Time Management for Moms: My Summer Survival Plan

• How I planned ahead to protect my energy this summer
• What I do when the panic spiral starts creeping in
• How to involve your kids in a way that actually supports your rhythm
• Why spiraling doesn’t mean you’re failing—it just means it’s time to realign

“Spiraling doesn’t mean you’re failing, it’s just an invitation to realign.”

“This isn’t chaos, it’s transition. And transitions are always tender.”

“What kind of CEO and mum do I want to be right now?”

“Peaceful productivity doesn’t ignore discomfort. It makes space for it, and then chooses what matters most.”

“We don’t need perfect plans, we need rhythms that fit the reality of our lives.”

It’s summer, the kids are off school and work is piling up. Your schedule is all over the place, and if you’re anything like me, this Season can feel both like a dream and a real disaster, slower rhythms and rising pressure. So in today’s soda episode, I want to share the exact reminders, habits and micro strategies I come back to when everything feels like it’s spiraling, whether it’s a packed calendar mom guilt or just too many spinning plates, there is a more peaceful way through, and I want to share this with you today. 

Forget the hassle, ditch the burnout, and step into your Productivity Sweet Spot. This isn’t just another time management podcast, it’s your go-to space for refreshingly real conversations and practical strategies that help you work smarter, not harder. I’m Anne Rjaoo, your host, and a passionate advocate for peaceful productivity. Join me as we challenge traditional productivity rules and redefine success on your terms with time, energy and focus that actually fit your life, whether you’re an entrepreneur, creative, or just someone who’s done with the grind, you’ll find actionable tips, mindset shifts and powerful discussions to help you get more done without the stress. Let’s find your Productivity Sweet Spot!

So the intention of today’s episode is to really take you a little bit behind the scenes. What I do, especially during summer, holidays, when the kids are off school, or maybe in a very busy season, if you don’t have kids, you might be in vacation mode, you might be traveling. You might have something coming up, like a big launch or your moving house. I recently had several VA clients in the agency who actually moved country. So during those really busy seasons, it can be quite difficult to stay on top of things and to juggle this, you know, big project, or the move, or the kids and the traveling, and still get some work done. Because unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury or even wants to completely stop their work and go on a full break and shut down the business for a period of time. So if you are someone who has the desire or the need to run their business, but in a different rhythm, because there are some external factors that don’t allow you to work in your usual pattern and your usual schedule. This episode will bring you some tips and tricks that I have discovered or that I have found useful over the past few years, especially with my kids being smaller, but now also having grown up to an age where they’re a little bit more independent. And so let me get right into it. So I think, as always, and I can only preach that again, intentional planning is critical when it comes to seasons like that, because if you’re going into the vacation mode, or the country move or the big launch, you’re likely going to feel all over the place, and it will get chaotic. So planning is what we need to do. For me, for example, we’re going to go away in August for most of the month, and I have already informed my team, my agency. Vas, my clients that I will be away, and that during that time I will be off, I will not be working, and I already have a plan in place that my need. Va, for example, will keep running the agency. I am not taking on productivity clients for the month of August, I will wrap up existing claims before that or I was

starting, I

I will start new clients. Only after that. And during the school holidays. There are a couple of weeks longer than our.

