10 productivity tips to help you unleash your inner Mom Boss

It’s no surprise that the number one issue for mompreneurs is time and productivity. The average mom only gets 17 minutes of alone time per day. That’s barely enough time to take a shower—let alone build a business.

So I’ve compiled my favorite 10 productivity tips for mompreneurs, all of which I use on a daily basis.

1. Wear the baby

This is absolutely one of my favorites, especially if you have a very little one. When I started my first blog, my daughter was around 1-year-old. She demanded a lot of attention and cuddles. My solution? Babywearing. She could be close, while I was hands-free to work.

2. Stop multitasking

I know as a mom you are a multitasking queen, but study after study shows that multitasking kills your productivity. Now believe me, I am well aware that many times you are watching little ones while trying to work on your business.

So NOT multitasking may not be an option. But at the very least, stop hopping back and forth between various projects and work tasks. When you start a task, stay on that one until it is done. That means don’t start a blog post and then hop over to your email or Facebook for five minutes. We all know five minutes turns into much more.

3. Sleep better, work better

Sleep is essential to being at peak performance. What’s sleep, you say? Yep. I get you. My daughter didn’t sleep through the night for the first time until she was almost 2-years-old.

So here’s what I’m proposing: How often are you up for late night feeds with a baby? Or dealing with a toddler refusing to lay down? Instead of fighting it, go with the flow and use that extra time awake for your advantage. Grab your iPhone and spend some time engaging on social media or jot down some blog post ideas. Some of my best ideas come at the strangest times. (Also refer back to point number one for a tip on how to get baby to sleep. Babywearing is seriously the bomb for getting a cranky baby to sleep.)

4. Hire someone

I can hear you already saying, “But Morgan, I don’t have money to hire someone! I’m just starting out!” Believe me, I get it. But, at the end of the day, there is only so much that you as one person can accomplish. I’m not saying you can’t grow a successful business on your own, but I am saying it will happen faster and be less stressful for you if you have help.

There are so many tasks a virtual assistant can take off your plate. Here are some ideas: transcribing voice memos into blog posts, scheduling social media content, creating graphics for social media, organizing your inbox and many more.

5. Always batch process

Think of it like an assembly line. One person doesn’t build a whole car. Instead they make one part over and over because it’s much more efficient.

Apply this same principle to your business. Work on similar tasks all at the same time. This kind of goes back to the no more multitasking tip. Instead of bouncing around from checking emails to writing to social media, you only do one of them for a chunk of time. For example, you spend one hour brainstorming blog post ideas, then one hour creating graphics for those ideas, then one hour scheduling out your social media calendar, etc.

6. Have self-awareness

What works for one person may not work for you. Do you like to work against a fast deadline? Or do you prefer to work slow and steady? Do you like to schedule tasks into a calendar or have a to-do list you work on as you can?

There are so many different productivity, work flow and time-management options out there to choose from. And guess what? Pretty much all of them work. The key is finding which one will work for you.

7. Speaking of to-do lists, don’t add too many tasks

Try to focus on just one to three things a day. If you finish those then you can add more.

This is kind of a mindset hack. If you only get one or two things done in a day it feels like you are more accomplished if those were the only ones on your list versus if you only do one or two things—but have 10 more waiting for you. I’ve found that being productive many times comes down to momentum. Crossing things off your to-do list and completing a to-do list gives you tons of momentum.

8. Shift your mindset

Are you always thinking about how little time you have? How busy you are? How frazzled you are?

What does that thinking do? It only stresses you out more! And too much stress only depletes your motivation and excitement for work. Instead shift your mindset to one of abundance. Whenever you feel like you have too much to do, instead of worrying about it, just say to yourself, “I have all the time I need to do what is most important to me.”

It’s all about focusing on what you do have instead of what you don’t have. In other words: Have gratitude. Being grateful and practicing gratitude on a daily basis has been shown to make you happier and be more productive. So consider keeping a gratitude journal. It doesn’t have to be super fancy. You could even just open the notes app on your phone every morning or evening and jot down three things you are grateful for that day.

I can say 100% that this has been a game changer in my own life.

9. Let’s talk technology

I know it seems like there are new headlines everyday about how bad using screens and technology are for your kid, but let’s get real for a minute. It’s not the end of the world if you give your kid the iPad for 20 minutes while you finish some work.

So right here right now, I am giving you total permission to do this with no guilt at all. I do it and if that makes me a bad mom then so be it.

10. Don’t be too hard on yourself

You have a baby and I know you want to do it all, but somedays the best thing you can do is just cuddle those little ones and relax. Take them to the park, go to the zoo, build a fort in the living room and watch a movie together. Spend time remembering WHY you are working so hard to build a thriving business. All work and no play doesn’t just make you dull, it actually decreases your productivity. So give yourself the space to unplug and just be.