Call me old fashioned, but I’m a pen and paper girl at heart. I love writing in my journal and sending hand-written notes to friends. I rarely go to a meeting without my college ruled notepad or traditional composition book that I buy at Target for $1 after the back-to-school sales. There’s something that happens in my brain when I’m forming words on paper – and it just doesn’t happen when I type. That’s why I resisted going digital with my notes and lists for quite some time.

But Evernote won me over. I went digital with most – but not all – of my note taking and list making a couple of years ago. Why? Mostly because I live in a digital world and it’s easy to access my notes from wherever I am. But I also love the powerful tagging and searching functionality of Evernote. I don’t have to remember where I put a note or what I called it. And – you’re going to love this! – I can easily share my Evernote files with someone. Let’s say for example, I want my husband to stop at the grocery store on the way home. If he has access to my grocery list, it’s super easy for him!

I use Evernote to capture all of my ideas and document everything from my prayer list to meeting agendas. I use the tagging feature to easily find what I’m looking for. I scan photos, bookmark websites and attach files directly in Evernote. You can even set reminders and use the voice dictation feature.

Want to know more about how I use Evernote?

Here are 12 Ways to Use Evernote To Organize Your Life

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Starting a business is like having a baby – you are never truly ready. You can learn and plan all you want, but nothing prepares you for life as a mompreneur quite like on-the-job training.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about turning your hobby into a business or creating a ministry that will provide a much-needed service in your community. Or perhaps you are desperately seeking a way to quit your job so you can work from home. Or you may be exploring the option of publishing a book or starting a blog.

It all sounds very exciting. Daunting…but fascinating! So how do you know when it’s the right time to take that leap into the small business world? There’s no magic formula, but if you’re going through a discernment process, here are a few signs that might help!

Technology challenges are one of the most common laments I hear from mompreneurs in my age bracket. I’ll admit that people of today’s generation seem like they were born with a cell phone in their hands. But even if you’re not fluent, or at least comfortable, with technology, these are some tools that are worth the learning curve to increase your productivity.

Five Tech Tools for the Non-Tech Mompreneur 

1. Google has a wonderful suite of tools that range from simple to webmaster skill levels. My favorite basic-level tool is Google Calendar. One of the biggest challenges by far for mompreneurs is keeping a balance between business and household commitments. For some reason, most of the time the kids and hubby expect you to be the center of the wheel and keep everyone in the know. Of course, to be honest, you most likely are the center of the wheel, and Google’s calendar can help you keep everyone’s schedules running smoothly. You can set up multiple calendars, invite the appropriate friends and family members to them, and then have event notifications pushed to your smart phone. I have three calendars that I use on a regular basis: my blog calendar, a family calendar and my personal calendar. I can view all three at the same time or individually by toggling one or two off. My business partner and I have access to the blog calendar, the kids and hubby have access to the family one, and my personal one is my own. (It would drive my family bonkers if they got EVERY notification of all the things I have to do every day!)

How this helps with productivity: Um, I don’t think I have to say too much here. I mean, isn’t meeting with a client, and getting the kids to soccer practice or ballet on time, and remembering a Friday date night with hubby almost equally important in the life of a mompreneur?

Have you ever noticed how much time entrepreneurs spend setting goals and working to achieve the next big thing? We are constantly looking ahead. Sometimes we forget to take inventory of the here and now. We don’t even notice all the amazing ways we can leverage what we have – in order to get where we are headed.

Here are six ways you can make the most of your blessings as a mompreneur:

1. Leverage Your Success

Most of us mompreneurs spend so much time trying to fix what’s not working in our business that we forget what is working. Take a few minutes to focus on the successes you have encountered and put them to work for you:

• Ask a client or customer for a testimonial or an endorsement.

• Publicize any awards or certifications you’ve earned.

• Take photos or videos of your progress on a project and share them on social media.

2. Leverage Your Work

Every step of your journey as a mompreneur is a building block. Each time you create something as part of your work, you are adding to the foundation of your success. Be careful not to keep your eyes fixed too much on the next step that you forget the solid work that got you this far. Instead, continue to use that work to propel you further on our journey:

• Repurpose a speech you’ve given in the past as a blog post or webinar.

• Turn your blog posts into a book.

• Create an online course based on the steps or principles you are already using in your business.

Summer was full of slow mornings and lots of free play time. Or it was full of boredom complaints and snack demands. Either way, the kids are back to school! And now mompreneurs and work-at-home moms everywhere will have All the Time to be productive!

