I want to have a conversation with you about creating work-life boundaries and routines and teach you some practical tips for how to maintain these. Because let’s be real, the hardest part is actually enforcing these boundaries and routines.

Do you feel like you’re always working or thinking about work and cannot seem to transition out of work mode? I can totally relate; this episode will help you reclaim your sanity.

Hey mama, welcome back to the Purpose Gathering Podcast. I’m your host Ashley Freehan, and I’m here for all you mompreneurs out there feeling torn between raising a thriving family and building a business you love. I’m a photographer, community founder, podcaster, wife and mama saved by grace, so I can totally relate to you multi-passionate mamas. Join me every week where I share with you the strategies and mindset shift that you need to find peace and passion in motherhood and business. So that you can have more time for the things that matter, like Netflix and Cookie Dough.
But seriously, are you ready to transform your life from feeling frazzled to focused and be equipped with the tools that you need to juggle all the things? If so, you’re in the right place.

Hey girl, I am so excited to be here with you right now, and I hope you’re excited to get started and start seeing results. But before we dive in, I have to be honest about one thing. You’re going to hear some really practical advice in today’s episode. But just hearing this information, it’s not going to transform your life. You actually have to put it. Into action. So, I want to encourage you to do something maybe a little bit out of the ordinary, but I want you to start thinking about limiting your consumption and increasing your action.

Let me put it to you this way, it’s kind of like Pinterest. At some point, we have to stop pinning all the things and actually start making them come to life. My goal with this podcast is to truly help you transform your life. So, if you’re ready to do the work, let’s get started.

As we continue to get to know each other, you’re going to hear me talk about this concept about Thriving over and over again. It’s the title of my workshop, Thriving with Purpose. It’s all about thriving instead of just surviving. This idea is not new, but I feel like society has kind of pressured us to feel bad about wanting more than just the average. Does that make sense? So, I want you guys to get uncomfortable, and I want you to really start thinking about what you want for your life.

I know that for me and my family, I want to be more than average. I don’t want to be like everyone else. As a believer, I’m held to another standard, a higher standard, God’s standard. I want to stand out in this world and not just blend in. It’s okay for us to want more than average, that’s a great thing. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel bad about that. Now, the key to greatness is not knowledge, it’s action. Are you going to take what you actually know and do something with it, or are you going to stay stuck? Living life, knowing all the things that you should be doing, but choosing not to do them. For me, I choose to live my life differently. I choose to live my life on purpose and with intentionality. How about you? Are you with me? Are you ready to stop living like everyone else and stand out and dare to be different? Did I hear some yeses? Okay, then let’s do this.

Work Life Boundaries- What are they?

Just to give you a little taste of what’s to come. We’re going to cover what work life boundaries are. We’re going to cover why they’re important, how to start creating and discovering your own boundaries, and then how to actually maintain these. To begin, let’s start with what a work life boundary looks like. These are limits that a person creates to identify reasonable allowed behavior. These boundaries include permissible ways that people behave towards them and how they behave in certain situations. Boundaries are extremely important. These are what are going to keep you feeling balanced.

Now, in my opinion, there are two extreme sides of the spectrum. You either lean into the workaholism type, which is where I tend to lean, and you feel like you’re always working and can’t catch a break. Or maybe you’re on the other end of the spectrum and just find yourself like scrolling Instagram, checking Facebook too often, maybe just trying to escape reality when you really should be working.

Or maybe you feel like you want to spend time with your family and your kids while they’re little, and then you feel like you never have time for work. These boundaries will help you escape the workaholism mentality and or give you the motivation and structure that you need to get to work. Now that you’re feeling confident about what these boundaries are and why they’re important, let’s talk about some examples of what these boundaries might look like for you. If you’re able, I encourage you to grab your phone and start jotting down some ideas as you listen to this episode.
All of the ideas that I give you might not be applicable to you and your family, but it might jog your memory and get you started. If it’s not possible for you to follow along right now and take notes, that’s totally fine. Just refer back to this episode when you do have time, promise me, you will start making a list. Okay? I really just want to express that to you guys, that it’s so important that you’re actually implementing what you’re learning and taking it to heart.

