Do you feel like you’re just treading water keeping up with your business over the summer? There can be multiple times throughout the year where it just all feels like too much. When those seasons come up, there are a few ways you can prioritize, set boundaries and ultimately feel on top of your workload despite the chaos of the season. Listen in for how you can prioritize and get the most important things done in a crazy season!

Today we are going to be talking about how in the world we survive summer with our kids home, vacations, sports or swim team, and everything else the summer seems to throw at us.

Not only that, we’ll also be chatting about how this applies to the rest of the year.

Recently I got an email that started with this statement: Does anyone else really struggle with their business in the summer? I feel like I’m barely treading water.

I used to think it was just me who struggled with my business in the summer. Even with my kids home year round because of homeschooling, the summer has a totally different vibe. You want to be present with your family and enjoy the time with them, but you also have this other (very needy) baby aka your business that still needs your attention.

The reality of having an online business though is that we will always feel a pull in multiple directions. Because we have so much flexibility, it’s easy to have our priorities jumbled and feel like we don’t know how to make progress on anything while juggling our family, home, work and social relationships.

I really used to wonder if this was just me, but the more I’ve talked to other online business owners and especially bloggers, I’ve found most of us struggle with this at some level.

Even though we are a good way into the summer, it’s not too late to take the reins and survive the rest of summer without neglecting your business. And I titled this episode both surviving summer AND the rest of the year because at the halfway point in the year, it’s all downhill and it can get out of control fast. The beginning of the year always has such great intentions and plans, but for me at least it feels like the second half of the year can feel like a run away train.

So let’s talk about how we can get control of that speeding train, make progress on our goals or reset them and not only survive but thrive in this second half of the year.

1 – Set Aside Intentional Work Time

When my older boys were younger, I survived by working in fringe hours. I’d sneak in bits of work in pockets of time when they were entertained, nap times, after bedtime or early mornings.

This worked for a long time, but as my children got older, I found that even though they were totally capable of independence, working around their rambunctious playing was not giving me the focused work time I needed.

Especially if you are used to your children being in childcare or regular schooling during the year, it’s so important to make sure you are getting protected work time without them around during summer breaks.

Unless you plan ahead for taking time off from your business in the summer, it will be incredibly stressful trying to fit it all in while also having your kids around all the time.

There are so many ways to get creative with childcare, like swapping with a friend, going to a coffee shop for a few hours on a weekend while your spouse watches the kids or even working from the park while your kids play. The important thing is to intentionally set aside the time you want/need for your business and planning ahead for what childcare will look like AND what you’ll be working on during that time.

For me, this looks the same year round. I have Tuesdays and Thursdays as my protected work time each week. I work in pockets the rest of the week but I can prioritize the most important work on those days and leave the more admin or flexible tasks for the other days.

2 – Review and Reset Goals

I can’t remember the last time I set goals for the entire year. I’ve been in online business long enough to know that things can change anytime and setting goals for a whole year feels like I am setting myself up for failure.

I do set a word of the year each year and occasionally set an income goal but when it comes to projects or goals, I set those at a quarterly and monthly basis.

I’m going to be sharing a whole process on the next episode, but for now, I’ll say that it’s incredibly important to revisit your goals often but especially at mid-year or before each quarter.

And if you haven’t set goals yet, that’s okay too! I have found that in the most chaotic seasons where I feel like things are out of control, setting goals for that season can be incredibly fruitful to know exactly what my priorities are for that season.

3 – Set Better Boundaries

I like to think of myself as someone who has really good boundaries. I’ve been told by peers, clients, and even coaches that I have good boundaries.

But somehow, when it comes to the time I’m sitting down to work, my boundaries can be super flimsy. I can set boundaries with other people, but keeping myself accountable with a boundary is tricky.

The nature of our businesses being online means we have about a million things to distract us at all times. When we have less time to work in the summer, it’s incredibly important to be diligent with your boundaries.

Here are a few boundaries you might consider implementing:

• Keep your phone on do not disturb or in another room while you are working
• Set your computer to do not disturb also if you are using a mac
• Close Slack, your Internet browser, and any other apps you have open while working.
• Only keep what you are working on open and minimize all of your other windows
• Set a to do list for your work time and stick to it. Utilize timers to help you stay on track.

Another tip for this is playing a focus playlist on Spotify while working. Unless I’m doing creative work, like designing something or editing photos, I don’t listen to podcasts while working as it’s too easy to be distracted as I’m listening to someone speak.

4 – Take Care of the Crying Baby

I heard this statement recently and thought it was brilliant. When you are prioritizing what to do, you take care of the baby that is crying first. I can totally imagine this if I had multiples… you wouldn’t tend to the baby that is content first, you’d tend to the crying baby to figure out what it needs first.

The same is true with our business. So often we are paying attention to the baby that is perfectly stable, not the one that is crying.

When you have limited time, you have to prioritize and triage your tasks for what is the most important.

It might be useful to take a few moments and brain dump all the things you think you need to do for your business right now. After you do that, you’ll probably find that there are quite a few things that feel like a priority, but might not be the most pressing tasks you need to handle right now.

5 – Plan Ahead

You can still plan ahead for the rest of the summer and into the fall! Set aside time to look at your calendar for any travel you or your team might have coming up.

This has been really important for my food blog because both of my writers have been in and out for trips, and then my own traveling on top of that has made it really tricky for me to get new photos taken and new blog posts written. So we actually just completely redid our editorial calendar the other day to only focus on updates for the rest of the summer, to help keep me from perpetually being behind on things.

I want you to also look ahead at what’s coming up at the beginning of the school year. If your kids are going back to school in August or in September, how can you already be planning ahead for those first few weeks of school? What can you rearrange to make those weeks easier on yourself, and to not load yourself up with an unrealistic amount of tasks when you first get back from summer break?

Taking the time to look ahead and get a plan in place will help you be better prepared and ready to hit the ground running once the fall begins!