Kids Changing Schedules, Working 12 Hours a Week, Growth, and Planning for my Third Maternity Leave
About the episode:
This is a more girlfriend-chat style of episode where I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at my life as a mompreneur in this current season. I discuss my work schedule, which fluctuates based on my husband's rotating schedule and my kids nap times. I also give an update for how my time-blocking experiment is going 3+ months in. I share strategies for navigating my kid’s schedules and dealing with sickness, as well as her plans for my third maternity leave. In the end, the most important thing for me is having a life-first approach and having open hands as I make my plans knowing that the right things will come and go as needed. I hope you are encouraged by this episode!
Takeaways:
Time blocking can help you stay focused and productive by scheduling your tasks in half-hour chunks so you know how much time you have to work with
Flexibility is key when working with kids schedules and dealing with sickness.
Finding pockets of time to work, such as during nap times or in the evenings, can help you make BIG progress in your business.
Tap into your support system such as your team and delegate tasks when needed.
Planning ahead and batching content can help you prepare for maternity leave and ensure a smooth transition.
It's important to have a clear vision for your business and prioritize your Why. Enjoying the journey and giving yourself grace during slow seasons is crucial for long-term success.
Being open to change and adjusting your plans as needed is essential for maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
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Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Rebrand with Ruthann. Today's episode is gonna be a little different than most episodes in the sense that it's just gonna be kind of like a girlfriend chat and just catching up with you and just sharing how things are going right now in life, in motherhood, in growing my business and yeah, just kind of a behind the scenes look at like what's going on and I know I am always endlessly fascinated for how,
Mom entrepreneurs do it. And not to say I have it all figured out, because I definitely do not. But I'm just sharing what is working for me right now. A few things I'm struggling with. We're going to talk about time blocking. I would love to give you an update on that, because in a previous episode, I talked about how it basically was changing my life. And we're going to talk about kids schedules, navigating sickness, how my pregnancy is going, how I'm planning for maternity leave.
So this is gonna be a little hodgepodge of just kind of where I'm at in my life and business, and I'm excited to bring you along for the ride. And if you are not going into having a baby anytime soon, or if you're not a mom entrepreneur, you're just an entrepreneur, I think this episode will still be helpful just to see how other people navigate different seasons in their life and business, and hopefully give you some encouragement that whatever season you're in you can still grow a successful business and just have a business that you really, really love. So yeah, let's dive in.
Right now I'm working about 12 hours a week and I added up the last 10 weeks of work and the average I was working was about 12 .9. So we're at about the 12, 13 hours per week range and some weeks are definitely more than others. My husband works a rotating schedule. So sometimes he has weekdays off, like different weekdays during the week.
Sometimes he has the weekend off and sometimes he works nights, sometimes he opens. And so because of that, my hours really fluctuate because I want to spend intentional time with him when he's home. So when he is closing, for example, and it's his week of closing, he gets home at like 1130 or something. I normally put the kids down for bed and then work a lot more than normal. So I have like a few hours in the evening to work and so that happens every now and again and so that's like a little boost in hours but for the most part I normally just work during the day and I am doing the nap time hustle which I feel like is totally not for everybody but for me it has worked basically my whole children's lives so.
I had Zia about, well, he's just turning four this month. So I've been doing this for four years with him. I'm just like working during his nap times. I will say he is in preschool this year. So that is making a huge difference. And I have Sophia who just turned one and she is, takes two naps a day right now. So we're doing, I'm working during her nap times. So yeah, the average of work is you know, 12, 13 hours a week, but it definitely fluctuates depending on circumstances and family schedules and how the kids are sleeping and all that kind of thing. But it's going fairly well. I feel like, you I don't, you know, you hear the phrase sometimes, like, don't fix it if it's not broke. And I think for me, it's it's going as well as I would want it to go without without having like in -home childcare and stuff.
So we're just gonna keep on keeping on until the baby comes and then kind of reevaluate from there. I'm always open to kind of see how things are going and then go from there. And I do have family in town on both sides, which is incredibly helpful to help me with the kids. So that is always such a blessing and that is there for me as well. If I ever needed extra help, I can always call on my mom or my mother -in -law.
