How to Work for Yourself, Build a Flexible Schedule and Honor God.
Balancing business and family isn’t easy—especially as a Christian mompreneur/ small business owner wearing all the hats. Here’s the truth: You can work for yourself, grow a meaningful business, and still be deeply present for your family. The key lies in creating a flexible schedule that aligns with your values, rhythms, and responsibilities. In this post, we’ll walk through creating a schedule that supports both your business and your home life.
Why Traditional Time Management Doesn’t Work for Moms
Most time management systems are built for people who don’t have kids underfoot, dinner to make, or a toddler climbing on their lap during Zoom calls. These systems often rely on strict routines and uninterrupted blocks of time—a luxury many moms don't have. When these plans fail, moms feel like they’ve failed. Newsflash- it’s not you. It’s the system.
Rigid time management doesn't honor the real, fluid, and holy work of motherhood. You need a rhythm, not a rigid rulebook.
Step 1: Define your Family Needs
What are the non-negotiables you need to protect for your family?
Mealtimes
Family activities
Homeschool hours, including your prep time
Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Needs
Don’t squeeze these things into the week; protect them and adjust other things around them. After all, they are the foundation of your life and lifestyle. This is the family you’ve created, and your presence strongly drives their experience, lessons, and development. The trick is to design a flexible schedule for moms that will actually work!
Step 2: Design your Rhythm
Now that the family foundation is in place, layer in your business goals.
How many hours can you work this week?
What tasks do you need to accomplish? Deadlines for projects?
What time of day do you have the most energy to dedicate to work tasks?
What time of day do you have additional support for the kids?
What can be automated or batched?
Hint: Time blocking certain tasks can help! Maybe a specific day to research and another day to create content. Or perhaps a block of time for phone calls/zoom calls. Consider a specific day of the week/month for administrative/marketing/advertising duties.
Check out this Christian mompreneur work week template to help get you started!
Step 3: Designate
Life is often what happens when we are focused on the things we planned. An injury occurs, someone gets sick, a friend needs to chat, or something goes wrong with a client. When creating a schedule that fits your life's rhythm, it’s essential to remember two key things:
Unexpected
Rest
In order to avoid the negative effects of hustle (let’s steer clear of burnout, shall we?), remembering to give ourselves time for the unexpected is so important. We want the freedom to stop in the middle of our day so our teen can share a cool part from the book they are reading. And we absolutely want time to sit with a sick child, visit with an aging parent or even volunteer for a cool event in our community.
That’s ok! It’s ok to want to have time to embrace the unexpected things that pop up in our lives without it adding stress into our day. Leave some buffer room for the unexpected wonders. Speaking of buffer room….
We are biblically called to rest and honor a sabbath, which means an entire day without work. In addition to one full day of rest each week, did you know that there are seven (yes, seven!) different types of rest that we need?
These include emotional rest, physical rest, creative rest, mental rest, spiritual rest, social rest, and sensory rest. I put together a cheat sheet for you that you can grab here.
Step 4: Defend your Boundaries
No, I am not calling for you to take up arms and man the perimeter… or am I? When I lived my most chaotic lifestyle, I believed everyone threw things at me. I believed that there were expectations I had to meet for others that far outweighed the expectations God had for me with my family. Hello, wrong!
The truth is, as my friend and mentor, Honorée Corder, tells me, “Great fences make great neighbors.” If I am clear on my boundaries, I can set clear expectations with others. When I am clear on my boundaries, I can let others know where they can/cannot infringe. When I am clear on my boundaries, I can most diligently protect my non-negotiables and still have the business my family needs.
If I don’t know where my boundaries are, no one else will either.
Step 5: Deliver
If you want to be able to deliver the ideal flexible schedule that works for your family needs and allows you to build your business, then evaluating often is important. For this step, I suggest three things.
First, at the beginning of your week (or the end of the previous week), write down everything you need from the previous 4 steps, taking into account any new things happening this week.
Second, set time every afternoon or early evening to look at your day. Did you get done the things you needed to? What needs to be moved or shifted to another day?
Third, at the end of every week, re-evaluate how the rhythm from the previous week went. How do you feel? Did you honor God, yourself, your family, and your business well this past week? Where do you need to give yourself (and maybe others) more grace? Is there anything you need to shift for the following week?
We are called to steward our family and our businesses with wisdom and grace. Neither of those words trend toward hustle or stress. In order for us to gain more wisdom and extend more grace, we need time to be fully present with the Lord. We need to allow Him to lead our lives, and we need to protect the things He wishes us to protect.
Create the Rhythm
Through my years of business, I’ve listened and read more than I can say about time management. Often, I felt frustrated because I couldn’t make those systems work for me. It took a while, but I figured out that the reason they didn’t work was because they weren’t designed for a God loving, homeschooling, entrepreneur-minded person. They were designed either for homelife or for work/business. I didn’t want to feel overwhelmed anymore, and I certainly didn’t want to continue feeling like I was failing. I didn’t need another rigid time-blocked schedule. I needed a rhythm that felt aligned with what our lifestyle was.
This week, why not give a new rhythm a try? With these few simple steps, you can begin to explore a new recipe that allows you to feel accomplished and peaceful as you navigate this wonderful time in your life and business.
