hour or two, just like uninterrupted time, that could be helpful. Maybe your spouse might help you out. Maybe they're you know, you're just you got like 30 more minutes, you need to work on something and they're getting up from a nap. My husband used to do this with my first kid and it was always so nice of him to be able to do, but he'll, you know, he would wake up our son and play with him and you know, keep them busy. While I would finish up a couple things. Of course, you know, sometimes I would get carried away, I'm sure it happens to you. We're not always perfect doesn't always turn out perfect. But at least getting some support from a friend or family member or a partner can really help. Especially if you are kind of strapped for time or there's a deadline based task that you really need to get done. That's something that's important.

Number six, lowering your expectations. I of course, try to think about this, like I am not trying to get a whole like even a task that I did schedule out in advance. Sometimes it doesn't get like completely finished. And that's okay, just lowering your expectations to say I can finish it tomorrow. Something I'm working on is kind of just letting it go. Like I don't have to have it finish. Even though it says on my schedule. This is due today, I set myself a an arbitrary deadline. I don't have to go off of that. Because I'm a business owner, I can do whatever I want, you know. So some worst case scenario, something gets pushed back and you have to finish it later or it's something gets delayed. But either way, nobody's going to jump at your throat, they're not going to do unfollow you. Unless it's something that they're expecting. I don't know. But just give yourself grace, lower your expectations. You have however many kids you're working from home or working in the classroom, as a teacher, there's so much going on. It's okay if you don't get what you want to done. Notice I say want and not need because you have that flexibility. As the business owner, we just it's that's one of the great things and even if you did have a deadline most of the time, I'd have to email like I am sorry, I cannot get this in but I will have it just in a couple of days. There's just been a lot going on. A lot of the time people are very understanding. So worst case scenario is what's going on in our head like it's really us. That's the one that is putting ourselves down or making it negative like I didn't get it done most So the time a lot of people are understanding because life happens.

So going on to number seven, try not to work every day. Of course, easier said than done, right? I'm one of those. I'm raising my hand here. I try not to work every single day, I think it's important to be present with my kids. But of course, you're going to have those days where there's a lot going on, not just in your business, but also just home life. So that's why I think it's important to kind of have those days where you are, hands off your laptop, you're not working or thinking about anything, trying to stay off of social media, if possible. And maybe that would look like you don't work during the weekdays. If you're a full time teacher, and you just work on the weekends, you're a weekend warrior, that's totally cool. Maybe you're the opposite. You spend some time working after school or in the beginning of the day, and weekends, you just kind of relax, because you just need a complete reset. That's also okay. Maybe you kind of mix and match, maybe some weeks, you work four days a week, sometimes weekends, some days, you work three times a week, whatever you want to do, try not to overexert yourself where you're going going going seven days a week, because that's going to be a quick ticket to burnout city. So, and I've been there too, I've had to take a break, because I'm like, I cannot do this anymore. We're going to take a break from TPT resources. And that's kind of also why I vary the things that I do throughout the month, I'm not always creating products, I like to mix it up a little bit. So I spend a couple of weeks on product creation, week of content creation week of services. So I'm not doing a bunch of stuff simultaneously all the time, that would be very stressful. Okay, the last thing that I wanted to share, the last tip I have for you, or something that you should take to heart is my favorite, because it's the most important, and that is to enjoy the moments with your kids. So it goes into like not trying to work every day. I don't work everyday number one, because two days a week, I've all three of my kids at home, there's no way unless like, all my kids are occupied or napping that I'm going to even try to get anything done. So I just don't put it on my calendar that I'm working on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I actually try my best, you know, kids are sick, everything happens. But we go out and actually do things not just on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But during the week we'll go to a field trip, we'll go to the farm, we'll go to the park, we'll go out to lunch, we'll go to the playground in our neighborhood, I joined a community of other moms who are also at home with their kiddos and we do workouts together at a park in our in their strollers and they get to play after. And so a shout out to fit for mom, you might have one in your community, but it's definitely kind of helped my sanity. I've been able to meet other moms in similar seasons of life and my kids have also been able to interact with other kids. And so it's really great to not have to worry about anything related to business and also just being able to stay active and stay healthy for myself. So I think that's just the biggest thing is if you're a work from home mom and you're also a teacher business owner, make sure to carve out some time to enjoy your kids. And the you know how they are do some fun activities with them. Am I saying to do Pinterest perfect activities every single day? Nope, I don't do that. But if you want to that's cool too. But I do try at least to do you know we go somewhere on a trip together around town and then just different little activities just to make it fun to be home. One of the things my mom said early early on, when she had my brother and I at home when she was also a stay at home mom she was ironically kind of doing the same thing i'd was except she was selling Mary Kay and she said that those were her favorite years is being at home with us. And this is coming from my mom who still has not retired yet and she is like Tom loves to work. She says her favorite moments in her adult life. Were being at home with her kids. So I think if you have that ability to do that and flexibility to do that, and also be a teacher business owner. It's, I think, a win win situation, it may seem stressful and you feels like you're not doing anything, or just a lot of people say time flies.

And before we know it, they're going to be a lot older. And we're going to be thinking back on these days. So I try my best to balance what I can in my business and also balance being a good mom present mom as much as I can. It is hard work. And it is very stressful at times. But at the end of the day, I really do enjoy it. Hopefully, if your work from home mom and teach your business owner, you got some great tips and a ha moments and come to Jesus moments, whatever you got from this, hopefully, you took away some stuff from it. And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.