And it's really nice to have that option for me. I know not everyone has that option, but it is such a great option to tap into if you have family nearby. So I would like to talk about time blocking first. And I talked about this extensively. And I was just really enthralled with this new time blocking system, which I've never implemented before.
Obviously this has been going on forever and everyone does this except me. In episode 21, it was how to make your rebrand happen this year and other productivity hacks. I really talked about the system I'm doing when it comes to time blocking and I talked about my little Excel spreadsheet and well, it's Google Sheets and how it's working for me. And I would love to give you an update. So the system is still going well. I still revisit it on a daily basis, multiple times throughout the day. I have my whole week laid out in half an hour chunks of time. And it really helps keep me focused when I'm sitting down to work. Because I think in the past, I really struggled with like having a lot of to -do's, but not knowing what to work on first when I sit down to work and struggling to put business tasks and struggling to put business tasks into those to -do lists. So I would be working on client work, of course, and I would do marketing stuff, but I wouldn't do any internal tasks to help me grow, such as come up with a new opt -in. Right now I'm working on relaunching my template shop, so that is a big internal project. And so it would be hard for me to make those internal things happen when I was just focused on kind of I feel like I was working in a reactive way in a lot of ways up until this year basically. And this year I decided I'm doing things differently and I really just want to be on top of things and just be more focused and really make significant progress. Even though I have a lot happening in my personal life like having a baby, I really believe that I can make a lot of progress this year and so that is kind of my guiding.
So that is kind of my goal is making a lot of progress, seeing what I can get done and just being really productive and intentional with the time I have. And so far, this time blocking system has served me really well. If you ever struggle with sitting down and feeling like you are completely overwhelmed, not sure what to do, I recommend you checking out that podcast episode in number 21, just because I do talk about system in depth and I just think it's been so helpful for me. But obviously do what works for you. But it has been really, really great. I've been able, so I started at January 1st, I think it was, and so I'm still going strong. It's March 19th as I'm recording this, so you know, almost four months in and still working for me. So yeah, that has been a great productivity hack.
For me that has really worked and it's just, it gives me really intentional time with my kids when I know that I'm with them and really intentional work time when I know I have like an hour here to work on stuff or two hours here or something. So that is kind of what helps keep me on track is that time blocking, which is so useful. And it also helps me, I started scheduling out my week on Sundays, so which I really love actually, because it helps me feel not overwhelmed when I go into a Monday and it lets me know like what's coming up. I can look at the whole week ahead. I can, you know, plan play dates and I can do, you know, I just plan our whole week, basically personal stuff, business stuff, and it's nice to have it all in one spot for me. I do color coding and the whole thing, which is, you know, just what I love to do and it just helps me see what's going on and help me get things done on the personal side and business side. And it lets me know what I need to let go of when I look at my to -do list, because sometimes I have like nine things on my to -do list for the week, and that's just not practical for me in this season of my life. And so I cut it down to three internal business tasks and three internal, sorry, three external business tasks, so anything like marketing, promoting and stuff. And then internal tasks would be stuff that I need to like update my canned emails for my artisan branding service, you know, something like that. So it's just kind of an internal task that I need to do. And sometimes I would prefer to even break it down more so it's even more manageable and not have a big, you know, you don't want the tasks to be update my website, cause that's just not practical and it would leave you feeling overwhelmed and then you never like making progress. But if you say, okay, today I'm working on the about page on my website, I am rewriting my personal story and my business story, you know, there you go. So it just helps break things down so they're more manageable. And this time blocking has really helped me plan ahead a lot. And so like I mentioned, like I do it week by week which is great, but I also have in my little Google Sheets, I have like a monthly overview of like these are the goals I'm trying to do for the month. I have a quarterly one. I will say I don't look at these as much. I look at the daily and then I look at like the yearly. But then I have a yearly one too. So it's really nice to kind of zoom in and out and I just go in between the tabs and see like, okay, where am I going again? What's the focus for this month? You know, it just lets me know what's going on and it's super.
Highly recommend, if you've been doing this for a long time and you just have felt like this is the best thing ever, I just applaud you, because I just figured this out and it's working well for me right now. So I'm excited to share about it and hopefully it can help you too.
