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A frequently asked question of mine is simply, “How do you do it all?!” Well, I don’t claim to be able to “do it all” – but I do have some insight I would like to share on how I manage my days growing 3 online businesses and homeschooling my 4 children – among other things.
I cringe a little when folks find out that I have a linen business, a planner business and a content creation business – on top of homeschooling my 4 kids, serving in my church and basically all the things necessary for the keeper of the home.
In truth, saying it all like that does make me sound like a crazy person!
But I do try to take it all in strides, pick seasons of focus, and I work hard at managing my days so I don’t set myself up for unrealistic expectations and crushing overwhelm.
As someone who once landed herself in therapy for way too high levels of stress and anxiety – managing my life has become an act of loving self care and survival of the fittest.
After years of practice, I feel I’ve come upon some little life secrets, at least for myself, to make sure I can do all the things I feel passionate about doing, and keep stress in healthy bounds.
You may enjoy watching my recent Day in the Life video to see how a typical day is structured in our home, to allow me to “do it all”.
DAY IN THE LIFE VIDEO
I also enjoyed a wonderful conversation on a recent podcast with a dear friend – Lisa, from Farmhouse on Boone (on her Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast) – as we talked about our busy, full and very blessed lives and how we each manage things differently and similarly.
HOW I STRUCTURE MY DAYS
Of course, every day is not exactly the same, but I thought it would be helpful for you to see a how a typical day is structured as I try to balance a work-from-home life with a homeschool life.
TIPS FOR MANAGING A BUSY LIFE AND YOUR STRESS
TIP #1: Plan, Plan, Plan
I honestly, whole-heartedly believe that in order to fill your life, you must plan your life to some extent. I don’t mean that every moment has to be filled with to-do’s, but make sure you have a plan for when you will do the things you must do, to accomplish what you hope to accomplish.
Find a planner that will support you at every level of your life, and that will be flexible enough to allow you to go with the flow of your UNIQUE life at any given UNIQUE season of life.
This may sound like a shameless plug – but I could not find a planner that was structured enough and yet flexible enough to help me manage my years, months, weeks, days and hours as I needed to.
This is why I created the TIDBITS Day Planner, which you can certainly explore more on my tidbitsplanners.com website. I feel such delight reading through the reviews and seeing that it works as well for others as it does for me.
Planning is all about setting myself up for success, being realistic with my time and energy and helping me keep focus on the bigger goals and priorities.
When I can do this, I live with exponentially less stress and my days tick by feeling balanced and in control.
Tip #2: Build Support
If there comes a time when you want to or must add more to your already full plate – it is crucial to build support in your life to handle it! You can’t just add MORE without adding MORE stress.
Unless, you find help and build support.
For me, this looks like making the decision to hire a tutor to help me with some of homeschool. I could quit my businesses and be able to do homeschool on my own, or I could enjoy both work and homeschool if I get help. It was well worth the trade for me!
You could hire occasional cleaners, trade babysitting with a friend or neighbor, teach your kids and partner to help more around the house so your load isn’t as heavy. There are so many things you can do to help build support and increase your capacity to carry more.
Tip #3: Take care of yourself
The second you decide that you don’t have enough time to care for yourself, is the second you start to slide downhill. It’s almost guaranteed that your mental, spiritual, social and physical health will suffer if you don’t make it a priority.
There have been 2 habits that I have worked to add to my life that have drastically changed how I feel.
- A daily walk
- Yoga
I’m not saying you have to do those 2 things, but they have worked wonders for me! I used to live with constant neck tension and headaches. Most days I felt like I couldn’t take a full breathe.
But even a daily walk to the end of my driveway or 10-30 minutes down the road with absolutely no input or output have been life changing for me. It helps me get the blood flowing and works so well to clear my head.
Yoga is an amazing physical and mental health practice. I wish I wouldn’t have resisted it for so many years.
I could truly go on and expand this topic into multiple blog posts, but I’d love to hear if it is content you appreciate and enjoy before I do so.
Thanks for reading! I hope it helped, if even just a little! I would love to hear about what areas of life management you struggle with or if you have any further questions/input for me.
Feel free to go check out my planner products to see if they might be of help to you!
great post