The Summer Holidays have arrived for many parents across England (and are in full swing in Scotland). It has been the topic of conversation with my clients over the last few weeks. The school holidays (not just summer) either make mumpreneurs excited or scared.
Many of us started our business to give us the time freedom to be a mum, to be present with our children and make those precious memories so why do we feel dread when they approach?
It’s simple, we feel we must sacrifice something, either our business or doing things with our children. But it isn’t the case, we can work our business AND enjoy those school breaks with our children.
I work with my clients to ensure they have a routine in their business that means they aren’t glued to their phone or laptop constantly, working smartly not hard is my motto but when the school holidays arrive, we simply tweak those routines to fit around the children.
I have had 6 summers with my children now as I have been a full-time business owner and a mum for 6 years and this method even helped during the 2020 home schooling spell.
Plan
Create a plan early on in the holidays with your children of activities you want to do, remembering we only get 18 glorious summers with our babies and we need to ensure that our memory making is top of the agenda. We have created an A-Z of things that are age appropriate for all of my children and they helped me design it. Now we can schedule in low-cost days out and adventures.
Key to this is getting them outdoors as much as possible, most children love running off some energy. Plan in your play dates, you don’t need to do this alone and I’m sure your friends would love a catch up at a park.
Schedule
Get scheduling all of your social media posts so this runs itself, I plan my social media content monthly so I spend less time on my phone and more time for my clients (as well as ensuring my posts aren’t rushed or irrelevant). It takes the pressure off you, knowing your social media is running itself and you only need to pop in to interact when you get a minute to check your phone.
Review the next 6 weeks
Have you anything that is time sensitive that is needed to be done? Get this at the top of your to do list. Go through your diary with a fine-tooth comb.
Create a Weekly To-Do List
Get rid of those daily lists – weekly lists take the pressure off, if you wake up and its glorious sunshine you can get outdoors and not worry about any daily tasks that need doing. Once you have your weekly list, number it so you know what is priority.
Pockets of Working
Schedule little pockets of working tasks into your day, power hours as they are called (but they could be a power 10 minutes if you can’t stretch to an hour). Set a time for when you are going to do this, for example, Monday at 8am whilst the children eat breakfast, I am going to have a power hour.
Once you know when you are doing it, decide on what you are doing, knowing what you need to do before you do it is important otherwise you will find yourself doing something that isn’t benefiting you or the business. Refer back to your weekly to do list and look at what are your priorities. Move any distractions such as social media scrolls and just focus on the task you need to do.
Be proactive with food
Children seem to eat a lot more during the holidays so make it easy on yourself. Pre plan what evening meals you are cooking, make them easy on you too. When you know what you are eating you can throw it into the slow cooker in the morning or you can prepare it the night before by cutting vegetables up etc.
Snacks – I always organise ahead of time too, I go to the local fruit shop and buy lots of different fruit and make a big fruit bowl and store it in the fridge then you can make little fruit bowls for snacks when they ask for food. I also have a snack time so I can manage the children’s expectations, snack time is 10.30am (as an example) this will reduce the constant asking for food, it then mirrors the routine they have at school.
Self-Care
Having your children home for 6 weeks whilst running your business can be tiring no matter what system you follow. Ensure you schedule regular self-care time; you cannot be the mum or business owner you want to be if you are running on empty.
Don’t Compare
Don’t compare your summer break to anyone else’s, social media has made it so much easier to compare to others but I can promise you that everyone will have highs and lows. Don’t compare your life to someone else’s showcase reel, remember people on social media only let you see what they want you to see, we all push the mess to one side for a picture.
Be Kind to Yourself
No matter what type of parent you are, a change of routine can be hard for anyone, make sure you are being kind to yourself and not chastising yourself if you are finding it hard. Talk to your friends, family, coach anyone who you feel comfortable talking to, getting your worries out of your head can make you feel so much better.
Remember, why you started your business in the first place and make those incredible memories. The memories you make don’t need to cost the earth, there are many low-cost activities you can do which will keep your children entertained for hours.
If you want to up-level your business whilst providing yourself more time to do the things that are important to you why not book to have a free chat about the support I offer women in business
Nic x
Mindset & Business Coach
KRV Transformation
