KNOWING HOW TO SET GOALS CAN BE CHALLENGING WHEN YOU ARE A BUSY WORK FROM HOME MOM
Do you struggle to set goals or find it hard to achieve your goals?
As a busy work at home mom, one of the best ways to stay on track and make progress is to set goals, but knowing what goals to set can be a bit tricky.
At the beginning of each year, I try to set business, family, health, educational and financial goals.
While I don’t always achieve my goals, I find that goal setting keeps me focused and helps me to make the right decisions.
Something else I have learned is that I am more motivated to achieve my goals when they are realistic (meaning I can achieve them with relative ease).
It’s easy to set big goals, but the challenge is always how to accomplish those big goals.
So instead of setting big goals and feeling like a failure when I can’t achieve them, I decided to switch tactic and to start setting realistic goals.
Does this mean you shouldn’t aim high or dream big?
Not at all!
It’s okay to have big dreams as long as you have a plan to achieve them.
While having big dreams is good, I always advice people who struggle with goal setting and getting things done to take baby steps.
Start with little goals based on where you’re right now.
Set goals that are within your control. Don’t set goals that are outside your control, or goals that you probably can’t influence the outcome.
Focus on action and not results, because there are times when you do everything right and you probably won’t get the desired result.
With all that said, if you’ve been struggling with goal setting or don’t know what goals to set, here are a few suggestions for you.
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REALISTIC GOALS FOR WORK AT HOME MOMS
SPEND A SPECIFIED AMOUNT OF HOURS EACH DAY WORKING ON GROWING YOUR BUSINESS
As a busy work from home and homeschooling mom, it’s hard to find the time to do everything.
At the same time, I know the only way I can grow my business is to invest more time in it.
I know it’s probably the same for a lot f you.
With lots of things vying for your attention, finding the time to work and grow your business feels like a constant struggle.
However, if you really want to grow your business this year, one of your goals should be to spend some extra hours doing the things that will grow your business.
You may need to give up some things to find those extra hours, but remember that life is all about trade offs.
Take a look at how you’re spending your time and try to find the extra hours that you need to invest in your business.
What are you willing to give up to take your business to the next level?
Perhaps, you need to spend less time on social media or watching TV. Or maybe you need to wake up an hour early each day or go to bed an hour later.
There are other little ways you can free up some extra time so you can invest more time growing your business.
Investing more time to grow your business is a realistic goal for most work at home moms, you just need to figure it out.
TO BE MORE ORGANIZED
I couldn’t juggle all my responsibilities if I didn’t have some semblance of order in my life.
I am one of those people who can’t thrive in the midst of chaos.
While I am not the most organized person out there, I do try to stay on top of things because I am not very productive when I am disorganized.
If you’re not as productive as you’d like to be because of disorganization, one of your goals should be to get and stay organized.
You don’t need any complex organization system, but a little order is always nice.
Being organized has a lot of benefits. When you’re organized you don’t have to waste time looking for stuff or wondering what you’re supposed to do.
When you’re organized, you don’t have to miss important deadlines in your business.
As an organized work at home mom, you can keep track of everything that’s going on in your business.
It’s also easier to balance your family and work life when you’re organized.
Take the time to organize your work space, organize your calendar, do some meal planning to save time, organize your business finances, your home and every area of your life that needs to be organized.
You’ll be happier, more productive and less stressed the more organized you are.
RELATED: 7 Effective Ways to Become an Organized Stay at Home Mom
TO MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS SO YOU CAN BE MORE PRODUCTIVE
We live in an age where there are so many distractions and so many voices clamoring for our attention.
I can’t tell you how often I set out to do some work, but end up going down a rabbit hole. And before you know it, I have wasted a lot of precious time.
The problem is, I can’t afford to waste any time because it means some things won’t get done.
The only way to avoid wasting time is to minimize distractions. Which means turning off the noise and outside world when it’s time to work.
Depending on how many kids your have and your family situation, I assume you only have a few hours to work on your business each day.
The only way you are going to get much done within those few hours is to be totally focused on the work at hand.
I know this is easier said than done, but that’s really the only way.
When it’s time to work, turn off your phone if possible, log out of Facebook and Pinterest, close all those extra tabs on your laptop.
Doing all these things would free up a lot of time.
For example, instead of spending hours completing one task because you’re distracted, that same task would probably take only thirty minutes to complete if you’re focused.
Sometimes, our problem isn’t a lack of time, but a lack of good time management skills.
So I want you to be totally honest with yourself.
Are your struggling with productivity because you have way too many distractions?
How can you minimize or get rid of some of those distractions?
TO SPEND MORE TIME ON MARKETING AND INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
This goal is such a hard one.
How do you know where to invest most of your time? How do you know which activities are income generating when everything feels like it’s important and could make or break you?
If we are been real, then you know not all tasks are created equal.
We engage in some activities not because they really grow our business, but because they are easy to do or don’t require us to go out of comfort zone.
Marketing and selling is one thing that requires you to go out of your comfort zone. That’s why it tends to take a back seat especially when you’re not sure your effort will pay of.
If you have been neglecting marketing and other income generating activities, this is a good goal to set.
Stop wasting time on tasks with low return on investment (ROI), instead focus most of your energy on the things that will grow your business and make you more money.
If you have been tracking n your business, you know the tasks that make the most difference in your business, and those that yield little or no result.
Commit to doing more of those things and let the other stuff take a back seat or outsource them if you can afford it.
INVEST IN LEARNING
It’s difficult to get ahead in life, business or career if you’re not constantly learning new and better ways to do things.
As a busy mompreneur, finding the time to read or learn new things has been one of my biggest challenges, but I know I have to keep learning if I want to improve and achieve my goals.
There’s a lot I don’t know, so I have to keep learning if I want to keep growing and I reckon it’s the same for you to.
What you need to learn depends on where you are right now and where you want to go.
Make learning a part of your daily routine. Whenever you have a spare five or ten minutes, you can get some learning in.
Just be smart about whom you’re learning from because there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
Take the time to figure out some things you need to learn that are essential to your business growth, then find the best ways to learn the things, or the best teachers.
Learning should be a part of your lifestyle so don’t try to learn too many things at a time.
Learn one new thing, practice what you’ve learned before you invest in something else.
Want a bonus goal you can set this year? Work on your mindset.
Fortunately, I wrote a whole post on mindset changes for struggling mompreneurs.
If your mindset is holding you back, you definitely want to check out that post.
GOALS FOR WORK AT HOME MOMS
- Spend a specified amount of hours each day working on growing your business.
- To be more organized
- To minimize distractions so you can be more productive.
- Spend more time on marketing and income generating activities.
- Invest in learning.
While setting goals can be a bit tricky, it doesn’t have to overwhelming.
As a busy mompreneur, setting goals for your business is something you can’t do without, and is of the best ways to stay focused and grow your business.
