You’re a coach that works from home. You’re a mom who moms from home. You being busy is a given. Being busy as a mom while also being busy as an entrepreneur are too different busy beasts.
And the ability to focus on the beast at hand is going to help them coexist together if they both live under the same roof. This is how you get to be the Khaleesi to your work from home realm.
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Get bossy.
Time to dust of that boss hat, because it’s time to get it on! Set work hours and snap on the chin straps because you’re going to have to wear it these times to ensure you’re sticking with your business plan.
A business plan needs devoted time to implement the steps you need to take to reach your coaching biz goals. Stick to them work hours and pretend you inner boss is looking over your shoulder while you’re in office hours mode, sticking their nose in your biz and making sure you’re not goofing off.
Exercise focus.
Knowing your work hours, and letting those around you be informed of them as well, will allow you the opportunity to continuously say to yourself, out loud or quietly muttering all mantra like, “I’m going to be hyper-focused from this time to this time on my work.” Think of these work hours like a work out for your mind exercising the muscle of being focused. It’s for a finite time. You can do this
What works for me, I sit at my desk, I have a ritual where I begin my workday, and then I pop in my earbuds and I listen to Brain.fm. It’s brainwave-y music that gets you hyper-focused.
Then, with brain waves waving with the scientifically proven sound system, move down your to-do list. I like to create a theme for each day (ie Blog Post Monday, Podcast Tuesday, Newsletter Wednesday, Client Care Thursday) and aim to have at least three main tasks completed. Focus, focus, focus until those are done.
And you know what else focus likes? Lots of sleep, hydration, outside time, creative play… you know, Mama Bliss! You can read here on how to boost your own Mama Bliss on a regular basis so you can best build your coaching biz to lead others to their own.
Choose a Focus Muse.
My husband works down the hall from me. He has been working from home forever, since our daughter was a baby, he is hyper focused. When I feel myself getting a little bit spacey, I think of him down the hall and I’m like, “hey, I can do that too.” Weird tricks, I know, but whatever works for you making sure that you are practicing those get focused muscles.
Get organized.
Make sure you can score yourself a dedicated space for work. Whether it be an at home office, your kitchen table, or in a sunny corner of your living room, make sure that it is an area devoted to getting work done.
The second step would be to really feng shui it up whatever ways you can. Move furniture around if you have an office space, put up a curtain if it’s a corner of the living room, put a flower vase. Whatever is going to inspire you to get into that boss mode and this is a place of work.
Also organize your digital space. Maybe it would be a good time to invest in working with someone who’s on the cutting edge of the latest and greatest in software and systems that organize digital spaces.
Often a virtual assistant would be perfect for this job. even if just for a few hours to help you create some systems that would work for you, and specifically how you work with your clients, so that you’re set up and most things can be automated, and just really easy to locate and find.
Honor your natural energy ebbs and flows.
Notice times of your workday when you’re feeling at your most creative, most logical, and plain old brain mushy. Assign the appropriate tasks to yourself according to these opportune times. Be honest with yourself then don’t overextend yourself energetically, psychically, or otherwise.
If you’re not into working out first thing in the morning then consider going after dinner when your brain’s mushed and your partner’s home to watch the kids.
And if you get in the habit of honoring your organic energy rhythms, and take breaks that make sense for you, you’ll more easily stay focused, productive and avoid a dreaded burnout situation.
Design some social time in.
Working from home increases the likelihood that you might not see other humans other than your kids – who aren’t exactly focus-friendly, for big chunks of time.
Get your social ya-yas out and then take small bursts of time to connect with a friend online or off. I have a friend that we walk our dogs together around 11:00 – just before lunch. It’s also a great opportunity to let out any frustrations. think things through out loud, or simply don’t think at all.
Or you can perhaps find a supportive community online, such as a mastermind. Once you accept the fact that you will be a bit of a hermit with this working from home set up, intentionally create these times to find connection with like-minded moms living this dream and have peeps at your corner who get it in both times of celebration and challenge.
Invest in delegating.
To make working from home go a little bit smoother, you’re going to have to consider investing in outsourcing some home tending type tasks. Because you can do anything you want, mama. You just can’t do it all!
So that might look like a house cleaner, cooking meals, organizing or a childminder. Think of the focusing bandwidth this will earn you!
If funds are tight now, have a productive conversation with your partner and maybe the rest of the family to see how they can pitch in more or in new ways with house-related tasks. With smaller kids, make arrangements to have a child minder watch them while you have a nice big, juicy chunk of time at least once a week to do the stuff that takes a little bit more focus, or when you take your client calls.
It might take some creativity at the beginning but in some circumstances, it takes some cold, hard cash. Reframe it as an investment and use that motivation to keep you focused when you’re paying for such services.
Exercise your creative muscles too.
A lot of the working from home experience, especially as a mama, is getting to use your problem solving skills over and over again. Luckily, you’ll be pumping up those life skills with the infinite supply of opportunities to use your creativity with all the marketing you get to do to have your ideal coaching clients find you and want to sign up with your awesomeness.
You’ll be writing emails, newsletters, sales pages, web copy. You’ll be creating coaching packages, webinars, podcasts. You’ll find the marketing plan that feels good. Even coaching in itself is a unique creativity exercise in its own way. You get to explore and practice your unique coaching style and process and continuously homing in on what you sets you apart from other coaches out there.
And the process is ongoing, takes time and above all else, will get you the coaching, and coaching-related, tasks the world is waiting for you to deliver.
If you like this, here’s how to dive even deeper. Click on the box below to gain instant access to my Focused and Coaching Mom Toolkit. It’s free and it’ll give you a selection of a few of my favourite tools to make sure when it’s mama’s time to wear her boss hat time, it’s business time!
