With school almost out of session for the year, your routine is about to go through an upheaval. How do you balance your business and family life during the summer months?
Today’s episode continues the guest host series, where inspiring women entrepreneurs take over the podcast while I am on maternity leave. Cait Howard of Amplify Boutique offers tangible tips that will help you create a summer schedule that prioritizes presence, not stress.
Listen to this episode now:
Search for episode 143 of Called to Both on your favorite podcast player!
Meet Our Guest Host: Cait Howard
Cait Howard, founder and CEO of Amplify Boutique, has been working with powerhouse women to launch and grow their podcasts since 2019. She helps female entrepreneurs use podcasting as a strategic asset in their business and grow their authority online. Since startup, Cait and her team have launched multiple chart topping podcasts and produce shows with millions of downloads. In between the hustle of entrepreneurship, Cait stays busy chasing three tiny humans, loving on her hubby and business partner, Phillip and enjoying chips and queso anytime the opportunity presents itself.
Honor the Season You’re In and Get Realistic About Your Capacity
As an ambitious businesswoman, it’s hard not to feel antsy about your goals. You want to accomplish them all sooner rather than later, but that isn’t always possible. Instead, you need to acknowledge and honor the season you’re in.
If you’re in a season of raising littles, it’s important to be realistic about what you can accomplish right now and what can wait. What does your capacity look like on a week-to-week, month-to-month basis?
Think about your schedule as an empty jar that you can fill with rocks and sand. The largest rocks are your biggest priorities–the nonnegotiables that take up the most space. What are those for you?
Next, you fill in the jar with pebbles and sand, which are smaller priorities that take up less room in your schedule.
As you fill in your calendar, put the large rocks on first before adding the pebbles and sand. As your schedule changes week to week, you’ll realize what you actually have time for and what you don’t.
For example, if your kids are at home during the week and you want to be present with them, your work time is limited. You’ll only have time for your large rocks this week, but you can rest assured that you’ll get to the pebbles and sand later when you have more hours to work.
This system helps you organize your priorities and adjust to your constantly changing schedule. When you’re realistic about your capacity, you don’t have to guilt yourself over what you didn’t get done.
It’s important to evaluate your capacity often because your kids are constantly going through new phases. What you can accomplish in the newborn phase is different from what you accomplish in the toddler phase, or when your kids go to school. It’s comforting to remember that each phase is temporary, especially when you feel like you can’t get as much done as you’d like.
Take Fewer Projects in the Summer
With the empty jar scheduling system in mind, you can look ahead to the summer months and think about your capacity. Will you have childcare, or are you the primary caretaker? Are you going on any vacations, or are your kids going to camp for a week?
If you want to work less and enjoy the summer with your family, it may not be the time to take on big projects. Instead, consider wrapping up major projects by the end of spring and earmark the next one for the fall when your kids are back in school.
Since you’ll likely have fewer hours to work in the summer, that time needs to be dedicated to your large rocks. Your non-negotiables that keep the lights on. As you think through your remaining tasks, consider what you can delegate, what can wait, and what you can rid of altogether.
Another key to balancing your family and work over the summer is to think about what you want your workweek to look like. For instance, instead of taking calls throughout the week, set aside one day for all of your calls. Instead of a rigid routine, you can create simple systems like this that can add helpful rhythms to your changing schedule.
Lower Your Standards and Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
The secret to enjoying your summer is lowering your expectations. It’s okay to be okay with only doing the bare minimum. As an ambitious business owner with a long list of goals, that may be hard to hear. You want to be an A+ student, not a C student.
But the truth is that slow business growth is sustainable growth. It protects your mental health, prioritizes family time, and fends off burnout.
It’s hard to stay on the slow path when you see others around you experiencing quick success. However, you don’t know what their circumstances are, so it’s vital to let go of comparison and focus on your goals, even if they take longer.
Prioritize Taking Care of Yourself
As a mom and a business owner, you can’t pour from an empty cup. You have to care for yourself to be able to care for other people. This is easier said than done when your schedule is shifting yet again and everything feels chaotic, but it’s the key to reducing overwhelm.
Even if you only have ten minutes to go for a walk or journal, set aside that time to focus on you. You’ll have a bigger impact as a mom and business owner when you take care of yourself. You’re the most important asset in your business and in your family, and it’s time to treat yourself that way.
Find it quickly:
- 0:56 – Meet Cait Howard
- 1:47 – Know your capacity
- 6:38 – Get clear on your rocks, pebbles, and sand
- 8:25 – Lowering your expectations
- 15:11 – Prioritizing and taking care of yourself
Connect With Cait
- Instagram: instagram.com/heycaithoward
- Amplify Boutique: amplifyboutique.com
If you decide to use any of the links above and buy through them, I’ll receive a small commission back. All of those affiliate income commissions really add up over time and help generate revenue to help support this podcast.
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