In the US, for example, and in Europe, because for us, right now it’s winter, so we have our very long holiday in November, December, until mid January. Still, there are some weeks where my kids will be at home and I will be doing some work, and so I will take Fridays off completely, and I will work less hours, and I already inform everybody that I will be less responsive, that I just won’t be as quick, or that I won’t be as chatty on Slack, so that everybody knows and I can set the expectations, and I will put my out of office on for the entire period of the holidays, and sort of make it look to the outside world that I’m not working, and if I’m responding, then that’s that’s a bonus. That’s a positive surprise. If I’m not responding, nobody will be disappointed, or hopefully nobody will chase me. So yeah, like really creating this, like, environment where this is it, I am away and everybody’s aware of it, then I have just recently done my quarter free planning session. So this is a planning session that I run every quarter, and you’re very much invited to join the next quarter, which will be in September, perfect for when you come back after the holidays, and you really want to get the last quarter of the year, you know, like, really hone into your goals and give it you all for the end of the year. But anyway, I’ve run this workshop, and I love doing these workshops, because I do my planning sort of in the workshop as well. Because we’re really working. We’re not just like talking and teaching and absorbing information. We’re actually creating that plan. And in that quarter free plan, I have, you know, the time off. I have considered that, and I have made special plans for this time. And so I’ve really looked at what are the key priorities that need to get done, so my sort of non negotiables, and what are those nights to have, if my kids are, you know, having a good day, and they’re entertaining themselves and they’re doing their thing, I can work a little bit more. And so I have a few things that would be nice to get done. But it also doesn’t mean that if I don’t do them, I have to do bad about myself and see like I am not doing enough, because this not doing enough is something that creeps in very quickly and easily in a summer schedule. But these priorities, I’ve wrote them down, and you could use different modalities for that. You could have just simple sticky notes that every day you stick on your desk, or you write a little list. I’ve got a laminated list that’s something that can be useful. And just recently, I created a whiteboard that has weekly themes on there, because I’m doing a 90 days business systemization sprint for myself. And so it’s a little bit more intense than what I would normally do, but I have created this visual reminder of, what are my priorities? What are these three key elements? Or three key there are needle movers that I want to focus on every single week and every single day. So these visual reminders, I find them powerful. I’m a visual person, and definitely someone who loves digital tools and all these things, but when it comes to productivity, physical tools are actually really helpful to me, and I’m going to share another one in this episode. Before I do that, I really want to encourage you to plan ahead. And again, this sense of I’m not doing enough is also something that I want to normalize, because this feeling that creeps in is just really our nervous system feeling a little bit uncomfortable with what’s going on. It’s not the usual working way. It’s not what we’re used to. And everything that we’re not used to does create a bit of discomfort, and so our nervous system is just trying to keep us safe and be like, hey, like, what’s going on here, what’s happening over here, and such, part of the way our nervous system functions. And so I would like to offer you a gentle reframe that this isn’t chaos, it’s transition, it’s transition. And that always feels a little bit tender, and that’s okay. And then I would want for you to re anchor that into this question to yourself, What kind of CEO, in my case, Mother, do I want to be right now and then, really, when you come back to this feeling, I’m not enough, I’m not enough, well, you probably don’t want to be that CEO that talks to herself like that. You want to be that CEO that has has things in control, that focuses on the needle, movers that get stuff done efficiently. And you want to be that mother who is present, who is joyful, who’s not stressed out about the work she hasn’t done, but who can go and play with her kids and make memories and enjoy a beautiful summer break with the feeling that she has accomplished her priorities. And that gets me to the next tip where I always want to bring in tools, like I said, I’m the physical and visual person, so I love my hourglass. I’ve got this beautiful glass hourglass sand, and especially when I have many to do’s, and I know that it will be quite tight to get them done in the day, I take the hourglass and I put it right next to me, where I can see it next to my laptop, and I use it for my task, because this little physical reminder, and this, like knowing that this is half an hour just really gets me into the focus mode quicker. And I often get tasks done in 30 minutes that otherwise might take 45 minutes. So I would suggest that you can get yourself an hourglass and really use it to be okay, like, yeah, maybe I cannot knock out the whole project, the whole proposal today, but right now, and I’m gonna really focus for this half an hour, and when I’m done, I’m done, or, if you know, kids allow, or schedule allows, turn it around again and Make it an hour, but, yeah, it’s really something that has helped me so much. And then I have been creating my holiday schedules with my kids. So I just print out a little schedule with emojis and time like, like a time schedule where I tell them, Okay, from nine o’clock until 1030 mom is gonna work. Then I’m gonna take a break and we can do some fun time. And there’s a smiley or some other emoji that indicates to them that it’s fun. And then at two o’clock, until three, mom has a call, and there will be this emoji that you know, so that my five and a half year old understands what’s going on, and that has been really helpful. And I will talk to them every morning about the schedule, and I will share with them, or we will make plans. What are we going to do in those breaks so that they cannot really feel excited about what’s coming and they know that I will be available to them. And then, obviously, we’ve got to stick to it so we cannot tell them I’m going to take a long break, and then like, Oh no, no, sorry. I’ve got to finish. I’ve got to go back to the office that used to be me, and that didn’t work, because they would make sure that I spend time with them, and that would end up often in crying and shouting and anger, because I was frustrated. I cannot work. They were frustrated. I’m not available to them, and so the schedule has proven really helpful. And yeah, I would encourage you to create something like that if your kids are in that age, mine are five and a half and 10, so it helps them to understand what’s going on with mom’s schedule here. And then

in the recent holidays, in April, I use chatgpt.