So moving on to working in my business and growing my business with my kids schedules. As I mentioned, my kids are one in four and I have a little one on the way who's due in June. So things are changing literally all the time, especially because my son is a preschool and this is his first full year in preschool and he's getting sick like all the time. It was so funny because I really thought like, oh my kids don't get sick, like my kids immune systems are super strong and no, he's in preschool and he gets sick. And he doesn't get sick, I guess, as much as some people, but I feel like it's at least what's a month for sure. He's getting sick with something and so it's just hard with, you know, business and having to rearrange everything. But the nice thing is, you know, the goal is to like stay flexible and my goal is to be present for my kids when they are... My goal is to be really present with my kids when they are awake and around me. So I think, you know, the main thing for me is like when they're sick, I just drop what I need to drop and just take care of them. And it just feels really good to be able to have that flexibility. And obviously it's not like the easiest thing in the world to do to rearrange things or email my clients, pushing things back. I don't like to do that, but I feel like my clients are incredibly understanding and wonderful, and they understand. And you just have to do what you have to do. And when things go awry, you just try to be willing to cut down your to -do list. This is what I did two weeks ago when Zia was sick. He was sick all week.
He got sick on Monday and then he was home with me Tuesday through Friday and it was just one of those things where I was like hoping he would go back like Thursday or something or at least Friday. That never happens. He was with me all week. And so I was just, you know, merciless with my to -do list. I was like, OK, what is the bare minimum I need to do this week? What can I put on the back burner? What's something that I can just wait till next week? And it really worked out well. Like I was able to be present with him, you know, helping him.
And then I didn't miss any deadlines or anything like that because I was just moving things around and being intentional. I did work at night a little bit that week, but it was what I had to do. So it works out when you're able to have a little bit of margin in your schedule. And especially when you have little ones and their schedules are changing all the time. And I will say with Sophia, we had this little month of time where she was not taking her, this was pretty recent, this was a few weeks ago. We had like a month where she was not taking her one of her naps. Like she would take one of them, but then she wouldn't take her other nap. And I was like, oh my gosh, is she going down to one nap already? I didn't even know what was happening. And it took us a while, but we're back to two naps a day, which is fantastic. And it's good, but it's just one of those things where it's like you know, things are changing, things are adjusting, and it's just like, how can I rearrange things to make this work so my business is still growing and flourishing while all of these things take place? And I think another thing for me, especially because my schedule is so fluctuating at the moment, it feels like we're on a routine, but like I'm mentioning, things are happening, is just finding pockets of time to work when that works for you. And lately, I have been working at night, which has been useful and very helpful, especially when my husband is closing the work. It works out great, because I have a few hours to work, sometimes up to two hours at night, which I just feel like I can knock out so much stuff with two uninterrupted hours.
And so it's fantastic. It's great to just get some extra time into work. And those are the pockets I have to work in. And I could wake up in the morning early, which I am definitely choosing not to do because I don't want to. So I just feel like I need my rest. And so I stay up a little bit later. I go to bed at 11 or whatever, but then I do sleep in until 7 .30 or till my kids wake up and then I'm able to tackle the day and stuff. And some people waking up early is the way to go.
Right now in my pregnancy, I'm just tired. So I'm not, I don't really want to wake up early, but that is an option. You know, you just have to see what works for you in the season that you're in, what feels the best and how can you get the most work done in that time that you're working. And another thing to keep in mind is like, what is the bare minimum of work with the biggest return? And that's something I've really thought of too, is, you know, what is the minimum amount of things I need to do to make a huge impact on sales, visibility, marketing, whatever the case may be. And so it's really good to identify those things if possible. And another thing is bringing your team in to help you. And I have a small but mighty team and it's fantastic to be able to delegate things when I need to and just trust that my team is going to handle whatever you know, I ask of them to do. And something recently that I did with my podcast was I am, you know, batching content for when I go on maternity leave this summer. And I was talking to my OBM and I was like, do you have any ideas for, you know, podcast episodes I could do this summer? And she just came up with this incredible list of like, these are your top performing podcasts so far. These are your top performing social media. These are some episodes I recommend, I think we would, and I was just like, oh my gosh, this is fantastic. Really relying on your team that they can take leadership roles, they can take brainstorming roles, and it doesn't have to all be on you if you have a team member or something who can help you. They can really be a great service. So that was incredible. So just getting your team involved and seeing how they can help you when your kids schedules and stuff are changing all the time.