Once you have this list, I think it’s super important for you to share it with your spouse and children and discuss their thoughts and what they think might need to be added to this. I can just tell you this exercise is extremely eye-opening. When I had this conversation with my husband, Travis, he mentioned some things that were really important to him that I had never even thought of. For instance, my tunnel vision, I tend to get really focused on what I’m doing, and I ignore what’s going on around me. Can anyone else relate to this or am I the only one? I just feel like if he’s around, I expect him to be able to handle everything while I’m working.

But in his eyes, he wants my support, so help with the kids, and when I don’t give him my expectations up front that I need dedicated work time, he gets annoyed. And can you blame him? Another one he reminded me of that’s not a recent issue that we deal with, but it’s been something I struggled with in the past, especially when our kids were younger. It’s skipping meals with the family. I would try to get work done when he was home, and I would often say things like, well, I just need to finish this one thing, like just let me finish this really quick. And I would keep saying that over and over and over again until I missed eating dinner with my family.
Although I didn’t see these things as an issue he did, and that’s really why it’s important to get your families onboard and get their input on these boundaries. I mentioned this before, but I think it’s worth noting again, boundaries will look different for every family. So, I can’t tell you exactly what your boundaries should look like, but I’m going to give you some questions to answer and examples of boundaries that I have in place and where I recommend you start.

Time

Let’s start with the big one, time. You’re going to have several boundaries pertaining to your time. First of all, do you have a morning routine and if so, what does it look like? For me, scheduling time for myself before my kids wake up is crucial, and I suggest everyone does this. If you have a child that doesn’t yet sleep through the night, this strategy is not for you yet. You’re in one of the toughest seasons and honestly, you need to get all the sleep you can for the rest of us. Start waking up a little bit earlier every week to get more time for yourself.

This has been a serious game changer for me, I cannot tell you guys how many times people have told me this tip and I just dismissed it like, that’s not for me, I am not a morning person, I am much more productive at night. Blah, blah, blah, literally feeding myself lies. You guys, if you’ve heard this tip before and you’re not doing it in your kids are of appropriate age, please promise me you will start doing this.

It has changed my perspective on the morning. It has changed everything because before my kids wake up, I actually get some time to myself. I have a boundary for myself every morning, that I get quiet time until 7:00 AM even on the weekends. The kids know if it’s before 7:00 AM, me and my husband are not available. Don’t ask us for anything, you can come say good morning, but literally we’re not getting out of bed to help you with anything until 7:00 AM and that’s final.

It might sound harsh to you guys, but honestly, if you do not set this boundary, they will cross it every single morning. So, one quick tip for you is for younger children, get the Okay to Wake clock. It is genius, you can get it on Amazon, it turns a certain color when it’s okay for them to wake up. If you struggle with the mornings at all, you’re not going to want to miss my next episode all about morning routines.

Work Schedule

The next question I want you to ask yourself is, what will your work schedule look like? This is extremely crucial, and I think so many people fail to do this. You must set work hours and stick to them. As a work from home mom, it is so easy for me to get caught up in the distractions of my home. So, creating a work schedule has given me the structure that I need. So, to give you an example of what my schedule looks like, my kids, Jayden and Scarlett are five and eight and they go to school Monday through Friday from eight to 3:00 PM. I have decided to work full three full days, which are currently Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and then I work half days on Wednesday, and I take Fridays off. So, my kids actually have a half day at school every other Wednesday, so that works out perfectly. And my workdays generally start around 8:30 to 9:00 AM and then end promptly at 2:30.

Now, this is another boundary that I’ve given myself, because my children come home from school at 3:10 and I want to be able to have about 30 to 40 minutes to transition from work mode to mom mode. This might be a great tip for those of you who have kids in school. It really helps me not feel flustered if I’m not done with a task when my kids come home, because as that workaholic mentality that I have, it’s so easy for me to just welcome my kids when they get home with a quick, Hey, how are you? Hope you had a great day, and then mommy just needs to finish this one thing really quick and we all know how that turned out.