So I told chatty Pete that I have two boys, and that they are interested in fish and plants and science and these kind of things, and that they love crafting. And I have, you know, utensils like paper and stickers and some glitter and glue, but maybe I could buy a few other things. But what would be age appropriate activities that they could do on their own, but also together? And I would have this plan. I would give it to my older one as the leader, to help his little brother, but also to manage the task and give him the responsibility, because he can’t stand at the moment. And then I would judge the outcome, you know, whatever they created. So that would be a little like they created these cities out of paper and other things. They would stick on paper, and they would build hospitals and so on. And then they would present it to me, and I would judge what they created, and they would get a little prize for me. And that really helps, especially when I have to have calls, which I try not to do when the kids are at home. But sometimes there’s just no way around it. I’ve got to go on a court. And so they would keep themselves busy for a good chunk of time. So that’s something that I’ve been loving. And then I would love to share a little client story that recently I had done a productivity audit with someone, and she is getting ready for the holiday season, and she was talking about changing her work schedule so that she could start really early and then finish early and be with the children. But she has also shared with me that she is not the morning person, and that she needs a gentle start, and she needs some time in the morning. And so I suggested that maybe starting really early wouldn’t be great, because first of all, she might skip her workout, which she was really trying to stay consistent with, and then she said, Okay, I can do the workout even earlier, but I know that this can be difficult because the body, first of all, is used to a certain way of starting the day, and it will feel really uncomfortable to get rushed in the morning. And secondly, I think there will be too many barriers and towards discomfort, to actually really keep going. So it makes it harder to change something for a period of time, because this is not going to be a lasting schedule. This is just for a few weeks. So I suggested to have a long lunch break instead, which I do with my children, and which they really appreciate, because they know they will have some time with me in the middle of the day, it fills their cup, and then they’re able to just, you know, be without me for a little longer, or we, in any case, we go out and we do something else. But this longer lunch break can be really useful if starting early or working late is not quite an option. So I said to my client for the productivity, in order to maybe try it out both ways, and to see which one actually feels better. Because when I work with people, it’s all about the giving it a go, trying it out, and seeing what works and what doesn’t work. And if it doesn’t work, that’s fine. We find something else that does. So yeah, that’s that’s this little story, and then a last tip I want to share is the sort of co working with a mom friend. Not everybody has the luxury of sending kids to holiday camps. My kids don’t want to go there. If I’m lucky, I get them to go just a few days during the holidays. Or you might not have family around. You might not have the luxury of a partner being able to take time off to be looking at the kids, so you’ve got the kids with you, and that can be challenging. And so I would arrange alternating pay dates with one of my friends. She’s also an entrepreneur, and so we really appreciate this opportunity of having a chunk of hours, like four hours, three hours, just to focus, and we would probably do it over lunch, so that the other mom doesn’t have to worry about, what do I cook for them today? Because that’s also another headache, I think, at least for my kids. So that works really well. And that’s obviously not all the time, but it just really helps that, you know, maybe once a week there is this opportunity that you’ve got a few hours of focus time without getting interrupted. Okay, so these are my tips for a busy season where it feels that things are spiraling, and I just want to remind you that spiraling doesn’t mean failing. It’s really an invitation to realign. And peaceful productivity doesn’t ignore the discomfort of this realignment, but it also creates this space for it, and we can choose what matters and what we focused on. And so I want to leave you with a couple of reminders from today’s episode. Just to summarize it, I would want for you to write down your free priorities every week, so that you stick it somewhere and that it’s visual to you, and you could create that little calendar that I shared for your kids to understand what’s your schedule and what is the expectation for mom to be available, and then physical tools like the hourglass are helpful, and then the reflection question of what kind of CEO and mom do I want to be today? And as always, I appreciate you for listening, and I would really appreciate if you enjoyed this episode and if it made you feel a bit less alone and more grounded, share it with a fellow mom entrepreneur or your business bestie, who might be also navigating the summer chaos, and I want to give a shout out to live and Luna, who left a five star review on the podcast, And she said, I love Anne’s approach to peaceful productivity. It feels so aligned with my anti hustle philosophy, and I’m excited to subscribe to the podcast. So thank you so much Liv and Lula for subscribing and for leading the review. It means a lot to me as a creator to know that what I’m doing resonates with you, and again, it helps other women to find the podcast and to discover preschool productivity. And if you haven’t yet, I invite you to take my productivity style quiz, where you can uncover your unique strengths and align your work with what actually works for you. And the link is in the show notes. It’s Anne raju.com forward slash quiz. And next week, I will be back with a guest episode. I will be talking to Anna, who is a retreat curator, which is such a cool job, and she will share her insights into why taking a real break isn’t just a luxury, it’s a leadership strategy. And we talk about why you don’t have to diet your best. That’s what she said. That’s how she called it, and how rest

fuels creativity growth, and what retreating

actually means, whether it’s a trip away and an adventure or a staycation. So don’t miss this one. It’s going to be an awesome one, and come next week, until then, stay peacefully productive and I catch you next time.