I’m working on bringing you girls more motherhood and lifestyle content and thought this would be a good topic to cover since I get the ‘how do you do it all?’ question a lot. And lemme just set the record straight: I don’t! Like any mom, I’m just trying to survive and do my best with working full time, #MomLife and now home school life. I know no matter what your work or home life situation is, motherhood is no joke and it’s the hardest job ever but also the most rewarding. At the end of the day it’s all about doing my best and trying to get work done without going totallyyy crazy and staying present with my fam as much as possible! Plus wine 😉
I honestly don’t have it all figured out but here are some tips I rely on for “balance”…
Batch your tasks
This is probably the best tip I have to offer and it can work for so many things. Since I have limited time for work with the kiddos home a lot right now, it’s all about batching tasks. I use this all the time but it’s especially crucial during quarantine since everyone’s home! Batching tasks is just putting similar tasks in one time slot. So if I need to do a lot of computer work and blog writing, I have that for one chunk of time 1-2 times a week. When I’m shooting, I’ll do my full hair, makeup, etc and then shoot for a bunch of content while I’m already with my photographer and done up. For mom life I try to batch the kid’s appointments so that we can be out and about and knock a few things out, and the same goes with errands. This is HUGE for balance and efficiency!
Delegate
Control freak over here!! Anyone else? This has been HARD for me but for the last couple years I’ve grown the Honeybee Team and it truly has been a necessity. I try to delegate what I’m not good at or what I don’t have time for since you can never get time back. My job isn’t a traditional 9-5 and honestly doesn’t really have a cut off time. I spend a lot of time on my phone replying to DM’s and linking because it’s important to me to connect with my HB community so I try to delegate other work tasks so that I’m not glued to screens all day long. Luckily my husband’s work schedule is super flexible so I have to hand it to him for picking up the slack with meals and kids stuff on the days I’m slammed.
Treat your body well
Honestly this sounds cheesy but it works for me. Feeling good about yourself is a must! With kids, a husband and a career it’s so easy to come up short in the “you” department but if you’re not happy with yourself than the rest of those categories will suffer. Working out and eating well is something that makes me happy and feel good both mentally and physically. If you’re new around here, I follow an 80/20 rule and find that eating well (lots of protein, veggies, healthy fats) and working out gives me the energy I need to survive kid life, let alone work and kid life. You know I love my wine but that’s my 20 of the equation -plus a little somethin’ sweet each day. I know the to-do lists are never-ending but prioritizing time for yourself is an absolute must. You girls can see a lot more about what I eat and healthy stuff over on the Honeybee Health tab.
Social media detoxes
A category I need to be better at. It’s a tough one for me since a lot of my work is obviously on social media and it can definitely take over. I’m probably on my phone too much but having full detoxes where I’ll go off for a couple days really let me focus on family life. Even if you don’t work with social media, I think just turning things off for a few days is good for your sanity and for being present with the fam. I also always put my phone away during homework and dinner with the kiddos – non-negotiable – and I plan to have this same rule for the kids when they get older.
Do YOUR best
As all mamas probably know, nothing’s ever going to go perfect. I struggle with the juggle every. single. day. When I’m in work mode I’m usually thinking about something with the kids and even though I try not to have guilt around it, it’s there. I do my best to balance both work and family but know that it’s never going to be perfect. That thought kinda chills me out if I feel like I’m failing in one department.
Delivery services
Like I said above, I’m all about delegating and trying to get more time in my day. We use Amazon Fresh, Amazon auto-delivery, and Home Chef to make sure we always have food in the house and dinner when I had a heavy work day. Other subscription services count on here! Outsource where you can to help with the full day schedules.
Take vacations
Being out of our bubble and on vacation is one of the only times I’ll truly check out for more than a couple days. We like to plan a few a year so that we all have time together as a fam and both the hubby and I can push work to the side (or attempt to!). Even if you do a local stay-cation do it! The hubby and I do this solo once a year and it so glorrrrious. I would actually like to try to make those twice a year.
One-on-one time
I’m all about one-on-one time with each of my family members and I try to do this 1x a week with each kid. Love having time with just one kiddo at a time so they feel special and it makes for really good bonding and time being present together. The hubby and I also have a standing weekly date night that is NECESSARY! I try to see my girlfriends 1x a week too but that’s usually a couple times a month.
Prioritize time and say no
As the kids are getting older, it seems like there are parties or events or games every single weekend day. It’s been tons of fun but at the end of last year we were all really burnt out so we’ve started saying no more often (one upside to quarantine actually!). It’s important to make time for the people who add value to your life. If they don’t, save that precious time for people that do. Even when things resume, I want to make sure we’re saying yes to things whether as a fam or individual that we REALLY want to do. Because at the end of the day saying yes to something is usually taking me away from the fam – but if it’s something for work that’s really important, I’ll say yes! Just knowing my priorities helps a ton.
How do you girls feel about the BALANCE word? Which area could you be better at? and as always please feel free to add anything you want to add to this list!