That was me skipping meals and me missing time with my family and I fall into this trap all the time. If I don’t give myself that transition to close out what I’m working on and get ready to welcome my kids home from school. I have more to share on this topic about how to handle after school with your kids. But I know that some of you may be wondering, I’m not there yet, I still have kids at home. How do I deal with that? Don’t worry, I have an episode on this topic just for you. But in the meantime, if you are without childcare, I recommend finding another mama to trade babysitting with or connect with a mama that has older kids to keep your youngers busy while they have a group play date.

This will change your life; don’t get caught up in the lie that you can’t work because you can’t afford childcare. There are so many creative options, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging and I’m so excited for you to hear the future episode all about How to Work from Home with Littles. But I have something really exciting for you. So, this next section is going to be all about how to set up boundaries when your kids are with you. So, what to do when your work overlaps with your kids being around.

Hey mama, really quick. I want to check in on how you’re doing. Like how are you really doing? Are you overwhelmed trying to juggle all the things counting down the minutes until bedtime because you just need a second to yourself? Are you listening to podcast after podcast trying to figure out what you’re missing? I’ve been there, but I can tell you there’s a better way. It is possible to find peace in the chaos. Yes, peace in the midst of the hustle. You can wake up every morning with intention and live a life where your health, marriage, and home are more than just surviving.

I want to introduce you to the roadmap to your most purposeful life. Thriving with Purpose is an online workshop created just for you. It will help you gain focus and clarity in your life and become the mom, wife, and business owner you know, you can be. These lessons will guide you through how your identity affects your business, how to tidy up your life and gain mental clarity. Why physical self-care is so important, and how to navigate married life. There’s even a lesson about understanding your children and how not to lose your mind while being a parent and finally, how to build an authentic business around your life not the other way around.

This workshop has it all, and as a bonus for joining now, you will receive a 55-page PDF workbook to follow along with these video lessons, discussion questions, and fun activities and resources along the way. I’m offering this workshop for an extremely low and limited price because I want you to be able to start seeing results right away. It is time to transform your life from feeling frazzled to focused and live a peaceful, contented life. Head to the purposegathering.com/thrive to sign up. And I can’t wait to see you inside.
How to set boundaries when your children are with you?

So, ask yourself this question, how will you handle work phone calls when your kids are around? What activities can you have in place when you know you have to be on a call? For me, I have a boundary when I’m on the phone or when I’m talking that my kids need to say, excuse me, if they need to interrupt my conversation. And I heard this somewhere from a parenting expert, but I thought it was genius. So have your child place their hand on your shoulder and that lets you know they’re waiting, and they need your attention.

So, I’ve shown this to my kids and giving my children the opportunity to show that they need me instead of a hard boundary, that they’re not allowed to interrupt me. It gives them the reassurance that I still care about what they have to say, but that they just might need to wait a minute or two until I find a break in the conversation to address them. This has been really helpful even when we’re in the car, my husband and I are chatting. I will feel one of my children put their hands on my shoulder, and that indicates to me that they want to have a turn to talk. And it’s so empowering to them, but it also makes me feel really good that they’re listening to what I’m saying. So, I’m telling you what, guys, it really works as long as you’re enforcing this boundary.

Now, if you follow me on Instagram, you may have heard one of my parenting hacks called a Good Morning box. And I use this good morning box all the time, but it could come in handy when you’re on a phone call. So, you fill this box with quiet activities that your child can do. And for my two kids, I let them pick what they put in there. So, there’s things like a small cup of playdough, coloring books, crayons, washi tape. My kids are a little bit older, so there’s a glue stick in there, some scissors, scrap pieces of paper so that they can just create whatever they want and stickers, etcetera.
They fill it full of stuff that they want to do, and they’re only allowed to use it when I say so. So, it’s not something that’s available to them at all times because then that becomes natural to them and it’s not as exciting. So I keep it in my back pocket when I need them to let me be on a phone call or possibly doing the dishes or making dinner or something like that, where I actually need them present so I can make sure that they are staying out of trouble, but that they are also staying busy. So that is a quick tip for you guys to use as well.

