How I Launched & Scaled my Businesses While Being a Full-Time

I get it. Being a mother is already a full-time job that requires a lot of time, energy, and patience. Throw in college to the mix, and we could have a messy situation. Now, imagine adding entrepreneurship to that mix. Do you see what I’m cooking? It’s a productivity disaster!

Okay, calm down. This is what I used to believe. I used to dread waking up early because I knew that my day was going to be stressful. My daughter was only a few months old, yet I still had to go to college to get my degree and then go back home to my daughter and my online businesses. I felt that I was no longer a businesswoman because I wasn’t prioritizing my businesses the way I wanted to. I thought that I was a terrible mother for leaving my baby behind while I commuted to college. I felt that my lifestyle was owning me rather than the other way around.

After being miserable for months, I decided something needed to change. I sat down and invented my own mathematical equation to get things done, and another one to wake up early without dreading it. Luckily, my daughter had already started to sleep through the night, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to plan a somewhat predictable day.

Disclaimer: Please note that although this worked for me and continues to work, it may not work for you due to our different lifestyles.

The first thing I did was write down the things I wanted to get done, and I separated them into three categories: business, college, house.

By doing so, I realized that my businesses needed to become more automated so that I didn’t have to be present all the time to make money. I also noticed that I was wasting time implementing strategies that weren’t working.

Categorizing my tasks also made me realize all the time I wasted commuting to college and going back home. If you’re from NYC, I’m sure you are very familiar with delays.

I decided to eliminate my commute time and my babysitter fee by making a drastic decision: transferring to an online college.

Choosing an online college was the perfect decision for me to take back control of my life. I got to work on my businesses when I wanted to, I got to do my college work when I wanted to, and most importantly, I got to see my baby grow and take her first little steps. I was there to pick her back up whenever she fell.

After I saved that time and money, I sat back down and used my mathematical equation to decide which tasks on my to-do list had to get done first. Here is how it works: on a scale from 1 to 5, decide how much time it takes to get that task done, with 5 being a lot. Then, on a scale from 1 to 5, decide how much energy it takes to get it done, with 5 being a lot. Lastly, on a scale from 1 to 5, decide how irrelevant the task is, with 5 being very irrelevant.

Here is an example:

Important Task = Cleaning Closet
Time: Score of 5 (very time-consuming)
Energy: Score of 5 (huge amount of energy)
Irrelevancy: Score of 1 (not irrelevant at all)
Results: 9 (Get this done ASAP)

I chose cleaning the closet as an example because I have a walk-in closet, so cleaning it is a very time-consuming and draining task. Aside from taking a lot of time and energy, it is also very relevant because if I don’t do it, nobody else will.

You want to start with your most draining tasks first because once you get them done, your schedule is going to get lighter, and so is your head. A score of 9 tells you that you should prioritize that task. If you get multiple tasks with the same score, don’t stress it. Pick one and get it done.

Okay! So, I figured out how to organize my tasks in a way that allows me to get them done, but how was I going to get the time to do them? That’s where the following formula comes in: the 15-minute rule.

I knew that the only time for me to get as much done as possible was going to be in the morning when my daughter was still sleeping. This meant that I had to make a sacrifice to wake up earlier than usual. However, being a mom and a college student was not going to allow me to cut down my sleep. Come on; I needed my rest! So, I decided to create what I call the 15-minute rule, which means going to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual and taking away 15 minutes more every three nights to get my body adjusted to its new schedule. To wake up, I set my alarm to go off 15 minutes earlier and took away 15 more minutes every three days.

In the end, I was waking up at 5 am and going to bed at 10 pm. I got 7 hours of sleep per night and got 2–3 hours in the morning to work on anything related to business or college.

Of course, I also took advantage of those quiet mornings to workout, meditate, and write on my morning pages what I was thankful for. Remember that mindfulness is everything when it comes to mental stability and getting things done.

After using my formulas for months, I gave a keynote presentation on productivity and getting things done in which the previous was included. Honestly, I knew it was going to change lives; I didn’t realize the impact it was going to have on those fantastic people who came back to me and thanked me.

It was those emotional responses that inspired me to create a planner that includes morning pages, affirmations, and my productivity formula. You can learn more about it here if you’re interested.

Learn more at https://elennyfrometa.com/gid-planner/

By doing everything I mentioned above, I was able to work with more clients (I was doing copywriting at the time), and I also created more valuable content on a schedule that worked for me. Becoming a productivity freak also allowed me to scale my businesses by implementing the right strategies and taking the time to A/B test them. Due to that, I can proudly say that my 2019 income doubled, and I project they will at least triple in 2020.

Luckily, you don’t have to sit down to write down the formulas or to do more work than what you actually have to do! I did it for you! That’s why I created the GID planner. GID stands for ‘get it done’ and that’s exactly what you are going to do. Here is what your brand new planner has to offer:

• 26 beautiful pages you can print over and over again. Take it one month, week, or a day at a time 🙂
• Morning pages so you can start your mornings on the right foot
• My GID productivity formula which will allow you to prioritize your tasks in a way that will get you to get them done
• Your own space to write inspirational quotes. Get inspired by other people’s or make up your own
• Seriously, it’s your all-in-one planner for productivity and success. What are you waiting for!?

Learn more at https://elennyfrometa.com/gid-planner/

Originally published at https://elennyfrometa.com on February 6, 2020.