The phone is ringing. Your computing is dinging. Your timer is ticking. From a hot stove and piles of laundry to a chaotic inbox and hours of projects to complete… being a mom-preneur is more than just a full-time job. To be a mom and a working professional is to be working at least three jobs — maid, mom, and boss — and to never clock out. If you ever have time to slow down and think, you start getting intrusive thoughts like mom guilt, mourning your old self, and wondering if this will ever end. Want to finally reclaim your life? Be a great delegator.

How can you possibly delegate your life? Let’s talk.

Create Your 15-Minute Schedule

When I say 15-minute schedule, I don’t mean you need to fit your entire day in 15 minutes. Of course, that’s ridiculous. If you could do that, you WOULD. Instead, what I really mean is simultaneously much worse but more helpful. I need you to keep a journal, notepad, or your phone notes open all day as you go about your normal routine. Set a timer for every 15 minutes. Every time you hear that timer, you need to write down what you were just doing for the past 15 minutes.

If this isn’t feasible for you, you can make the time blocks longer, like 30 minutes or an hour, but make sure you don’t forget what you did.

Okay, so now what? When you get a chance, sit down and read through that schedule. How much time did you spend scrolling on your phone? How much time was dedicated to TV or a bunch of time-waster tasks? Did you have longer, undisturbed chunks of productive time, or was your work completely sporadic throughout the day?

The first step to becoming a mommy time-management master is being really honest with yourself about how you spend your time. Once I realized I did have time in my day, it was just wasted sporadically instead of consolidated and used wisely, my life was completely changed. To be a great delegator, you have to be a leader, which means you accept you are human. You make mistakes and you’re always learning.

While you can certainly use your time more wisely, you still can’t hold yourself up to impossible expectations… which brings me to my next point.

Identify Tasks That Don’t HAVE to Be YOU

Once you have your schedule laid out clear and honest, you have a list of all the activities you generally have to do every day or week. This makes it really easy for you to now identify which tasks are time-wasters for you. When it comes to learning how to be a great delegator, you need to figure out which tasks you can easily delegate.

Now, I’m not using “time-wasters” in just the traditional sense. Sure, there are certain tasks that must be done and are otherwise productive, but it might be wasting YOUR time if you’re the one doing them. Think: quality time with kids and spouse and getting on that sales call with a prospective client? Definitely need to be YOU and no one else. But how about grocery shopping, meal-prepping, cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, even administrative tasks in your business like organizing your calendar and appointments, setting up deliveries, or fixing typos on your website. These tasks definitely don’t need to be on your to-do list, and often they can be done better by someone else who is an expert and makes a living doing those things.

Release Control!

While the first two steps were a doozy, I think this last one is the most difficult. At least, it was for me — an “achiever” personality type who needed everything to be done perfectly. I completely understand that you run your household, you know your kids best, you know exactly what needs to be done and how because YOU’RE the one who has done those tasks a million times. It can be super difficult to trust someone else completely with those tasks, to not micromanage them, and to not be really particular about the finished product.

When I first hired a contractor to help me in my business, my mind was blown. I never knew what it felt like to suddenly feel like I was in two places at once. I could get way more done and better than before because I wasn’t spread so thin that I split in half. Giving up control is so difficult at first, but the result is a huge sigh of relief, I promise.

Be a Great Delegator: You’ll Thank Me Later!

Remember. Delegating tasks will help you reclaim your life. Thinking of money as a tool to buy more time is the only way you can ditch that scarcity mindset, fight mom guilt, and start enjoying your life again. You’ll never look back and wish you were still mopping the floor while on a sales call and thinking 3,000 steps ahead to when you need to pick up your kids from daycare. Say goodbye to those days and be a great delegator.

If you need more guidance in balancing your mom and work life, look no further. Please get yourself on The Lysst so you never miss any of my content or exclusive tips and resources for mom-preneurs. Make sure you also subscribe to The Making Mommy Moves Show — it’s the best way to start your day!

Talk soon!

XX – Lyss