The truth about building a creative business as a working mom
Creator Diaries #7: the messy truth & the practical things that are helping me 'balance' it all
It’s officially been a couple of weeks since I started working again as a mom after 18 full months of maternity leave, and I’m not going to lie…it’s been a rough transition. I was so used to having so much time to spend with my daughter and having about 2 to 4 hours for my creative work.
But now, I can barely squeeze in an hour every day for the thing that actually feeds my soul.
In this letter, I thought I’d share the truth about building a creative business as a working mom (aka the messy truth) and what’s been helping me balance it all.
Let’s get into it.
P.S. As I adjust to this new lifestyle, please bear with me to get back to the weekly-ish cadence.
the messy truth
The truth is, building a creative business while working a 9-to-5 and being a mom is really hard. For context, I used to work 12-hour shifts as a part-time nurse, but I’ve decided to switch to a 9-to-5 role so I can work from home.
I love love working from home. But working a 9-to-5 (or more like 8-to-4) in my case really doesn’t feel like I have enough time in the world. I’m not used to working every single day. I don’t hate it, but I also miss my 3 to 4 days off where I could just be off and have time for everything else I wanted to do.
These days, I’ve been experimenting with when exactly to do my creative work. I tried waking up at 5 am (super hard) or sleeping around 10 to 11 pm so that I could squeeze my creative work around 8 to 10 pm.
But around that time, I’m also pulled toward other household chores like cooking and some cleaning. I mean, it truly helps that I work from home, so I don’t lose even more time commuting. But over the last 2 weeks doing this 9-to-5, I’ve come to realize it’s really tiring. No wonder people work so hard to quit their 9-to-5.
Just to give you a picture, this is what my current life looks like:
After we pick our daughter up from daycare, we spend quality time with her. We avoid chores during that time because, well, we want quality time with her.
Honestly, the only “free” time I have is after putting her to sleep around 7:30 pm. But then again, there are chores. I also do Pilates (on Monday evenings) and cooking. My hubby does some chores too, like doing the dishes every single night. So that truly helps a lot.
But as you can see, there’s very little window time for the creative business, and now I’m wondering how the hell I’m going to make this work.
practical things that’s helping ‘balance’ it all
Despite this shocking transition from not working to suddenly working, filling up most of my time, I am slowly adjusting to this new lifestyle.
Here are some of the things that have been helping:
Self-compassion
Since I’m experiencing a new life transition—being a working mom and doing a 9-to-5—I’m giving myself more grace. I try not to dwell on small things like unfinished chores. I give myself compassion for being new to the job or to this working-mom thing throughout the week. Or if I’m very behind on my creative work (like this newsletter), I try not to be hard on myself. I feel like being hard on yourself during a big life transition is counterproductive. Like life externally already feels hard. Why make it harder on yourself by being hard on yourself?
Creating and sticking to a routine
One thing I appreciate about a 9-to-5 is having a routine. Something that shift work couldn’t really give me. I love that I can plan my mornings, evenings, and weekends. These days, I’ve been experimenting with doing my creative work in the morning, at lunch, or in the evening after my baby goes to sleep. It keeps enough variety but also routinely enough that I still get things done. Having systems in place truly helps with this.
Delegating things I don’t have time for
One thing that’s currently helping me is delegating things I currently don’t have the capacity for. For instance, we have a cleaner who comes every other week to deep-clean our home. It takes her about 4 hours and takes a boring, time-consuming, but necessary task off our plate.
I also contracted my little brother to help me edit my short-form videos. Even though it only takes me 30 minutes to edit each video, that would roughly be about 1.5 to 2 hours a week. I either spend money to take this task off my plate, or it cuts into quality time with my daughter. Obviously, I’d rather ‘lose’ money than lose quality time with my daughter. In the future, I’d also like to delegate meal prepping so that I don’t have to worry about cooking and cleaning for the week.
Final Thoughts
Being a working mom is hard, and I have so much more respect for all the working moms out there. I have even more admiration for moms who are also building something on the side. But I also know that even though this current phase is hard right now, it is still quite fulfilling.
I love being a mom, but I also love working and doing creative work. I know that the stay-at-home-mom lifestyle isn’t for me. Maybe one day, when the 6-figure part-time creator business is up and running. 😊
But for now, we’ll just have to make this work.
Let me know how you balance work, motherhood, & your creative business.