Handling School Breaks

Next, how will you handle school breaks? Planning ahead, obviously is key here. I put my kids’ schedule, their calendar, into my work calendar so that I’m not surprised by half days or days off and school breaks like their two week, fall, winter, and spring break. Yes, those are really difficult times for me, as I’m sure some of you can relate. During these breaks. I tried to avoid scheduling photo shoots, I strategically plan out my work hours and I will arrange play dates and childcare accordingly when needed. My kids are older, so it’s a lot easier for me since they pretty much entertain themselves, but this is where I fall into the trap of not spending quality time with them when they’re on their break.

So, the key here is to be intentional about that; I set my work hours and I honor them. Did you hear that? Honor my work hours. This is really difficult for me and it’s something that I’m really working on because again, I fall into that workaholic side. I lean to that side, but it’s so important for me to spend quality time with my children during their breaks, so that means that I actually have to plan time into my schedule. That means I write it down and schedule it in. Now during my kids’ school breaks, they are required to spend one and a half hours of quiet time in their rooms. I’m a little more flexible now that they’re older, so they get along pretty well when they choose to.

So, if they decide that they want to have their quiet time together, I am okay with that. As long as they’re getting along and they are being relatively quiet, so that I can get my work done. So that is something that has been a huge game changer for me; when my children transitioned out of naps, I had them go right into an hour and a half of quiet time immediately. This was something that I was not negotiable about and it did take a lot of training, but now that my kids are five and eight, they still do it even though not always willingly. But it’s something that I’m instilling in them, that we all need a break sometimes, and that is their time to just kind of spend doing whatever they want in their rooms.

Screen Time

So, the next big one is screen time. I know this is a hot topic buzzword right now, and I have a lot of thoughts about this and a lot of information about screen time for kids. And if I think it’s appropriate or not, I mean, we’re surrounded by so many distractions and technology is everywhere today in our kids’ lives. I mean, it’s in the classroom, it’s in restaurants, grocery stores, even office waiting rooms. It’s just crazy how much technology is surrounding our children. It’s impossible to avoid, and sadly, it’s the future, but it’s our job as parents to teach them and show them healthy boundaries.
So, I’m going to skip over all of the boundaries that I think children should have because I think that’s a future episode. But I do want to lean in specifically to your screen time and how it pertains to you personally and how it hinders your work productivity. Now, I think one of the areas that is a little bit gray, is that so many of us use our phones and social media for business. So, it can be really hard for us to differentiate between the two and constantly, we’re on our phone, checking messages, emails, you know, sending text messages, we might be responding to DMs on Instagram, et cetera. It just becomes blurry and hazy when we’re using our phone because so much of it is just intermixed.

I recently recorded an Instagram live all about Instagram and how to increase your reach and engagement and how do you use it strategically. So, I’m going to link it below, but one of the things I mentioned in the training is tracking your screen time and how much time are you spending on your phone every day? What apps are you actually using? Now I know for iPhone, they have great analytics for this, you’re able to track usage and set up restrictions and they make it relatively easy.

For other people like Android users, which is me. There is a great app called Quality Time that I’ve been using. It tracks again, how much time you spend on your phone, how much time you’re on certain apps. It even tells you how many times you unlock your screen. You can set breaks that are scheduled and anytime you’re feeling like you need a break, you can set one. And essentially what it does is it locks down your phone and it only allows certain functions and apps to be used during this time. Of course, there is a bypass on this, so you have to be super diligent and stick to this boundary.
But this is something that I recommend for everyone and it really helps give you a clear picture of what you’re spending your time on and if it’s really where you should be spending your time. One clear boundary that I have set up for my phone usage, is that once my children come home between the hours of like 3:10 which is when they get home until about 7:00 PM when they go to bed, I set that scheduled break and I do not use my phone for anything work related, only personal.

