When you have 5 kids and work from home, Summer can be… challenging, messy, loud, and soooo much fun!
I love having my kids home and not having to be up at the crack of dawn. I love staying up late and watching movies, going to the pool, and taking the kids to camp.
And I’m still a business owner. Who still has monthly sales goals. And still has client calls. And still… does everything I do the rest of the year.
I’m not one of those entrepreneurs that disappears for the summer and re-emerges in the fall when the kids go back to school. I find my business runs best when I just show up consistently. It doesn’t mean I can’t take vacations. It just means I work consistently enough that I don’t have a drop in momentum. But, I still get enough play time in.
So if you’re looking for a super productive summer, here’s some of my favorite tips and strategies.
- Create a new schedule for the summer. Your old one is now obsolete! Rethink and come up with a new schedule that works for the next 2-3 months.
- Get up early and put in a few hours of work before everyone is up. I’m up between 5-6 during the school year anyway. I can get in 2-3 hours of work before anyone is really up and moving.
- Review your annual sales goal to see if you are on track, ahead or behind and determine what you really need to accomplish this summer. Set a summer sales goal.
- Create a list of 5-10 fun things you’d like to do this summer and schedule them out. Plan your fun so you don’t feel like you are missing out on the fun.
- Create a good schedule for your family. Get them on a routine so that you don’t have to micromanage. Come up with an incentive program where they earn their summer fun by spending their time in positive ways.
- Get all of your summer marketing campaigns scheduled now! If your summer looks anything like mine, you are in and out of the office, you need to have the game plan in place, or you’ll fall into this trap, “I’ll do that after the next trip.” A couple of weeks later, “I’ve got so much to catch up on from that trip, and I leave again in 2 weeks, I’ll just wait until after the next trip.” A month later, “Well, at this point, maybe it’s best just to wait until fall when things slow down a bit.”
- If you have a team, think through some fun Summer promotions and contests to keep them focused and engaged. You are not the only one that gets distracted!
- Plan your social media content for the ENTIRE Summer! You’ll thank me for this one. Summer is the time when I am most likely to forget about a post or promotion. It will take you a full day, but you really can plan out 3 months worth of your social media content at once.
As tempting as it is to stay up late, and sleep in early, don’t let yourself get too far off schedule. Give yourself lazy weekend permission, but keep to your regular schedule. When you are tired, your productivity goes down. So while you might be getting in the hours, you’re probably not accomplishing as much. (I may have binge watched Netflix until 1 am last night and be speaking from experience.)- Reward yourself for working! The school experience of working hard for 9 months and playing for 3 was so wired into my system that even though I’ve been out of school longer than I was in, I still feel like the summer should be a time to play. I am much more focused in the fall, winter and spring. Because I know this about myself, I can give myself rewards when I accomplish my tasks. Today, when I finish my to do list, I’m going to lay in the hammock and play my Ukulele. When I finish my goals for the week, I’m going to go play tennis with my husband instead of doing yard work. Figure out what motivates you, and keep yourself on track!
Here’s to your super productive summer! What if these were the best three months of your year?