My Favorite Hacks as a CEO Mom

I don’t know that anyone is immune to the feeling of overwhelm with everything we have on our plates to get done. And that feeling can oftentimes be compounded if you’re trying to also work outside the home, prioritize family, and get all of the things done!

Over the last couple of years through much trial and error, moments of exhaustion, and moments of pure joy and happiness, I’ve found some incredibly helpful ways to ensure that I accomplish the important things at work and at home while maintaining margin in my life and prioritizing time with family.

My Favorite Hacks as a CEO Mom

• Take Time to Plan Your Week: I make sure I carve out time preferably on Sunday afternoon but sometimes it’s Sunday evening to plan my week. I make sure school papers are signed, checks for the week are written, errands are assigned to a specific day, and anything that has to get done that week has been assigned to a certain day for completion if not done at that time. This frees me up to not worry about anything falling through the cracks when I’m working on Austin | Fowler work Monday through Friday.

• Schedule Thinking Time Each Week: This one has been so good for me as I always have ideas floating around my head with the intention of finishing my thought process later yet later never seems to come on its own. I realized I had to set aside time just to think through these ideas whether pertaining to my business, my family, home projects, etc. and scheduling time in my day to do just that has been enormously helpful.

• Create Your Ideal Week: I first heard this idea from Michael Hyatt, author and leadership expert, and he suggests drafting your ideal week on paper so that you know how to plan meetings, activities, and appointments as best you can to create more productivity and effectiveness and simplify scheduling and planning.

  For example, I try to reserve Friday mornings/early afternoon for appointments and errands and then it makes it easy when setting up an appointment and the scheduler asks for a preferred day and time. I also know to try to avoid scheduling meetings at those times since it’s blocked off on my calendar on a recurring basis for errands and appointments.

• Set Any Items Needed for the Week in the Car or at the Launch Pad: I love this one so much because I dislike clutter around the house and I really dislike rushing around last minute trying to find the item that I need to return to the store this afternoon and wasting time. If I know that I have items that need to go to the post office Monday morning, I’ll take them and set them on the passenger seat of the car Sunday evening and that eliminates the chance that I’ll forget to bring it with me in the morning and can drop if off on the way to my morning meeting.

• My Favorite of ALL TIME: GROCERY DELIVERY! Can I get an AMEN?! This has been an absolute time saver for me and I have to say I don’t use it weekly since we do need different items from different stores but I do it often and I am so thankful for the option!

  For example, I had to be out of town for 5 days earlier this fall which is much longer than I ever try to be away from the family and so to make sure they had a refresh on groceries mid-week (since our family of 6 goes through groceries like water), I ordered ahead and scheduled the delivery to come on a Wednesday morning my husband was home. Happy family and happy mama!

There are so many ways to make life easier as we juggle all of the demands of this beautiful life and some of it we discover through trial and error or hearing other people’s helpful hacks. And when we find something that works, we want to share it with the world to make their lives easier!

So tell me, what is your favorite hack for keeping it all in order?