5 tips on how to kick chaos and organize your week as a home business owner

So you started that Home business and now what? all hell is about to break loose, how are you supposed to take care of your kids, do your family duties, be nice and look good for your hubby while still running a home business or perhaps working from home.
You probably lack organization skills and you have never thought about how to organize your week talk more of having to organize your home office to fit into your daily home activities.
You are beginning to think you just got into deep water without knowing how you got there, the baby is crying and hanging onto you for dear life, he wants to breastfeed, Moooom I am hungry, or I want to fix my broken toy and then the proverbial we have to do my homework ( I am actually thinking no child loves to say that, but some do, my son likes his homework time even though I suspect its because he gets to correct my pronunciation or tell me why the workbook is wrong lol)
Whichever condition your life is in right now, there is a way out.Don’t lose it just yet or give up and go back to your before business life, there is what to do and I will show you what to do, the how and what to use. Follow me, I will start by laying out a month’s plan which you can then break down into weeks then into days.
To organize your week as a home business owner, here is what you have to do.
1 Define your priorities
In one new month, there is only so much that you can achieve, especially if you just started a new home business and you are trying hard to build it. Running all over the place and splitting hairs everywhere will not move you forward, you have to decide what is your priority for that month as a business and then face it, tackle it and get it done. For you to do this, you will need to focus on knowing what you need for now.
Since you work at home, you may know have noticed that you are consistently moving from your work to your home activities so you can’t just prioritize your business activities without including your home activities it will not work.
To start off, you will need to answer an important question yourself, and that is what is the one thing that you want to achieve this month as a family and as a business?
Write it down on a Post-it note and stick it on your table in front of you and your planning has just begun. You can name it your Big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) like Jim Collins in the book Built to last
2 Set your Goals
I already mentioned setting up your goals in the above tip, that is your overarching goals for the month, I don’t want to even use the word year here because it may send some people running for cover, so lets stick to planning for one month and then one week and perhaps you can replicate it each week and then a month and finally make up your year.
I know this looks like its in the reverse order, but I am writing from the perspective of one who may not be a planning addict but realizes that you need it now that you have a business. One day or one week at a time helps, that way you ease in nice and good without feeling overwhelmed.
Now set your business goal for the month and also your family goal for the month.For example:
-Family Goal
– I will study a chapter of the Bible with my family and ensure we internalize the teachings by writing out what we learned and what needs to be implemented.
Business Goal
– Focus on growing my Instagram following this month.
Whatever you need to do, you just write it down and then you move on to the next stage.
3 Break down your Goals into Tasks that need to be accomplished
At this stage you are feeding the pipeline of achieving a more organized family and business, so you get to break down your goals into tasks that are doable within the time slots you will apportion to them.For example
Family Goal Task
-Read verse 1- 3 on Monday
-Read verse 4-5 on Tuesday etc
-You now choose the time slot in which you will start and complete the Bible study for that week.
-Business Goal Tasks
-Research Instagram hashtags to use
-Create content for your Instagram followers
-Search for competitors or collaborators that you will follow
-Join Instagram pods to help improve engagement and following.
Each task must be completed within the time slots assigned, of course, you have to make room for interruptions or disruptions that may make it difficult for you to finish your tasks.
Amongst the tasks you will list are those that will be recurring every week, for example, your kid’s swimming lessons will hold every Tuesday.
For example, my first son takes swimming lessons every Tuesday so I make sure that his swimming gear is in a place where I can easily pick it up and bag it on our way out in the morning.
If you are a mom whose kids are not of school age yet, you can outline activities that you will get them to do at specific times and thus create a routine.
Tips for planning to organize your week
To help you get started here are examples of the list of activities you are likely to plan for in your family.
List of your Family activity
-Childcare
-Meal planning & Prepping
-Cleaning
-School work
-Family time
-Hubby time
-Personal time
-Healthcare for family
-Home maintenance
List of weekly activities for my business:
This is what my list looks like, you can write yours down depending on what you do as a business from home.
-Content planning & creation
-Social Media promotion, marketing, and engagement
-New opportunities research/ product development
-Client meetings/ email response
-Business side overview
After you have done all this, move on to the next step
4 Assign activities to time slots for each day and schedule
Now that you have listed all your activities, you will now have to separate your activities into recurring activities and non-recurring ones
Recurring activities are the ones you do daily, while none recurring activities may be done once a month. For example, house maintenance may be done once a month, or for your business, you may choose to plan all your content ideas for a month so that you can use the weeks for research and creation.
Another non-recurring business activity may be to use a scheduling app like Tailwind to schedule all your posts for pinning to your Pinterest board for the month, that way you cut down your social media marketing time by half and then focus more of your energy on content creation.
If you have not heard of Tailwind before it’s a scheduling tool that helps you automatically schedule your Pins to your chosen Pinterest boards at times that you choose.
Its a very useful tool that has helped me tremendously to cut down time used in pinning to boards manually, whats more it also has a feature called tribes where you can add your content to increase the exposure of your Pins. I have a tribe on tailwind so if you had like to join my tribe, click here
If you want to sign up for a trial of Tailwind, click here, its free for your first 100 pins during your trial period. If you eventually sign up, your first month is free of charge.
Depending on what kind of business that you are running from home, your schedules may differ but what matters is that you are planning your way to be more effective and productive in your business hence you are able to succeed.
Using our initial example, the recurring activity for both family and business can be
-Read verse 1-3 etc every day from 5pm-6pm
-Share content on my Instagram account and engage with my followers from 12 noon- 12.30pm.
Nonrecurring activities example could be
-Write down what was learned at the end of the chapter reading and what we will practice as a family going forward based on what we learned.- Friday
-Schedule all the Content I will use this month on Sunday
The next step will be
-Put the nonrecurring activities first on your calendar, before you enter your recurring activities. This is because your non-recurring activities may often take chunks of time so you want to get that off your table first before you add the recurring activities which you can maneuver around should you lack for time.
-You can use some scheduling tools that I will later mention in this post to help you create your to-do lists for the day, that way you wake up knowing what you intend to achieve for the day.
-Color code your different activities, for example, you can use different colors to indicate which one is a home activity and which one is a business activity this helps you to avoid mix-ups. For example, All home activities are in green, while business activities are yellow.
5 Assign Time Blocks for Activities
The next thing to do is to assign time blocks for your activities, for example, you can assign time blocks that are for when you get to spend time with your kids or time blocks that are for writing or product development.
This time blocks are then broken down into different time slots for different activities. Using our initial example.
-Time for bible study – 5pm – 6 pm
-Preparation and setting- 10 mins
-Word reading – 10 mins
-Discussion -20 mins
-Questions and Answers- 10 mins
-Wrap up- 10 mins
Tools you may need to organize your week as a Home business owner.
Planners and Binders :
This may include Blogging binders, Home cleaning binder, Medical binders and Blog planners.
One of the best materials I have seen when it comes to planning for your blog is the Honest Bloggers Binder Bundle by Sarah Titus, it is made up of one Blogging binder 4 hot selling ebooks on vital questions a Blogger may want to know, she also has a variety of other vital planners that will help you organize your week more effectively.