So next, how is my pregnancy going and how I'm preparing for my third maternity leave? Pregnancy is going really well. Honestly, it's flying by and part of me feels a little bit bad because I haven't really, it's going so fast that I'm just like forgetting things like taking pictures of my baby bump. I think I've only taken like two pictures of my baby bump. Maybe even just one because I just feel like things are moving so fast and I'm just very busy with Sophia. She's extremely active, which is always fun, but it's also a lot to manage when she's awake and stuff and so it's just flying. I honestly sometimes forget I'm pregnant. I'm just like, my stomach bumps into things. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm due soon. It's a little bit crazy, honestly. It just feels like it is happening rather quickly and I am a little bit nervous, I will say, for having a third baby and with Sophia being so little and she's just so reliant on me still. She's not like, you know, three. She's going to be 15 months when the baby comes. So it's just a little bit intimidating, but I'm just trying to take it one day at a time. And that's kind of what I'm telling myself. That's like the name of the game is like taking it one day at a time, one week at a time. I'm not thinking too much in advance, even though now is the time where I am starting to batch content, because I'm like, oh shoot, like I'm going on maturing leave in June in just a few months. And so I need to start batching content now, planning ahead with content. And so that's kind of one of the biggest things I'm working on is doing that for the podcast. I am going to take a step back from doing weekly episodes and I think I'm gonna do once every three weeks during maternity leave and then I think my plan is when I come back for maternity leave is to do bi -monthly. So that's kind of the plan right now. I think that sounds really good to me. That sounds sustainable. That sounds like something I can manage. I have loved doing the weekly episodes but I think with the three little ones I think it just might be easiest to go to a more spaced out schedule. I think that would just be best for me and hopefully I can stay on top of it. And if I can't, I'll let you know. And that's, you know, one of the things I'm just embracing is like, you know, these are loose plans. I'm just holding them like my hands open. These are like my ideas. These are kind of what I'm thinking. But things can change and I'm open to things changing. If they need to Something I was originally thinking was I wanted to take a longer maternity leave. I wanted to take four months. Originally, this was back in, I think it was January, I was looking at my yearly calendar and I was like loosely thinking about things. And I originally thought I wanted to take four months off, which sounded nice. Now I'm thinking, I don't really wanna take four months off. Like, at the beginning. I think I want to cut it in half. So what I was thinking is I'm probably going to go on maternity leave starting mid -June and then come back mid -August and then starting mid -November I would take off two more months. So I would take two months off in the front end when I have the baby and then two months off over the holidays and come back like mid -January which honestly sounds incredibly glorious and so I'm hoping that that does work out like I'm planning. Obviously these are subject to change, these plans are subject to change, but I feel like that would be a great kind of middle ground where it's like during the holidays I'm already taking time off anyway. I'm already...
You know, this last year I was very slow during the holidays with work and so I'm just like, might as well schedule it in the calendar and plan for it intentionally and take off the time to be with my family and to just unplug from work. And then on the front end, you know, in the summertime, you know, Zia's gonna be home with me and I'll have the baby and stuff. So yeah, to me it sounds like it's gonna work out. So I'm in my mind.
This is like the perfect solution. So I'm hoping it does work out like I'm planning, but that's kind of my loose plan right now. And obviously I'm going to keep you guys posted, but that is what I'm thinking. And it just sounds really good. And I think the main thing with making these plans is like, you want to be behind your plans a hundred percent. You don't want to be kind of in and out like, Oh, I don't know. This doesn't really feel the best, but I'm going to do it anyway. Cause this is what I see other people doing.
You know, you wanna do whatever works for you in that season and with your business model and all that stuff. So right now that's my plan. And yeah, it just feels the best. And so yeah, finally, okay, what's coming up for me? My business birthday is this month. I mentioned this already, but it's March 2024 as I'm recording this and my business birthday is this month and I'm celebrating eight years in business, which is crazy. It's crazy that it has been eight years. I kind of can't believe it because it's just, it's gone by really fast, but it's also like such a part of my life. I can't imagine like not having my business because it's been so long. And I'll probably be saying that.
