About a month or two ago, I discovered there’s a buzzword that describes people like me. I’m a “curator” – someone who finds informative and useful online content and shares it with friends and followers. I’ve been the resource gal for as long as I can remember! Being a curator is very time consuming (fellow curators, please nod along with me). Luckily there are apps people just like us!

There’s no going back – many of us lead busy social lives… online. Social media needs to be an essential ingredient in a birth pro’s marketing and networking strategies. It’s where a large number of expectant mamas hang out, and it’s where we can get their attention. It’s where we can be influential, and where we can change the state of maternal health in our society. The issue many face is that aside from the learning curve newbies face when starting out, to get the most out of social media, time must be invested in it. Anyone who is a heavy user of Facebook and Twitter (and now Google+) knows all too well the time suck that can result.

So far, you have created a vision for family and business, and you’ve set some attainable goals. How are you going to get everything done and feel great at the end of the day? It will take a system. Or two. Or three.

When my week runs smoothly, it is typically the result of me creating a plan and following through with it. All events have made it into my calendar and I refer to it throughout the day. I have made a menu plan that works around our schedule, bought the groceries and have the recipes out and ready to use. I’ve made a list of goals and tasks for the week and have been diligent and focused in my work. I’ve built in some self-care activities to reconnect with myself and others.

As much as I use my Outlook calendar and love my iPhone to track my appointments and important dates, there’s something about using a paper-based planner that just works well for me.

About a year ago, I found a great website called Productive Flourishing that’s run by Charlie Gilkey. He writes great articles about time management and getting organized, but what I really love is that he offers, for FREE, great printable planning calendars. And, he updates them each month. If you subscribe to his newsletter, you’ll be invited to visit his “secret lab”, where you have access to the month’s planners.

I have tried a lot of time management systems – the ol’ trusty Day Timer, one big list, prioritizing tasks in a list, scheduling tasks in blocks of time…

Balancing your home life while building your birth business takes practice and experimentation. Many birth professionals are also mothers of young children, and much of the work we do managing our businesses is at home while we’re also mothering and running the household. As business owners, how do we make time for it all?

For the home business owner, time management is critical for maintaining peace of mind and peace within your family. It’s important that you be as productive as possible in the time you set aside for work so you can enjoy life more when you’re away from it.

We each have 24 hours in a day, in which we have to fit in eating, sleeping, exercise, working in and on our business, taking care of our family, and the other responsibilities we have in our lives. In every moment we have choices – staying present in the moment and working mindfully based on our values and goals, or tending to the fires that have to be put out throughout the day.

Do you feel like you are in control of your calendar and all those things on your to-do list or are they in control of you? If you are driven by everything that has to be done each day, there’s a good chance that the systems you’re using to plan your days and keep yourself organized need to be examined and restructured. By implementing some key structures in the important areas in your life, you will find yourself moving through the day with less stress and more items on your list being crossed off.

The energy you have and the way you expend it affects how effective you are at managing your time. Here is an exercise you can do to explore how your energy level affects your productivity.