Isn’t it crazy to think that if you woke up just one hour earlier each day, you would be able to add seven more hours onto your week? Seven more hours!! Seven hours that could be used to get caught up on laundry, prep your meals for the week, spend time with your kiddos, edit pictures, or answer emails.
One thing that we have learned and even find ourselves still learning, is how to manage our time within our business and within our lives.
We were stoked in the time leading up to our leap into full-time business for ourselves. Our move from Washington to Arizona is what ushered us into that switch and having more time, is one of the things we couldn’t wait for the most. Somehow though, we feel as if our time fades faster and faster that it did before. (If anyone has a logical explanation for this, we would love for you to leave it in the comment section below. Thank you in advance!)
Just a couple of weeks in our process of being full-time business owners, we found ourselves spinning like a couple of hamsters in a wheel. Spinning and going and working and doing but not seeming to get anything accomplished or completed. We felt busy but we were constantly feeling frustrated because we still had so many loose ends. We had to sit down and evaluate how our time was being spent – almost down to the last minute of each day.
Our First And Favorite Job
Being photographers is not our only job. Our first and favorite “job” is being parents to our two awesome kids which is why we challenge ourselves to be completely specific and intentional at how we spend our time. Dividing and conquering is how we get that done! Being parents is our greatest joy and we never want our kids to feel like we put our work before them. Have we done this perfectly? Absolutely not! But that is why we have developed working habits that allow us to keep our priorities in line.
While Brody is at school we work in shifts while Paislee is awake. Our days of her taking naps are dwindling….insert distraught emoji face….and it’s very bittersweet. Hopefully most of you parents out there, especially those who work from home, feel us on this one! If Erica is editing and working on pictures then Jon plays or does puzzles with Paislee and when Jon is working and answering emails, Erica spends time with Paislee. It’s a balance that we have found to work well. You will only find us sitting side-by-side at our workspace during any nap time Paislee gives us, or at night after we have tucked our kids into bed.
Another Effort In Being More Time Efficient
Raise your hand if you’re on the other side of the computer screen and social media sucks you in and wastes way too much time in your day!
Don’t worry.
We’re raising ours too because we feel ya. We get ya and we’re right there with you!! There are so many pros to social media. We’ll write another blog post to elaborate on this on another day, but we have experienced the direct benefits on our business as a result of being present on social media! However, the disadvantages of social media can also have a direct effect on your life, your businesses, and your time. We know what it’s like to “like” and what it feels like to “be liked,” but it can all be so distracting.
Erica has learned to set aside certain times throughout the day for posting and engaging on social media. It creates a healthy boundary and relieves the added pressure that also comes with social media. If we know when she is on responding, commenting and posting on social media – then we can free our minds of it throughout the rest of the day!
Turn Off Those Notifications
You’re sitting at a coffee date with a friend trying to catch up and have a good conversation. Life has been busy and you’ve been dying for some time to just go out with a friend and enjoy your time off, but their phone keeps glowing. They look down to check their phone and they lose their train of thought with your conversation and you’re feeling bummed out by the distraction of their notification that alerted them and stole your time.
It’s been a long, tiring day of being super-mom. You’ve packed lunches, dropped kids off at school, washed the laundry, folded the laundry (those count as separate chores, ya know), done the grocery shopping, prepped dinner, picked kids up from school, helped with homework, cooked dinner, fed your family dinner, cleaned up from dinner, went for a bike ride as a family, directed your kids in and out of the shower, tucked your kids into bed, and now it’s your time. Your time to create, design, edit, plan, take care of emails or invest into yourself and your business. The lights are dimmed and the candle is lit and you’re feeling the work flow happening.
Bing.
Bing. Bing.
Bing. Bing. Bing.
Your phone starts lighting up and you want to work but you also want to socialize. After all, you just spent your entire day serving your family and having peace and quiet to catch up on texts or on the days’ events for all the 347 people you follow on Instagram seems super rewarding and in a strange way, the perfect way to unwind. Before you know it, you have liked the posts, created a new to-do list from the things you scrolled by on Pinterest and now it’s two hours later and you’re ready for bed.
Distraction at its finest. We’ll be the first to admit that it has gotten the best of us one too many times. Our personal lives and our business lives come second to our phones and notifications too easily. And while so much of it is important to both our personal and business life and it’s also really fun to engage in, we have found that its necessary to have boundaries in order to be efficient and to be present.
Turning off notifications has been the answer for us.
It felt weird and unnatural to do at first but can we tell you something? It took no time at all for us to feel how freeing it was to not have all of our notifications constantly popping up. It allowed us to take control of our time, and invest the time in social media when we could be most efficient, and focus on the tasks we had in front of us instead of the constant interruptions of notifications.
A Helpful Blueprint
We really hope these quick tips on managing time, specifically when it comes to social media, is helpful for you. We wish we would have learned this early on for ourselves! Time is one resource you can never get back, and can never create more of. We have a set amount of time each day and it’s our job to maximize it, without letting it rule over us!
So go ahead…turn off those notifications and schedule in your social media time! You’ll be so glad you did and find yourself so much more present when you want to be!
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