Organizing my work weeks makes a big difference in how I feel about how I’m balancing photography and motherhood. Planning a consistent work schedule can help you to know what to expect as far as time to work goes. Your work weeks may look different than mine, but hopefully the sample schedule will give you a glimpse into how I balance both being a mom and owning a business. (and doing both well!)
Mondays: Monday is a reset day for me. I run errands (grocery shopping, ect). And spend some time working since I generally have emails from over the weekend. It’s a little bit of both work and a little bit of mama time.
Tuesday: Tuesday is a workday for me. I have childcare for the majority of the day so I tend to be able to get a good six hour chunk of work done. (Of course that’s not without taking breaks) At the end of this workday I always try to take a little bit of time to myself. Lately that looks like getting a workout in. On Tuesday evenings I try not to do any work, usually my brain is pretty spent from the day of working.
Wednesday: Wednesday is what I like to call a Mama day! (I borrowed that term from Nancy Ray because I heard her use it once and love it so much). It really is what it sounds like: a day for me to be a mama. I try not to run errands on this day but really just focus on spending quality time with my girls. This day is one of my favorite days of the week, because I just get to be with my kids. In the evenings I will sometimes spend a little bit of time answering emails if I need to, other than that, I don’t work on Wednesdays.
Thursdays: Thursdays are another day when I have childcare. Thursdays look a lot similar to Tuesdays, although usually the day doesn’t necessarily end with time for myself, but is packed full of work.
Fridays: Fridays are a bit of a free-for-all… Sometimes I schedule sessions on Fridays so technically it’s a work day then. Oftentimes I will just spend the day with my girls, or running any errands that need to be run. I do get a little bit of work done (generally some quick emails) during naptime on Fridays. And then once my husband is off of work on Fridays, I like to take some time to work out and get a little “me time” to usher in the weekend.
Saturdays and Sundays: Periodically I’ll have sessions on the weekend. But not super often, I’m actually working on a blog post all about how I only work one weekend out of month. So weekends are usually spent together as a family, resting, recharging and what not. I don’t answer emails over the weekend either, unless they are urgent.
*I schedule most sessions in the evenings or on Tuesdays/ Thursdays when I know I’ll have childcare. My “work days” here are referred to my days where I sit down at my desk. But I usually shoot only 1-2 times a week, so sessions aren’t happening everyday or anything like that. 😉
Hopefully this post helps you see and how you can balance being a mom and owning a business well. I think the most important distinction here is to have set times to work, and set times to not work. For me I know I have big chunks of time on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I can get a lot of work done. And the rest of the days of the week I can either just be where I am. Or if I really need to, I can sneak in a little bit of work here and there.
____________________________________________
Rachel Howden Photography is a photography mentor in the San Francisco Bay Area who specializes in family, newborn, baby, motherhood, and maternity photography in the Bay Area. Including Livermore, Oakland, Walnut Creek, San Francisco, San Mateo, Palo Alto, San Jose, Fremont, and Pleasanton. Mentorships are not limited to being in person and can be done virtually as well. This post focuses on Rachel as an educator for other photographers. Rachel loves helping other photographers learn film photography, balancing motherhood and business, and finding your why and purpose in your business. She helps photographers build rhythms and techniques to have a successful business filled with contentment and joy (and profit, of course).
This post helps you to have a little sneak peek into what you will receive if you have me as your photography coach. If you want to learn more about what a mentorship and coaching session looks like, you can find out more about it On This Page.
Are you interested in booking a mentorship? Contact me HERE.
