5 Mindset Shifts to Find Time for Your Business

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Are you struggling to find time to blog consistently? Do you wish you could find time for your business amid all your other responsibilities? These mindset shifts might help!

I’m a homeschooling mom of nine. Free time isn’t something I have an abundance of.

That means I have to be super intentional with my time. Thankfully, my experience as a large family mom has prepared me for this.

You see, logistically, a large family typically operates a little differently than a smaller one. With that many people living under one roof, they have to!

These subtle mindset shifts are powerful in our ability to succeed with so many different personalities. They’re the secret behind how I’ve been able to post consistent content on my blog, year after year.

The good news?

You don’t have to actually have a large family to adopt these principles. In fact, many smaller families already utilize them! No matter your family size, these ideas will help you gain more time to blog.

1. Work as a Team

In a large family, the mom can’t do everything. There’s just too many people contributing to the mess.

Honestly? No matter what size your family, moms shouldn’t be doing everything! But, it’s easier to try when your family doesn’t consist of ten people.

So with a large family mindset, you realize everyone must work together in order to keep the house together. You assign chores. You take time to teach children how to help. And you expect them to help.

Remember to check up on the chores and make sure they’re done to an ability based standard. Kid clean may not be as good as mom clean, but it shouldn’t be sloppy if the child is capable of more.

Everyone working together helps the household run smoothly. You are all a team, so this is a good way to work as one.

2. Promote Independence

This one is similar to the first mindset shift, but it’s different enough to stand on its own.

Kids are very capable. I love watching my kids learn new skills, and apply them.

If my kids can do something, I try not to jump in and do it for them. If my baby has learned to self-feed, I let them, even when it means I’ll have a bigger mess. Taking the spoon away when they’re trying only delays the mess, because at some point they’ll have to learn to feed themselves.

Of course, if the baby isn’t getting enough food in their mouth to grow, I’ll step in and help. There’s a difference between promoting independence and neglecting your child.

For older kids, I encourage them to brainstorm their own ways to fill up their time. A little boredom helps spark the imagination and learn to be more self-sufficient.

I also encourage my kids to cook. They’re in the kitchen helping me from a young age, and by the time they’re four, almost all of my kids have been able to put together at least one meal and a couple of snacks. For instance, my four-year-old son can independently make:

• Peanut butter and jelly tacos
• Cheese and meat sandwiches (with mayo!)
• Baby carrots with ranch
• Cheese and meat rollups, sliced into pinwheels with a butter knife
• Trail mix from raisins, chocolate chips, craisins, and any small crackers we have in the cupboard

He loves to make snack for “his people!” I love watching his confidence soar as he proudly delivers something he made by himself.

I’ve tried to keep self-sufficiency at the heart of my training, knowing it benefits my kids.

And it doesn’t just benefit them. Doing less for your kids will free up your time, energy, and sanity.

3. Commit to Raise Adults

You know that whole #adulting thing? Kids shouldn’t be left to figure that out on their own once they turn 18. There’s not a skill set that automatically appears on the 18th birthday.

Which means, I’m not raising children. Yes, there are nine kids in my house.

But, my goal is on raising adults. I want my kids to succeed as adults in the “real world” someday.

At first, it’s easy to let the world revolve around the kids. To let them rule the roost so to speak. But, being the center of the universe isn’t going to serve kids well when they move out.

So focus on raising adults. Make decisions based on sustainability and future growth.

Growing pains as a kid with a safety net of mom and dad to fall back on hurt a lot less than growing pains as a young adult out on your own.

Let your kids learn essential skills. Get them involved in your business so they have a better correlation between work and money. Let them help wherever they can.

Work is an essential part of life, and it’s important to help kids understand and embrace this truth.

For more ideas for integrating your kids into your business, see these posts:

An A-Z Guide to Working at Home with Kids: I Is for Integrate

5 Mom Bloggers Share How Their Kids Help them Blog

17 Freelancing Tasks Your Kids Can Actually Help With

As a part of this, encourage them to build their own talents and skills. Give them time to work on activities they love! You never know what will turn into a business for them in their future.

By having your kids help you, and by encouraging them to spend time practicing their skills, you’ll have more time to blog!

4. Expect Siblings to Help Each Other

With nine kids, I simply can’t attend to everyone’s needs all at once. I’m greatly outnumbered by little people.

So, I raise my kids to help each other.

My older kids each spend time playing with our baby and toddlers. They help steer them out of trouble, and engage them in an appropriate activity.

If the preschooler can’t reach a cup to fill with water, an older sibling willingly gets one down. They care for each other, and understand that siblings are precious gifts from God.

They spend time together, and enjoy each other’s company.

(To help develop this attitude, we’ve worked through My Brother’s Keeper: Learning to Love Your Siblings God’s Way  twice now, a couple of years apart. It’s one we will go through again when the current little guys get old enough to better understand.)

Another way to form strong sibling relationships is to have them spend time together.

We have a dedicated time of day every weekday for sibling play time. They spend thirty minutes paired up (rotating throughout the week).  The younger of the pair always picks what happens during sibling play time. That’s because sometimes older siblings can be a bit…bossy.

My littles love having a half an hour to share with a sibling and do something fun.

This time helps them grow close. I love seeing my kids play together. And love on each other.

I’ve currently opted to spend this time with whichever child’s day it is. It gives me dedicated one on one time with each of my kids. But, you can also use this time to blog.

5. Minimize Your Decisions

My brain only has so much computing power. Before I started minimizing my decisions to streamline life, I was constantly overloading it.

Every few minutes I was fielding questions from the kids. I had to stop and think. And the more kids we had, the worse it got.

My memory was fuzzy. My head hurt constantly.

No wonder life felt crazy, chaotic, and out of control! I was trying to make too many last-minute decisions. All of my brain power was getting diverted to these small problems. I was constantly trying to figure out:

• Who got to pick out the bedtime story.
• Whose turn it was to unload the dishwasher.
• What we were eating for dinner. (Not to mention breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack!)
• Who needed to pick up the books. Or the toys. Or put away the baby’s laundry.
• Where I should focus my cleaning efforts when I had a couple of minutes.

Thankfully, I discovered a large-family mindset shift a couple of years back that helped dramatically. I started trying to minimize all my decisions.

I made a list of things I was constantly deciding. And started pre-making decisions.

Now we have:

• An annual meal plan and chore chart
• A plan of the day every morning to get our day planned
• A kid of the day to field many of the minor decisions
• Protocols for common routines, such as our Quick Clean, Quiet Time, Writing Time, and Reading Time
• Seating charts

These things? They all minimize my decisions. I have more time to blog (and do other things) because my brain isn’t constantly overloaded. I have brain power again, and can actually focus. It’s a lovely feeling!

You Can Use These Mindset Shifts to Get More Time to Blog

Are there any of these mindset shifts you can implement to start freeing up you time?

Let me encourage you to make changes slowly. You don’t want to jump up and change everything in your life at once. Otherwise it’ll be too confusing for the kids and too overwhelming for you.

Instead, pick one. Then work on it. When you feel comfortable, add another.

Before you realize it, you’ll look back and see how much of your time you’ve freed up. Baby steps really can make a difference.

For even more help with making time for your business, check out my course, Balancing Diapers and Deadlines.