7 secrets on how to succeed as a working mom.

I once listened to a YouTube video where a woman was saying that she always refers to all moms as a working mom, because there is no mom that does not work.

What she said struck me, I came to the realization that what she said is true.

Be it that you work outside your home or inside your home as a work at home mom or perhaps you are even classified as a stay at home mom.

The real truth is that you work, the only difference is that you may not be paid a check for the work that you do.

That is why I am dedicating this write up to unveil to you the secrets of the working mom that you should know in order to make your journey fulfilling.

Who does not love secrets, there always seems to be a mystery as to why things work out so well for other people, while you struggle.

For me the cliches may be different, whether you are a working mom, work at home mom or stay at home mom.

However, they all point to one thing and that is the fact that every mom works and the job they do should be recognized and accorded its due respect.

So, since I already covered all the bases here, no matter which group you belong to in the perspectives I have mentioned above, you will find this post useful to you.

In this post, I will share with you 7 secrets that will help you quit the struggle and begin to enjoy your journey as a working mom.

7 steps to success for a working mom

1-Time management

Time management is a key and essential part of your life, That is the reason why you get to be taught time management both in school and at work.

This is because no one has infinite time to accomplish all that they set out to do. You always have to do it within a time limit.

The timing of tasks is essential for a everyone because as you grow older, your productivity decreases and you can do less.

So, if you do not do the required things early in life, you may find yourself regretting the time wasted.

That’s why it is crucial and essential as a working mom that you must learn time management skills in order to be able to accomplish your dreams.

You must be an effective time manager of your home, work and relationships for things to really work out in your home.

If not, you will be always falling behind on your duties, be stressed and frazzled all the time and eventually it will begin to affect your health as a woman.

This also means that you will have less energy to do what you like.

So the next question will be, how do I become an effective time manager as a working mom?

Here are tips to help you

Practice  zero based time planning- This means that you plan your 24hours to the minute or second. That way you know that all your time has activities allotted to it. No time is wasted.

Do the hard tasks early and first: When we know that a task is hard to do,
our minds begin to dodge the task. That is what leads to procrastination, and missed deadlines.

If you are able to eat the frog of a hard task first, the more enjoyable ones will be easier to do.

For me as  a blogger, I find that researching my posts takes more of my time than actually writing it.

This means I get to do that research work first, write out my outlines so as to leave enough room in the afternoons to actually write out the post.

When my kids are in school, I can do the both at the same time.

Key takeaway: Do the hard and long tasks first and you are  free to do the ones you love to do.

Think of positive outcomes: Another way to do the hard things first is to think of the positive outcomes of achieving your goals.  That pushes you to take on the hard work.

For example, you may be a stay at home mom that hates to do laundry.  Think of the positive feeling of having clean sheets for your bed and clean clothes for you and the kids.

This will help you to start doing that laundry you have been ignoring.

Track the time you spend on your tasks:

When you track the time you spend on your tasks, you will know whether you need to improve on it or outsource it entirely.There is a limit to what you can do, so it’s important that you focus your energy on the high yielding tasks.

If trying to change your kitchen sink by yourself will take you so much time
hence preventing you from doing much during the day.

Outsource it, pay for it to be replaced. This will free up your time to do much more valuable high return tasks that will pay for the replacement.

2-Prioritize your tasks

The book 7 habits of highly effective people teaches you how to be effective in your life.

One of my key takeaways from that book is how to prioritize your life using  the action priority matrix. It helps you to prioritize all your  tasks so you know where to spend your precious time on.

I want you to adapt this matrix  as a working mom.

What are the tasks that you do in your daily life? What are their returns to you?
First step is to list them all out, both for  business, child care, career and
chores

Then grade them on a scale of 0-10, according to what you perceive is the return or impact in your life. 

Plot it on your action priority matrix and see where you should be spending your time and energy.

For example, the time you spend on your job at work or your work at home business is a high return activity because that is where  you get the money to pay your bills.

So, the return on that activity or task is quite high, so you place it on the high impact side.

The time you spend on watching or reading gossip articles online, does not give you a good return. Except you blog about gossips and celebrities so you need to know the latest gossip going on.

If you are just reading it for pleasure, its return to you is low because if you allot that time to exercise or sleep you will get a higher return.

If you place all your activities and tasks on the gradient list, compare as is now, and how you want it to be and begin to make adequate changes.

If you notice that you spend more of your time on low return activities  than its time to either stop it entirely or outsource it to a third party.
So you can  have more time for the impact high yield tasks.

When you are done with prioritizing your tasks, the next step will be to create a mom schedule. 