You know, every year this happens, every year I have an anniversary, I'm going to think, wow, I just can't believe it's been this long. And it's just such a big part of my life. But it's really exciting and awesome to like look back and see like my business has been with me through so much of my life. It has, you know, when I started my business back in 2016, it was a side hustle for about three years. And I've just learned and grown so much during that time. And I've had two babies, another one on the way, and it's just been with me throughout all of these years, and you have been with me, like my community, my clients. I just cannot thank you for your support enough, but it's just one of those things where I have always believed in a life -first approach to business. I never wanted to have a business where I just put my head in the sand, worked for 65 hours a week made, you know, had success, went through burnout. I just feel like I saw this so many times from different entrepreneurs and I would like read other people's stories on their blog of like how that was how they got to success, but they burned out and then they reworked everything. I never really wanted to do that. I always wanted to enjoy the journey along the way. And for me, that meant really slow growth, but that's how I wanted it to be. And to me, that is success. And I'm so thankful that I've been able to grow my family and my business is growing. My business is growing and able to contribute to our family financially. And it's just been such a blessing. And I'm just so thankful that, you know, I'm I feel like I've always had that clear vision in my mind of like what maybe not what I wanted my business to be exactly, but I knew what I didn't want.
And so that really helped me navigate all of these seasons of growth. And you also go through seasons of super slow seasons in your business. And it's during those times where you just have to, for me anyway, I just buckled down and stayed with it and kept consistent and focused. And you do come out the other end, but sometimes it feels like that period of time where it feels like nothing is working. Sometimes that goes on for, you know, sometimes a few months at a time and it can be a really hard thing to go through. But I think the main thing is knowing why, you know, keeping your why close to you. And I talked about this in last week's episode. I did eight lessons I learned in eight years of business. And I just talked a little bit about, you know, how keeping your why close and at the forefront really helps you stay encouraged and motivated in those tough times. And we all go through those times in one way or another, whether it's not a lot of clients or maybe feeling mentally exhausted, whatever the case may be. But having your why close to you and just knowing what is important to you and knowing your overall vision for your life and business just helps you.
Yeah, stay encouraged because it can get a little rocky at times when you've been in business for eight years like I have. You just you know, you inevitably go through those tough times and working through it is totally possible and you can stay encouraged and you can really enjoy the journey along the way. But, you know, just give yourself grace in the meantime. And I mean, that's just been a huge theme for me is like just surrendering, surrendering my plans like knowing that the Lord will take care of me and also giving myself grace that I don't have to have everything figured out all right now. I don't have to hit all my goals all right now, especially in the midst of the little baby season that I'm in. You know, there will be time for me to do all the things I want to do in my life and business and just allow the time to unfold and and maybe I take a more you know, laissez faire approach to business. But I just really think it's important to like enjoy things. And I have like seasons where I'm like leaning in, I'm like pushing harder. And then I have seasons of like pulling back of like really resting and recharging. And this year I'm, you know, planning two of those seasons with one the first with my summer maternity leave and then with my holiday extended break that I plan on taking this year.
I am kind of leaning in right now and then I'm planning on pulling back a couple times this year. And I think that's just how your business stays enjoyable and fresh is just following what your body needs, what your family needs and your priorities and goals, and then letting your business support you in those decisions. So I hope this was a enjoyable episode just to hear a little bit about my life and like what's going on and how my business is going, how I'm navigating everything. Like I mentioned in the beginning, I feel like I'm always curious to see what other people are doing and how things are working out for them. So, I hope this was encouraging to you to know that you can have the business you want, the lifestyle you want, and enjoy it along the way. And it can be really, really wonderful. And it's not always wonderful, I will say. It's not all perfect, and I don't have it all figured out. But I just feel like I'm grateful for all of the things that I've been doing.
I'm so grateful for all of the lessons I've learned along the way, for how I've grown so much in my mindset, in my personal development and all of those things. And I'm just excited for what's ahead. And like I said, I'm planning on the future, but just holding it super loosely, knowing that things might change and being open and being open to what might unfold. So I hope you have a beautiful rest of your week and I will talk to you next week.
I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day and I will talk to you next week.
