Being a mompreneur comes with its challenges. Combining the pressures of running a successful business with that of raising kids can seem impossible for many. You never quite sign off of being a mom. When you’re an entrepreneur, clocking out of your business is rarely an option as well. When you add to it the fact that many, if not most moms, have an abbreviated schedule in the summer as kids are out of school, it can even be more challenging. And then, can we talk about the hear, shining sun and lack of motivation as the weather warms up as well?

As a mompreneur myself, I’ve found myself slipping away from my business responsibilities in the summertime. Between organizing kids’ activities, beach days, cookouts and other fun distractions, keeping up with my business responsibilities has been tough. The pressures of enjoying the great weather with the kids, or simply relaxing, were way too great to ignore.

So how do you manage your business effectively in the summer as a mompreneur? How do you still work smart while being present with your family and taking the time to relax? After many weeks of teetering on the edge of complete inactivity and frantic multi-tasking, here are a few pointers I learnt from experience and other mompreneurs about managing our businesses in the summer:

Change your mindset

I’ve found it necessary to change my mindset in the summer in order to be productive and present with my family. Instead of an “I can do it all” type of mindset, I’ve willfully switched to an “I can do it well” one.

What this means is that instead of trying to fit in as much as possible in my schedule, I focus on quality. It also means that I’m taking on fewer projects in the summer, and reduce my client workload on purpose. This allows me to spend more time with family, but also to allocate more quality time to my activities, whether professional or personal.

Automate as much as you can

Automation is any mompreneur’s friend. Remembering to return a client call or pay the mortgage can seem like yet another chore, unless it’s automatically scheduled. Since you’ll have less time to spend on work and other responsibilities, make sure to take your precautions and schedule as much as you can in advance.

For me, it means automating most of my bills, setting auto-responder sequences in my business and automatically scheduling my social media posts. In addition to giving me peace of mind, it also allows me to still be effective in less time yet with as much, if not more impact.

Set reminders

There are a lot of competing priorities when you’re a mompreneur. You may just not have the bandwidth and energy to remember them all. This is why setting reminders for yourself is not just good planning, it’s necessary to keep your business running as smoothly as possible!

I set daily, weekly and monthly reminders of important meetings, events and deliverables to ensure they don’t slip my mind. Additionally, the brain space I can save by doing this is better used cleaning up the mess the kids make.

Target priorities

In the summer more than ever, setting priorities in your business is key. Not everything is going to get done, and that’s ok. This is when you must start thinking in terms of your desired impact and results.

What are the clients that are important for you to service? Which projects are top of mind? Wat tasks are most instrumental and can yield the biggest results in the shortest amount of time?

Take care of yourself

While summer is the proverbial relaxation time, it’s easy to get drowned in a myriad of activities as well, especially as a mompreneur. Faced with an irregular kids’ schedule, lack of motivation and business demands, it can be tempting to overwork yourself to get it all done.

Instead, you should invest some time in your favorite self-care activities. For those of you who like me don’t get much of a summer, enjoy the outdoors and take the opportunity to wind down.

Pick your devils

In other terms, pick your distractions. There are many distractions out there in the summer, especially with kids. Avoiding them all is nearly impossible. Pick the ones that will not ruin your entire productivity or prevent you from having fruitful family time.

Enjoy the process!

Last but not least, don’t forget to enjoy the process. Summertime is a wonderful time to make family memories, so take it easy on yourself, be compassionate with yourself and have fun!