And I really stick to, like I said, you can choose what apps are on there. So, I think I have like my messaging app, phone calls, calculator calendar, and maps. Those are the only things that I allow during that time because I do not want my kids to see me on my phone all the time, especially when they get home from school. I want to be diligent and intentional about spending time with them, and we’re going to actually get into that right now.

After-school Routine for Children

Do you have an after-school routine for your kids? How will you handle homework and free time when your kids are home? Again, for me, it’s so tempting for me to just hop back into work when they’re busy doing their other things. But I really truly make it a point to spend time with them, when they’re doing their homework I sit down next to them. I get them a snack, ask them how their day was. I don’t think homework has to feel like drudgery, it can be fun. I also give my kids the freedom to do their homework and household chores in the order that they want to do it. When you give kids control of their actual responsibilities, they tend to want to do them more often.

This is a huge parenting hack; give your kids control as often as you can, and they will stop trying to gain control with the power struggles. I think it’s important to also let you guys know that these rules that I have set in place or these boundaries that I have set in place, they are not set in stone okay? Depending on mood, circumstances, how I’m feeling, how my kids are feeling, all of that stuff kind of plays a role into how I handle certain situations. So currently, I am getting ready to launch this podcast, so I’m prerecording all of these episodes and my kids know. Because I’ve set the boundary and the expectation that I am going to be probably working a little bit more afterschool than I normally am.

It’s not something that happens a lot, but occasionally there is time when my work needs a little bit more of my focus and they know that. And so, what I do is I give them a lot more structured attention when they get home, that way they are willing to allow me to work. If I just didn’t spend any time with them when they got home, and just expected that they were going to be cool with me working all evening, that probably wouldn’t fly. So, I let my kids in on the boundary change and I kind of let them know that, Hey, this is kind of what’s going on in my life right now. So, things might look a little bit different, but you are still extremely important to me. And so here is 15 or 20 minutes of my time. What would you like to do before I get started on my work?

Mealtimes

Another thing to think about is mealtimes; are shared meal times important to you and your family? Is it possible for you to sit down for dinner every night around the table? Can you make it a point to maybe do it at least three times a week? I know that evenings can be hectic for a lot of families with activities and sports, but I want you to remember something, you’re in control of your calendar. If the family time that you’re missing is important enough, maybe you need to start saying no to certain activities or responsibilities. I am a huge believer in margin and letting kids be kids. Our family has personally decided that we want our kids to have limited activities, so that our lives are not controlled by their schedule.
We choose to do sports or activities that have an end date, and my children alternate. So, while one is involved in an activity, the other one is not. This methodology obviously is not for everyone, but it works for us and while our kids are still young. I know that there are a lot of listeners out there who have kids that are in extremely demanding sports, and I totally understand that, and if that is something that’s important to your family, then perhaps there is a way that you guys can pack dinner together and eat it in the car.

Maybe you can schedule some time in the car for people to talk about certain topics and make it a little bit more intentional with your drive time. So instead of just putting on the radio and kind of tuning out, use the drive time as a time to connect with your kids because you’re losing that time when they’re at their activity. So, there’s all kinds of creative ways to keep connection going, and the car is a perfect time for that.
Housework

Housework

Next, let’s talk about housework. This next one might not seem like it fits like the others, but I know for me as a work at home mom, when our house is a mess, it’s really hard for me to be productive. I walk past the couch, maybe there’s some laundry strewn across and I’m tempted to start folding it. Or maybe I walk through my bedroom and I see my basket of dirty laundry and I think, Oh, let me just start a quick load. But can you see where this is going? Very quickly, I can become distracted by my house and start to forget about the work that needs to be done. Very early on, I established a clear boundary in my family that I would not be responsible for all the household tasks.

