Are you A Plate Spinner? 9 Tips For Keeping It All Together For Moms Who Work At Home |

I know I’m dating myself here, but do you remember the Ed Sullivan Show? If you don’t, go ask your mother, she’ll remember Ed. One of the acts on Ed Sullivan was a guy who was a plate spinner. He had 5 or 6 poles about 6 feet high. He’d start by balancing one plate on top of a pole and moving the pole around in small circles to start the plate spinning. Then he would start another pole and plate, then another. Soon, all the plates would be spinning and the guy is running around trying to keep them all going without having any of the plates fall.

Sound familiar?

As moms we feel this way on a daily basis. Add working at home to the mix and I guess we could all put the plate spinner to shame on most days. But really, do we want to spin plates for a living?

I’ve been a working mom for the better part of 25 years. My oldest is 28 and my youngest is 10. Honestly I‘m still trying to figure it all out too. That being said, I do have some tips and tricks I’ve picked up through the years. Here’s my top eight:

1. Stop the “Lone Ranger” mentality.
Even the Lone Ranger needed Tonto. You need someone or perhaps more than one person to help keep the home fires burning. Think about whom you can enlist. If you ask, they will most probably be glad to help. A good source of recommendations for a babysitter or mother’s helper is your local college education department, or high school guidance office.

2. Once a week, sit down with your “players” and go over the next week’s game plan. Players = your partner (business and life), older children, outside helpers. I use colored dot stickers available at your local office supply store to represent chores or people responsible for chores, and activities. Stick them on a big office sized calendar where everyone can see what’s going on and what they need to be doing to help make it happen.

3. Prioritize.
This takes practice and consistency. Each night, look at what you need to do for the next day. Make a list. In the morning as you get started check again. Cross of what you have accomplished and re-prioritize. Something comes up? Look at the list. What can be moved? Something can be moved. Having a list in front of you is going to make you more organized and make it easier to take on sudden challenges.

4. Be flexible. Stuff happens.
Although we’d like to believe differently, we are not in control of everything. If the baby comes down with an ear infection, the washer decides to stop washing, the Internet goes down, and you know the rest. Take a second. Put down the baby and take a breath. Walk directly to the nearest closet. Go in the closet and bury your head in whatever clothing is there and scream for at least 5 seconds. Better yet, take a pillow with you. Come back out of the closet. Take another breath. Something about doing that clears your head. Really. You remember that all is not lost. It’s just a blimp on the screen. Whatever the issue is, work it through step by step. When all else fails, have a glass of wine and call it a day

5 Wardrobe: Plan A and plan B.
Do you have meetings with clients or an event to go to? Lay out your clothing including hose and accessories for two complete outfits the night before. Do the same for your younger children. This was a lifesaver for me. If for some reason one outfit didn’t work, I had plan B. The same for the kids. They helped pick out their outfits the night before and knew they had a choice in the morning.

6. Cleaning:
Go to your local bookstore or amazon.com. Buy a copy of “How To Cheat At Cleaning” by Jeff Bredenberg. Consider it your cleaning bible.

7. Your Life In Your Hands:
What goes into your briefcase and/or handbag is your life in your hands. First of all let me say ladies: Clean them out once a week. You really don’t want to be digging through used tissues, scads of paper, matchbox cars, hair ties and loose change to find what you need. As far as what you do need, aside from the obvious, think of your briefcase as a traveling office and your handbag as a traveling toolbox and act accordingly.

8 Phone calls.
If you can help it, don’t take “work” calls at “home.” We all need and deserve down time. Try to observe some kind of office hours for business calls. Instead of taking that after-hours phone call, read to your kids, play a game, have a glass of wine and a grown-up conversation with a friend or your spouse. Work is work but it’s never a 24/7 job.

9. Create a sacred space.
I cannot say enough about this. May be it’s a chair in your bedroom; maybe it’s a space in your walk-in closet (believe it). Find a space just for you – it’s there somewhere. Make it all your own. Spend at least five minutes sitting there alone with no interruptions everyday. You can do it. Five minutes. It’s amazing how calming those five minutes can be.

There are tons of organization books and time management books out there. They all boil down to two things: planning and consistency. Do these two things and add five minutes a day for time just for you and you’ll be amazed at how much easier your days will go. Oh, and plates? Use paper!

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