To get the priority matrix worksheet, click here

3-Organization

Organization is a key secret to your success as  a working mom, your ability to organize all that you have set out to do and know where each belongs will help you to win in your working mom’s journey.

If you are a Type B personality with a lot of sanguine personality, you will suffer a lot from organization problems.

I know because I am one of them. I struggle with organizing, but I have also learned to overcome by organization struggles by applying a very powerful tool.

The power to plan with a printable planner, some people couple it with bullet journaling in order to be better in planning.

I designed a powerful printable planner which has helped me to plan both my business as a home business owner and my life as a stay at home mom who works at home.

The greatest thing about planners is that they force you to set your goals and strategize on how to reach them. It also enables you to track your  progress.

My planner will help you to plan your business and your personal life so that you are not at loss what you are expecting to happen in the week, month or year.

To get my planners, go to the blogshop

The good thing about being good at organization as a working mom is that you can control what your outcomes will be, you also have the power to achieve your goals.

You are not leaving your visions and ideas to chance and you have a great way to hit your goals.

To learn more about how much a planner can change your life, read my post on 5 things a planner can do for you.

4-Motivation

One of the greatest obstacles you will face as a work at home mom is how to stay motivated to push through on your goals and activities. How to stay motivated from day to day until your dreams of earning from home begin to pay off.

You wonder if you can get through this whole life of keeping the home, working to make money and also having a personal life that you enjoy.

I learned early in life to encourage myself in the Lord. I learned that when it seems like my week is not going the way I planned it, there is still a God who is in charge and has all things figured out.

Here are tips that will help you stay motivated even when you are not seeing results.

Keep your focus on your end result: This means keeping in mind what you hope to gain by achieving your work goals or home goals or even your kids training goals and you will not be demotivated by the shortfall.

Remember your disappointment is just a phase: If you find yourself in a place where you are disappointed with the results you have obtained so far. See it as a curve ball that you have to negotiate to be able to get to your goal so you don’t have to give up.

It’s a learning curve: Your failure is a learning curve, not a death nail.

Achieve a micro goal: Try to achieve a micro goal to keep your spirits up.

5-Goal setting

Setting goals for your life, business and career is a crucial part of being a working mom that you can’t afford to ignore.

When I first started working from home, I did not do this, this meant that I had no specific goals that I was working towards hence anything goes.

I was not able to achieve anything meaningful.

Last February, I finished a series on how to start a home business, this was a goal I set to achieve within the first quarter of this year.

It was quite fulfilling to say the least.

That challenge has now become a major training that I use to add people to my email list.

By the time I finished the challenge, I knew it was too good a challenge not to share with everyone, especially if you are a new comer to my blog.

If you are just reading this post and you desire to become a work at home mom like me, via starting a home business, enter your email details here to start the challenge.

At the end of the start a business challenge you will have a working document that defines your business idea, you would also have found your customers.

Now, back to the topic about setting goals, when you set goals, you know what mark to hit on and you also know when you have achieved it so you can move on to other goals.

To read a step by step post on how to set goals, go here.

6-Enjoy the Journey

One of the things I have learned in life is that it’s in phases, and once a phase passes, it will not come back again. So I have learned to enjoy the phases.

As a work at home mom, you may be struggling to build your business right now and it has caused you to stress so much. Instead of dwelling on what is not right and keep getting stressed. Properly appraise it, make the right changes and enjoy the journey.

Today’s disappointments will turn out to be tomorrow’s blessings, don’t be so consumed in perfecting the moment that you miss the journey.

One of the reasons I chose to be a stay at home mom who is working from her home is to have the time to spend with my kids. I did not want to have to get up early in the morning to rush off to work somewhere.

So, I enjoy the fact that if I choose to be awake at 3am its because I am pursuing my own dream not someone’s dream.

Of course, there are days that I have worked so hard with nothing to show for it, but I am happy to do what I do because I know that my blog is making an impact in people’s life.

I also know that what I am doing now is only a part of my long term vision so I am ready to put in the work hours to achieve my dream.

7-Consistency

To be consistent in building your business is what will bring results.

As a working mom, your career, or business or home will never grow, if you are not consistent with what you do on it.

After you have carefully planned, organized and set your goals, you must execute consistently to see results.

Without consistency your results will not arrive when you expect it. To be a consistent means to keep building, block upon block until it’s finished.

Consistency helps you to resist procrastination and abandoned projects, it also helps you finish your goals and check off your to-do list.

So, when next you want to complain about your unfinished projects, check your consistency thermometer to know where you are at.

Being a working mom is not  easy, it requires careful planning, conscious execution and time management skills in order to succeed.

Want to learn more about how to succeed as a working mom? Join my email list