The good thing about getting these binders now is that you get a free Christmas binder for if you sign up to her mailing list and while there you also get 60% off the Honest Blogger Binder. I am not sure how long this will last but you will be getting a good deal if you snag it now.

You can get them here
Other tools which are digital in nature are
Cozi.com
Calendar 5
Finally ensure that you involve your family in planning out your monthly activities to avoid constant disruptions, one of the apps above, Cozi Family organizer to be specific has the ability to collaborate with family members in such a way that is so useful.
For instance, if you are going for grocery shopping and your Hubby will like you to get something that’s not in the list, he can add it to your schedule for that day and you are notified of this new addition.
There are many ways you can stay organized to ensure that you achieve your dreams as home business owner.
If you are not used to planning and organizing, you will find this piece a bit overwhelming, the most important thing is to start off and stick to your routine, don’t forget to be flexible as nothing is rigid, sometimes you may have to move things around to see what works.
A word for anyone that has a baby that is still young in age perhaps some few months, know that his or her nap time is the best time you have to do uninterrupted work.
Starting the sleep training of your baby on time may be the key that unlocks your productivity.
One of the best times I get to work uninterrupted is at night, because all my kids are in bed by then, I can then do my writing because I love to concentrate while writing, I hate interruptions as it often disrupts my flow.
For you It may be early mornings, whatever time it is, ensure its something you are comfortable with, there will be no need setting up schedules that you keep missing and ends up increasing your stress levels.
Now over to you, what ways can you organize your week as a home business owner? Drop your comments below
12 Comments
Jess
So many great tips! I only blog part time right now, but if/when it becomes my full time job I can see needing to get really organized!
Elizabeth
That’s true jess.
Micah Cortez
This is definitely something I struggle with as a sahm. Just beginning my YouTube and blog I’m finding myself running around like a headless chicken trying to find balance.
Elizabeth
Lol headless chicken stuff made me laugh, but seriously, I also realized that you cant do blogging without planning. it will not work.
Liza
There’s a lot of useful information here. Ive recently moved country with my family and am now a SAHM and its definitely difficult to find the balance when running around after an 18 month old. Ill definitely be using some of this to help organise my days!
Elizabeth
I am glad you liked the post, its never easy to be a stay at home mom who runs a business.
Nia
Wow as a new mom who’s trying to start TWO businesses, this is the perfect article to grab tips from! Learning to organize in chaos
Elizabeth
Thanks, Nia, I believe it will help a lot.
Jasmine
I definitely need to get better at this, thanks for the tips!
Elizabeth
You are welcome, Jasmine.
Ashley
Yes!! I love the idea of breaking it down into daily and weekly! That certainly will be helpful to me!
Elizabeth
Thanks Ashley, I hope you will begin today as we round up the year.