Office Tour + How I'm Managing My Time as a New Mom
Hey Loves!! Hope yall are having a fantastic week so far! I cann0t BELIEVE Thanksgiving is next week...like what! I swear the last bit of summer flew by because I was at the end of my pregnancy and then once Jackson was born in September, the next month or two flewwww by. I swear I blinked and my mom is already putting up their Christmas tree! I mean...I'm not mad about it, just like woah.. WHERE did the time go?
Alright so let's get down to the real point of this post: #1 I wanted to finally share details about my home office with yall and #2 I thought I'd share how I've been managing my time and what it's been like running 2 businesses from home and also being a stay at home mom. Sounds pretty easy, but it can be pretty difficult! We'll dive into that more in a bit!
Office Details
I get so many questions about this office over on Instagram, it's about time I share details here on the blog! I think this office is one of my favorite rooms in the house! I used one of our bedrooms in our old house and it worked fine- it was a bit tight and I didn't like feeling like I was still in a bedroom so when we were looking for a new house, having a designated office space was top on my list. In this house, my office sits down stairs and is one of the front rooms- I love it! There's so much natural light from the big windows (another must have) and being down stairs and all of the bedrooms are upstairs, I feel like I can totally separate my work and personal. I feel in a way I'm going into work at my office and at the end of the day I can shut these doors and retreat upstairs or back into the main living area. When you work from home, there's such a fine line and a grey area of mixing personal life and work because you don't get to leave your house and drive to an office so sometimes I'll realize oh dang, it's 6:30pm and I haven't left my house all day! (touch more on this later)OK so decor details! The fun stuff!! I'll try and link as much as I can, but a lot of it were random homegoods/ boutique finds...
Shelving Unit on the back wall is from Ikea!I put two shelves up against each other and and they're super affordable!
All decor on shelves are from random places- Marshalls, Homegoods, boutiques, Target, At Home.... Sorry! But I love keeping these baskets on the shelves and that's what I usually put a lot of my collaboration packages in when I can't get to them right away!
Office Chair is from Marshalls ( I want a new one though! Need something more comfortable... lol I'm turning into an old lady)
Desk is OLD. I had this desk in college! It was a wooden desk that we painted black and just a couple months ago I painted it again to white. I haven't finished painting it- hence why it looks ratchet AND I don't even have the knobs back on the drawers. I was 9 MONTHS prego here okayyyyy hahahaha looking into a new desk though... THIS is my inspiration. Justin would probably kill me if I dropped that on a desk lol
Blanket is HERE and its the SOFTEST BEST BLANKET EVER
Rack is from Home Depot I'm pretty sure
Storage unit behind my desk is LINKED HERE
I get asked this one A LOT, but the artwork behind my desk, above the storage unit with the printer is from Hobby Lobby YEARS ago!
Love THIS dual business card holder!
TV stand is from Kirklands
Rug is from At Home
Bench is from Homegoods
Mirror is from Homegoods
Can you say Holy Pregnantttt! Pretty sure I had Jack a week later!
Time Management
Let's talk about time management... as a new mom! So... I consider myself a stay at home mom, yes, but I also have two business I'm running! The first is this blog you're reading- yes, it's a business, yes I make $$ monthly through affiliate linked commission and also through brand collaborations. That means deadlines for campaigns (shooting the content, editing, getting the content up on my blog all by the contracted date, etc...) the second, I own
- a clothing company with graphic tees and hats. I design all of my graphics, find styles I want the graphics on, do photoshoots for products, manage the online store and our clothing is also carried in local boutiques so I am running around town dropping off inventory etc... thank goodness for my amazing social media guru, Chloe for keeping our
BOMB! That being said.... I HAVE to manage my time wisely with a new born so I don't drive myself crazy!Before Jack was born I was so nervous about this, I was honestly terrible at time management. I'm very much a procrastinator (huge weakness) and wait till the very last minute to get whatever it is done. Weirdly enough, as soon as we brought our baby home, my time management did a complete 180! I don't know if it was the "mom gene" that instantly kicked in, but it's working! I have learned that when I get a free moment, I HAVE to do whatever it is that needs to get done, because it could be another hour or two before I could get to it again. I use my time very efficiently and almost value my own time even more if that makes sense.Anyone with a new born knows that a newborn doesn't have a "wake at this time, nap at this time, go to bed at this time" schedule, it's more of a routine- he eats every 3-4 hours during the day, he'll be up for about an hour/ hour and a half and then take a nap anywhere from 30 min- 3 hours. I've had to learn to go with the flow and learn to be soo so flexible with my day and to- do lists. When Jack goes down for a nap I am going FULL FORCE on answering emails, getting office work done, or I'm either cleaning the house, getting a little workout in or just straight up resting my booty on the couch vegging out on Bravo. In the beginning, I would try an answer emails on my phone and check my DM's while I was feeding Jack or when Jack was awake. I started to notice that our feedings took a little longer and weren't as efficient or Jack wasn't being stimulated enough so he wasn't tired enough for a nap when the time came. SO. I have gotten into the routine of not doing anything else except feeding him when it's time and playing/ cuddling him when he's awake. Then, when Jack goes down for a nap, I'm able to get lots and lots done. I give major props to you mamas that have to go back into an office away from home after having a baby, I honestly don't think I could do it. However, I sort of feel like stay at home moms and moms that work from home don't get enough props of their own! While yes, it's amazingggg being in the same place as my baby all day....yall, it's HARD! Yesterday, I got through maybe 15 emails ALL DAY. That's the only work I did because Jack was super needy and feeding a little more than usual etc... there's noone else to take care of him! I have to get my work done AND take care of my baby. Sometimes I wish I could just go into an office away from home for half a day just to crush some work. When you work from home, there's no beginning and end, no weekends, no holidays. You get out of it however much you put into it. The days and nights run together and sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is! I don't say this to complain- 3 years ago when I started my blog, this was the EXACT intention I had for it- being able to make a living from working from home, with a flexible schedule so I could stay home with our child one day... and guess what I'm doing, just THAT and I am so very grateful. Just wanted to shed a little bit of light on the other side of things since sometimes I feel like staying home with your babe can be deemed a cakewalk. Motherhood- no matter your schedule, job or circumstances is hard, but we're all in it together!If you're about to be a new mommy and you're nervous about time management- don't be, just learn to give yourself grace in EVERYTHING you do, don't put too much pressure on yourself, enjoy the moments with your baby and get rid of distractions and get to work when babe goes down for a nap. I promise, your mom instincts WILL kick in!! You got this!OK hope you enjoyed this post! Time to go feed baby boy now! I see Jack waking up on the monitor! Ta Ta for now Babes!!
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