Everyone in my family, yes, everyone is responsible for their own stuff. My kids clean up their dishes; they put their shoes away, they do their laundry, they tidy up their rooms. It’s a team effort in our family. I hold everyone accountable and I expect them to hold me accountable as well. Every night, Travis and I alternate doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen and who puts the kids to bed. We both do things like cook dinner and the dirty stuff like take the trash out and clean the toilets, we work as a team. One thing that we splurge on is our sweet Doris; she comes to deep cleaner house every three weeks; I am so thankful for her. Now before you roll your eyes and say, must be nice, because that used to totally be me.

This is not just for the rich and famous, I promise, promise, promise. I recommend not using a larger company because their rates will be higher but ask for personal recommendations. It’s a bonus if you can find someone in your neighborhood Facebook page that has their own business, because they’re usually willing to negotiate a better price with you because you’re close to home. We have decided to cut back in other areas so that we could afford this and spend more time doing things that matter most to us. I don’t know about you guys, but cleaning was one of those things that was robbing me of my joy.

My husband and I would fight on the weekends of who was going to do what, and I felt like he should help. Even though he was gone 60 hours a week, we couldn’t get past it. And it was so frustrating because nothing was ever clean. So, Doris has seriously saved our marriage, it sounds really ridiculous, but it’s true. It is so nice to have somebody who can keep the house deep cleaned while we just focus on keeping things tidy.

Working on the Weekends

My next question for you is how will you handle work on the weekends? I typically do not work on the weekends, but if I need to, I implement the same quiet time routine mentioned earlier, so I at least know that I can count on that time if necessary. Next how are you going to be intentional with your family on the weekends?
I mentioned this before, but I know that if I don’t carve out specific time to spend with my kids and my family since they’re so self-sufficient, I can easily fall into the trap of busying myself with other things. So being intentional and planning these connection moments in advance is the key. One of the main reasons I am transitioning out of doing wedding photography is because it takes up so much time on my weekends, and that’s the time I get to spend with my kids and my husband. That time is so precious to me and I know I’m never going to get these days back when my kids are young and little and still actually want to snuggle.

So, as you sit down and take an inventory of your schedule. I want you to take a critical look at what is eating up the most of your time on the weekends and decide is there any where you can adjust or anything you can let go of? Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes. Here are a couple of bonus tips. I keep a running list on Trello of all the things I need to do. So anytime something pops into my head, and I’m not technically at work, I stop what I’m doing and I quickly add it to my Trello list, and this helps me remember when I’m sitting in my office at my computer to actually schedule that task to get completed. If you’re not familiar with Trello, it is a completely free online product that has seriously been a game changer for me. It helps keep your thoughts and tasks prioritized and definitely check it out. I will definitely be sure to leave a link in the show notes if you’re interested.

Another thing that always seems to catch me off guard is when I get an email notification when I’m not supposed to be working and it’s an inquiry. And I get super excited about inquiries as we all should. And I used to just stop what I was doing and quickly respond, and it threw a wrench in my productivity because I was usually in the middle of something important, like hanging out with my family. Or actually trying to get client work done. So, in many cases, potential clients are sending out emails to multiple companies at once and they likely end up choosing one of the people who gets back to them first right? So prompt responses are important, but if you can automate this process with the next step for them to complete, it will actually give you a buffer of time. That way when you’re able to personally follow up, you have hopefully already received that second piece of correspondence and now you can transition to the next step more efficiently.

How to Stick to Your Boundaries

So now the final piece to the puzzle, how do you actually stick to your boundaries? Well, I want you to remember why you started. Close your eyes for just a minute and think back to before you started your business. Think about those first few months when you were toying around with this idea. What was it that made you want to start in the first place?

Did it have something to do with flexibility in your schedule so that you could spend more time with your family? I know mine did. I want you to envision your child right now. Maybe you have more than one child, envision your children. I want you to see them as they are today and now picture what they will look like in five years, in 10 years, and think about the moments and how fleeting they are and how you will never get this time back. These boundaries that you put in place are to give you that freedom to be with your family now.