Somehow, that’s not quite how it works out. It’s the “Kids at School” Time Myth.

The bus comes at 8 am and they are at school and out of the house until they return at 3:00. That is so much time to get work done! Then why doesn’t any significant work get done?

We forgot to factor in all of the other things that come along with the school year that suck up our time. First and foremost, paperwork! How do such small humans bring home that amount of paperwork nearly everyday? Once the initial paperwork is finished, then it’s the homework. Neither of these components were part of your daily summer routine.

Then there’s the meal planning because now you have to send your kids to school with lunch! And you need to think about it more than five minutes before lunch when you throw some veggies and ranch along with some sandwiches on the table. And of course the activities start now, too. So 3:00 is just the start of a whole other work day in which you get to play taxi for soccer, football, dance, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, music lessons, and the list can go on and on and on.

The kids may be out of the house for a longer period of time, but there are also additional tasks and responsibilities that come along with this time of year that make it all too easy to tell yourself you’ll get to your own work “later.” Moreover, since the kids aren’t home as much as they may have been all summer, when they are at home, they want and need more of your focused time and attention.

So how do you stay productive in your work and manage your family and home during the back-to-school transition?

The best way to start is to be intentional about focused time and multitasked time.

Let’s face it: we can’t be extremely focused all the time. We also can’t (and shouldn’t) multitask all the time. Our culture advocates for almost constant multitasking even though plenty of psychological and scientific research shows that it is not the most productive manner of working.

But sometimes it is necessary. If you aren’t intentional about when to choose each type of time and task management, you will find yourself trying to multitask with tasks that need true concentration and attempting to focus on a task when it’s clear all you have time for at the moment is multitasking.

Ultimately, you have to decide what tasks need your undivided attention, but in terms of optimizing how you can rock your business AND nurture your family, consider these thoughts…

What are you doing November 4-5? I’m going to be in Nashville and I was hoping you might meet me there. I know it’s not easy for us moms to get away from home for a few days, so we want to make sure it’s worth the effort. I am 100% certain that Christy Wright’s Business Boutique event will be worth the effort! I’m not an affiliate and I don’t get any sort of incentive for sharing this information — I just really think it’s going to be a fabulous event and I’d love to see you there.

Christy is on a mission to equip women to make money doing what they love. And she’s bringing together an amazing team of speakers for this event in Nashville – including Dave Ramsey, Amy Porterfield, Christine Caine and more. What’s even more exiting is that she’s offering a special discount just for members of the International Christian Mompreneur Network! Use the promo code below to receive $10 off any ticket level. (I know that’s not a huge discount but you’ll be surprised how affordable the tickets actually are!)

Every so often, a well–intentioned friend kindly inquires of me, “How’s business?”

To which I mistakenly reply, “Busy!”

And that typically leads to an encouraging response such as, “That’s a good problem to have!”

Does that conversation sound remotely familiar? If you are a busy mompreneur, you may recognize the dialog. It seems only natural to commend entrepreneurs on the successful busy-ness of their businesses. It’s as if there are two extremes – either your business is slowly starving you to death, or it’s bustling and hectic and causing you to practically destroy everything else in your life. And somehow, the latter is preferable. In fact, it’s a good problem to have.

But is it? Really?

Since when did “busy” become synonymous for “successful”? I would deny this a thousand times, but deep in my heart, it’s what I believe. I know it’s not good. I know it’s not the way I want to live. But I keep falling victim to the busy trap.

And it’s definitely a trap set by the enemy! As Alli Worthington’s granddaddy used to say, “If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy!”

I have good news for you (and me)! Your self-worth isn’t based on your productivity! Just ask Mary and Martha. We all know who chose the good portion.

I try to remind myself of their story every time I become too busy at work or in the home.

I’ve written about the busy race before. But I’ve mostly focused on how we can set boundaries and prevent ourselves from being workaholics. But I think there’s a deeper issue at heart. There’s a fundamental problem that’s rooted in our thoughts and feelings about the way we work and live. I could blame it on the fact that I come from a long line of businessmen who worked way past retirement age. I could chalk it up to the fact that I have a strong work ethic. Or I could face reality – I’ve accepted “busy-ness” as my own personal definition of success. And I’ve got to change that definition!

So here are five steps I’m going to take as I get rid of this “good problem.” Join me in shifting the way we think and talk about our busy businesses!