As a mom and a business owner, there is never enough time. Never enough time for every digital product idea that spins through your head. Never enough time to volunteer at your kids’ school or get out of the house for music class. Never enough time to get away and do something just for you for a change.
Yes, in a very real sense, every person living on this earth has the same 24 hours in every day.
But as a mother, you have perhaps even more demands on your time than a Fortune 100 CEO. There is literally no end to the number of requests our children can make of us and the amount of love we want to give to them.
For the first full year of filling the roles of mom and business owner, I felt the need to justify every minute I spent on my business and not directly caring for my daughter. I literally would spend time writing, after she went to bed, the list of activities I managed to accomplish and the value of each. This gave me a sense of inner peace about my day that I couldn’t get any other way.
When we finally hired help with child care, this need of mine amped up in a real way. Now we were paying someone to be there for my daughter when I could not, so I must, absolutely must, use that time with all the productivity and effectiveness I could muster.
I have always been a productive person, but I found a new layer of efficiency when I was challenged as a mom and a business owner.
Becoming a mother shifted how I valued my own time in a way that I’ll never regret, but that I’ve also been able to thankfully step away from.
Because this way of being, this accounting method, this forceful nature, this relentless focus…it was absolutely and utterly exhausting. And I was still riddled with useless guilt that got me nowhere.
I started to question whether this way of looking at time was really serving me, or my daughter, or my husband. And I had to answer truthfully that it was not.
I realized that whether or not I was uber-productive during my work from home time, it was how much I enjoyed my time that really mattered. Having had some “Laura time” spent working, I could go back to mothering with a more open heart. I was happier all around, and that made everyone happy.
I started to ask myself different questions, like:
- What type of work do I enjoy doing?
- What would I do if profit wasn’t an issue?
- How can I receive more help doing the things I put off or don’t enjoy?
The result of these more heart-focused questions is that my business continued to grow, I’ve relaxed (some), and I’m sure to add into my day the things I need for me, even if there is no direct profit associated with them.
I’m not going to tell you that there is always enough time, because there is not. Life is full of choices and what we do with our time involves some of the toughest choices we need to make.
But I will encourage you to let go of some of the guilt you are feeling around your time. There is no end to this perfectionism of time. No goal to reach. No done.
Consider the way you are looking at time and if it is serving you (or not). Perhaps there is a better way.
Looking for more? Check out this post on 3 decisions you must make if you want work-life balance as a mom.