That’s the whole reason you started your business, right? So, let’s go back to that day, let’s remember why we started. Let’s always remember that we can work for the rest of our lives, but we will not always have this time with our children as mompreneurs. We cannot keep our work and personal life completely separate. But these boundaries are a crucial step to feeling more in control and balanced. Another way that you can help stick to these boundaries is remember the chaos you feel when you’re not implementing these boundaries. Notice the feeling of anxiety and worry and frustration.
Think back to the previous episode where we talked about mom guilt. How much of our mom guilt is stemming from our lack of boundaries? Now when you get a moment to sit down and start to compile this list of boundaries and you’ve set aside the time with your families to actually kind of come up with a game plan of what you think is appropriate for your family dynamic, I want you to think about just a few to focus on. If you make a huge list and try to do them all, it’s going to be a mess. Just telling you right now, from personal experience.

I recommend starting with the areas where you feel the most overwhelmed or where your family is feeling the most disconnected from you. That will be a great indication of where to start and what boundaries to start putting into place right away. Once you’ve narrowed down a few that you really want to focus on, I suggest you kind of put together a game plan. So, if you want to limit your screen time, you need to put a game plan in place. How much screen time are you aiming for? Do you want to reduce your screen time or your social media usage by one hour per day? How are you going to track that? These are the kinds of things I’m talking about when I’m saying, come up with your game plan. You have to have some sort of practical action that you’re going to take if you really want to be able to stick to these.
Now for the most practical tip I can give you to uphold these boundaries, you’re going to want to learn how to set timers and reminders and alarms, whatever it is that helps you remember things. This is going to be a huge, huge game changer for you. I set timers for everything. I set timers for my children to get their tasks done on their morning checklist. I set timers for how long I want to accomplish a certain task. Timers are my best friend and they will be for you too; it just jogs your memory. When it goes off that Hey, it’s time to stop what I’m doing and switch gears. This has saved me so much time and I hope it’ll be helpful for you.

Another tip is to set an alarm. So, when you’re trying to create a new habit, you need to be reminded of it often. So, an alarm is a really great way for you to be alerted to remember to do something. For instance, I have a really hard time eating breakfast and eating snacks, so I have to put an alarm in my phone to alert me that it’s time to eat. Otherwise, I will skip meals and that is not good for my well-being and anyone else that’s around.

So, let’s recap. We talked about the importance of work-life boundaries, and I gave you a ton of examples of what those might look like for you. I’ve given you questions to answer and things to consider. Promise me one thing that you’re actually going to act and do the work. Your homework this week is to come up with a list of some of the boundaries that you already have in place and two to three that you want to start implementing.

Please send me a DM on Instagram and let me know which ones you choose. Being a mompreneur is not for the weak, so take heart and know that you’re already ahead of the game. It’s time for you to act, reclaim your sanity, and start enjoying every part of your job description.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Purpose Gathering Podcast. As we end our time together, remember that you were created for more. You were created to thrive with purpose and not just survive. So, go out there and live your life with confidence and courage. To become a part of our amazing online community and connect with like-minded mompreneurs, head to the purposegathering.com/mamas that’s M -A- M-A-S to join our private Facebook group.

If you enjoy today’s episode, I would love for you to take a screenshot and share it on Instagram. Be sure to follow and tag me at The Purpose Gathering. If you haven’t had a chance to leave a review, please head to iTunes even if you’re an Android user and let other mompreneurs know why you love the show. Each review is so valuable to me and helps more mamas like you find the show. I choose one review every episode to share and yours could be the next one.

I’m so proud of you for listening and investing in your future. Together let’s link arms and make a lasting, positive impact on our families and communities. You’ve got this girl, and I can’t wait until next time.

Resources:

• Find me on Instagram: @thepurposegathering @ashleyfreehanphotography
• Website: thepurposegathering.com
• Online Workshop: Thriving With Purpose – The Roadmap to Your Most Purposeful Life
• Join our Facebook Community
• Free Training: How to Grow Your Reach + Engagement on Instagram
• Productivity Tool: Trello
• Okay to Wake Clock