11 Mamaprenistas share their best productivity tips to manage a business and a family

1) Tierney Larkin, Founder at Larkin Living Spaces: “Be sure to have a designated space to work that is just for you and your business. It can be a makeshift office in the corner of a room, or even a traveling cart that you can take around with you to store all of your supplies in one place if you don’t have a separate home office, but keeping your “work stuff” separate from your “kid stuff” will help you to focus and stay organized when it’s time to sit down and work!”

2) Anne Trobaugh, Founder at My Best Friend At Work: “Outsource the things you aren’t good at or don’t like. For me this is grocery shopping, cleaning the house and sometimes making dinner. Don’t try to do all the things, use the help that is available!”

3) Erin Pohan, Founder at Upkeeping: “Time Blocking! I open my calendar(s) on Sunday evening and plug my priority tasks into their respective time blocks on my personal calendar. And when that block of time occurs during the week – I try to stay focused and resist all of the distractions. I actually use those time blocks to charge my phone in the next room.”

4) Jill Apgar, Founder at Coco Beans: “Mom guilt can be incredibly distracting. As a way to manage it, I have designated Fridays as mama/daughter day. Clearing my calendar of all meetings allows me to be fully present during my time with my daughter! She is still napping during the afternoon so I use that time to address urgent issues and catch up on emails.. When my week gets hectic and I feel mom guilt distracting me from my business priorities, I remind myself that we have a whole day to spend together!”

5) Anastasia Naftalieva, Online Business Growth Strategist: “My best tip is that it’s never “too early” to step into your CEO role and put systems in place to automate, delegate, or outsource other essential tasks. This will save you from overwork and overwhelm so that you can truly keep business hours that don’t spill over into the time you dedicate to your family or yourself (yes, prioritize time for your own self-care even as a business owner!).

To start creating systems that free up your time for CEO level activities: First, identify where you make your highest contribution to the business as a CEO. This is not only your zone of genius where you enjoy focusing your time and energy, but also where you are impacting your business growth. Then, identify where you are spending the most time outside of those CEO-level activities. Are you still managing your own social media? Are you spending hours managing back-end tech admin? You can then identify where you can use tech to automate these activities or document the step-by-step process (also called SOPs or standard operating procedures) in order to delegate or outsource to a team member, contractor or assistant. While this will require some commitment from you up front, imagine the hours you can cut from your work week, for good. So worth it!”

6) Michelle Emmick, Co-Founder at MyCoachMD and Founder at Ask Us Beauty Magazine: “Over summer break, my daughter and I decide on a timeframe and use Alexa together. We set the timer so it keeps me focused and on a schedule for my business. This helps me step away from my desk or phone to spend time with her. This keeps me productive and away from the typical “I’ll be done in 10 minutes,” which is never the case!”

7) Mylene Isler, High Performance & Executive Coach & Founder at Mindful Leader Athlete: “Have a solid morning me-time that consists of meditation, journaling, exercise. This allows you to foster your focus, maximize your energy, manage your stress better, increase your productivity and much more. And yes, have your morning me-time before everyone wakes up! No mom-guilt with this self-care time :-)”

8) Ari Krzyzek, Co-Founder at Chykalophia: “I split my week up into segments devoted to particular tasks. For example, Mondays are for catching up and reviewing team tasks, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for sales calls, Wednesdays are for learning, mentoring, and content planning, Fridays are for weekly review and planning for the next week. On most days, I would have my son sitting in my office as well. I set up kids chair & table so he could read books, draw/color, or build his legos while I create content, reply to emails, or work on a design project. That way, he can still feel close to me even and feel that we’re “working together.”

9) Lauren Maat, Founder at audwell: “We instituted a “traffic light” protocol with my boys when I’m working in our home office. My boys colored three pages of red, yellow, and green and then I put the appropriate color on my door depending on my availability. If I’m on a call or busy I put red, yellow means knock first, and green means they’re free to come in as they please. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but even my two year old understands and they love to see the colors change throughout the day.”

10) Miriam Airington-Fisher, Owner at Airington Law: “Learn to delegate in your business by making a list of everything you do in a week. Identify the tasks that truly require you and the areas where you excel. Delegate everything else to make your time in the office really count. Set aside at least a day or two a month (or more!) for personal time to stay healthy and focused.”

11) Stefany Gittleman, Founder at The Gold Maze: “I give myself a little personal report card. Some days, I am a D with the Dishes and an A+ with work productivity and creation. It allows me to make light that at times things can get really crazy juggling the work / life / balance but it reminds me to go easy on myself and not every day is going to be an A+ across the board. The grades also subconsciously remind myself to up my game the following day in whatever area I was sub par in.”