Today, I have the privilege to share a guest post - the first one ever for my blog! Our guest post today comes from Abigail Giuffre who is a Christian homeschool Mompreneur living in Malta. She and her husband have been married for nine years and have three very lively boys. Abigail founded her own business as a Virtual Assistant and Social Media Manager in 2017 and she works hard at finding balance between all the aspects in her life while making sure to have some fun on the way. Enjoy! ~Gina~
I am so blessed to be
able to write a guest post here. It is so nice to share a bit about us and our
journey as a family with like-minded moms. I am a mom of 3 boys. I am
homeschooling two of them and the other is still one month old. I also own my
own Virtual Assistant business which I started from scratch just over a year
ago. So as you can imagine, our house gets kind of crazy. I am constantly being
pulled from one thing to another and sometimes it can be challenging to get all
things done and stay sane. I wanted to write about some time management tips
which I have learnt on the way that might help you in your journey too.
Being a mom is not easy!
Homeschooling isn’t either. And for those of us who have to work in order to
make ends meet…it can get seriously tough. It is so easy to let mom-guilt take
root in our hearts causing us to be distracted and frustrated with ourselves.
Here are 3 tips which I
have been implementing in my life to help me keep everything running smoothly.
I have to admit that this has been a learning curve. Some days I follow
through, other days I find myself writing emails while trying to explain a math
problem to my son and thinking what I am going to put at the table at lunch
time.
1. Prepare your week
Every Sunday evening I
take some time to list down my goals for the week and my to do list. I outline
everything that has to be done: school, client work, my own business promotion,
home maintenance, soccer practice… This helps me spread the work out evenly
throughout the week and not get to the end of the week with a huge list of
unaccomplished tasks.
2. Time blocking
I found out about time
blocking in a time when that mom-guilt was taking over. I was working hard to
impress my clients and for me that meant that I had to answer every need
instantly. However, this was resulting in me answering my emails during family
time and I was starting to get into the terrible habit of having Facebook on
during dinner time. This had to stop.
Time Blocking literally saved me. Time
blocking is a time management tool that helps you get more done during your
day. In practical terms, this means setting blocks of time aside to work on a
task or project. I usually have five blocks per day: marketing, homeschooling
client work, family time, and personal time which is usually spent cleaning up at least one mess.
To use time blocking
effectively, you need to have a basic structure to your week. Ideally, the goal
is for this structure or framework to stay the same every week.
We all know that a mom’s
life doesn’t go exactly according to plan. Babies get teeth, toddlers get sick,
and nap times get cut short. So don’t plan on using time blocking as an exact
schedule but it helps.
3. Start Early
I have learnt that an
early start is essential for a smooth-running day. I want to make sure that I
have some time, at least 15 minutes, to pray and read my bible before all the
chaos starts. After that I check my Trello & Calendar to see what I have
planned for the day and answer some emails which came in through the night. By
this time the boys are usually all up. I prepare breakfast for them and sit
down and do some work before it’s time to start our homeschooling.
As stay at home moms we
are so blessed to be able to invest in our kids and see them grow so never
forget why you are doing all this. Make sure you remember why you are at home
doing what you’re doing. Allow yourself time to be with your children. Read
them a story and take time to tuck them in. Take them on a fun adventure and
enjoy yourself in this journey the Lord has put you on.
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Abigail Giuffre'
Founder
Wings of Freedom Virtual Services
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