I still run my health coaching business – although it’s really just a wellness company with a digital product now – and do a few other things in addition to this website design biz. I’ve just always loved doing all of the things and I can’t seem to get down to just one thing that I want to do.

That said, I do all of the things I do well – and it comes down to organization. And since adding a baby to the mix, I’ve had to be even more diligent and structured to get everything I want to do, well, done.

So these are the three biggest practices I have:

A Weekly To-Do List

At the beginning of each week, I write out all of the things that I want to do for each business/project. It’s simple – just the name of each project bolded with a bunch of checkboxes underneath it. 

I used to do daily lists, but now with things shifting around more due to baby and how much sleep I’ve gotten the night before, a weekly list is more manageable since I don’t have to shift things around every time I don’t quite finish everything on my daily list. Additionally, a weekly list allows me to take stock of the big picture for the week and tackle the items that I most feel aligned with on a given day.

I keep the list in a Google doc, and every Sunday, I edit it. Adding new things to it, and leaving anything I didn’t quite get to on it.

Batching Like Tasks

OK, so you’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worthy of reinforcement. Do all of your like tasks at the same time. Group together email inbox management instead of checking it here and there throughout the day. Batch phone calls.Write 4 blog posts whenever you sit down instead of just one, etc. This helps to build momentum because you’re not stopping to break your flow. You’re in ‘writing mode’ and then in ‘on the phone mode’.

Avoiding Context Switching

What is context switching? It’s when you basically have to relocate your brain to switch from one task to the next. It’s on a little bit of a larger scale than single- vs multi- tasking, and builds on the context of batching.

Basically all of your tasks require you to be in a certain mindset. My mom mindset is much different from my working mindset, so working while I’m with my little one requires me to context-switch and results in a lot of unnecessary stress. You might experience something similar if you try to work on your side hustle while at your day job for instance.

On another level, there are communication context tasks like email, phone calls. And creative context tasks like content creation. The more you can batch tasks together that require you to be in the same mental state, the more productive you’ll be, and you’ll find it to be less draining!

Give it a try and see if a little bit of forethought and organization can help you to accomplish more with more ease!