Because the “wake up earlier” crowd doesn’t get it—or at least, they don’t get the whole picture.

Why Traditional Productivity Advice Doesn’t Always Work for Mompreneurs

If you’re a mom running a business, you already know: traditional business productivity advice wasn’t made for you and me. The “just wake up earlier” crowd isn’t factoring in night feeds, toddler tantrums, or the mental load of running both a household and a business.

An important clarification—I am team 5am. Quiet mornings are my favourite, and they’ve made a huge difference for me. But it hasn’t always been possible. If you’re only getting a few hours of broken sleep, it’s not your season for early mornings. And that’s okay. Productivity isn’t about forcing routines that don’t fit. It’s about choice: Choosing yourself, choosing what matters, and letting go of the pressure to do it all.

I used to feel like a failure at the end of every day. Like I didn’t do enough. These days, I wrap up most of my days knowing I’ve done enough. Not everything… just the things that actually matter.

Rewriting the Rules of Business Productivity Advice for Mompreneurs

You don’t need more hours in the day. You need sharper priorities.

☝️ A lesson I’ve learned the hard way over and over again the last few years.

Since my oldest was born, I haven’t worked more than 20ish hours a week (sometimes much less). Add a second baby into the mix, and my capacity shifted again. And yet my business is still running. I’ve crossed big things off my list, landed incredible clients, and even built systems that let me take 2 maternity leaves that each looked different.

I can’t control how long my kids nap, if I’ll get a full night’s sleep, or who might need extra snuggles. I can control what I choose to make of each minute of my day. I get to set the weather in our home every morning. I get to show up 150% for my work when I have focused hours. And because I intentionally choose my priorities, I get more done with less.

You can control your choices. Will you let this build you or break you?

Permission-Based Planning: Business Productivity Advice for Mompreneurs

While my focus isn’t just working with other mompreneurs, I naturally attract others like us! Which makes our working relationships extra special. I encourage clients in the early years of motherhood to literally plan for different scenarios: best case and baseline.

Best case = uninterrupted focus hours, everything flows.

Baseline = chaos, interruptions, no nap times. That way, you’re never derailed—you always have a plan that fits where you are.

One of the first things I ask new consulting clients to do is create an Ideal Calendar. Even if we’re focusing on marketing systems and brand growth goals, we start here. Not because I’m obsessed with time blocking, but because your personal capacity dictates your most aligned business model. And then your business model dictates your best-fit marketing system. Skip that step, and you risk building a system that doesn’t work in real life.

Here’s a quick example: I worked with a client preparing for maternity leave. She wanted a marketing system that could help her make more money without burning out, especially while navigating newborn life. At first, she thought she needed a brand new funnel. But when we mapped her Ideal Calendar, we discovered that what she really needed was a simpler delivery model that didn’t rely on her being online at set times. Once we clarified her capacity, we redesigned her offers to fit inside her real life. That small shift meant her funnel was easier to build, and much more sustainable long-term.

That’s the power of permission-based planning. Instead of squeezing yourself into someone else’s system, you create a system that fits you.

If you want to see what this looks like in practice, check out my Anti-Burnout Workweek Schedule.

Schedules are guidelines, not rules. Use them to your advantage.

Seasons of Life Shape Productivity

Something I’ve felt lowkey embarrassed by? My gardens were severely overgrown for years. Total mess. Not because I didn’t care, but because my seasons were full—pregnancy, toddlers, sleepless nights. The weeds grew. But eventually, it was my turn. And pulling those weeds, then planting new, it reflected something deeper: different seasons demand different priorities.

“Not right now” isn’t the same as “not ever.”

Your productivity doesn’t have to look the same in every season. Some seasons are for planting. Others are for weeding. Others still are for harvesting. Business is no different.

When I was deep in the baby stage, I wasn’t in a season for big launches or 60-hour weeks. But I was still moving forward in ways that counted—building relationships, keeping my systems light, and showing up in ways that didn’t drain me. That’s what productivity looked like then. Now, in a new season, I can layer more on top.

Priorities Over To-Do Lists

I don’t live by long to-do lists anymore. Instead, I choose 1–3 major work things each week. Each day, I focus on selling and serving. That’s it.

By narrowing my focus and developing habits versus trying to tackle never-ending to-dos, I get more done with way less overwhelm. When my day gets derailed, I know I can at least do my 2 main things… serve clients, and sell.

When you’re honest about your priorities, you stop wasting energy on busywork. You stop chasing someone else’s version of success. And you start noticing that the needle moves faster when you’re not trying to do everything at once.

No, we don’t all have the same 24 hours in a day, despite what people love to say. But that’s not an excuse either. Not acting is still a choice. What matters is what you prioritize and follow through on.

When you take radical responsibility for your choices, everything changes.

Redefining Business Productivity Advice to Focus on Creating Energy

I recently took a course on self-care and resilience, and one idea hit me hard: In today’s knowledge-driven economy, the best measure of productivity is no longer how much time people invest. Rather, it’s how much energy they bring to whatever hours they work—and the value of the work they produce as a consequence. (The Human Era @ Work — Energy Project / Tony Schwartz)

This completely reframed how I think about productivity. It’s not just about squeezing more hours in. It’s about channeling energy into the things that matter most.

Energy is the multiplier. When I protect my energy, I can:

✨ Be present with my kids
✨ Deliver higher-quality work to clients
✨ Stay consistent with health habits
✨ Actually enjoy the life I’ve built in the beautiful Okanagan, BC

When you’re depleted, nothing works. When you’re aligned and energized, everything flows more easily.

Follow-Through Matters More Than Ideas

Here’s the tough love: inaction is still a choice. Ideas don’t mean anything if you don’t act on them.

Even during the seasons when I couldn’t manage my early morning routine, I’d do it later in the day—any time I could find a moment to ground myself. Was it perfect? No. Was it consistent? Yes. And that made all the difference.

What separates the women who get ahead from those who stay stuck isn’t more time, more talent, or even better systems. It’s that the ones who grow faster commit to the follow through.

Accountability matters. Not the performative kind where you post your every move online, but the deep self-trust that comes from doing what you said you’d do. When you consistently choose to follow through, you build evidence that you can trust yourself. That trust compounds into confidence.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Here’s what productivity looks like in my real life:

✅ Running my business in 20ish hours a week.
✅ 2 maternity leaves in 2 years.
✅ Logging 200–300 minutes of exercise most weeks.
✅ Reading (goal: 36 books this year… I’m at 32 with 2 nearly finished at the time of writing).
✅ Spending the majority of my days with my two littles.
✅ Saying no to things that don’t fit my season.
✅ Refinding myself 1 sunrise hike at a time.

It’s a beautiful f*cking life, in part because of how I run my business. Because it’s not just about money. It’s about how you choose to live each day.

And here’s the kicker: it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because I choose my priorities over and over again. I choose what to keep, what to pause, and what to let go. That’s the kind of productivity that lasts.

TL;DR

Business productivity advice for mompreneurs isn’t about waking up earlier, colour-coded calendars, or never-ending to-do lists. It’s about:

• Choosing aligned priorities.
• Planning with flexibility.
• Protecting your energy.
• Following through consistently.

You can control your choices. Will you let this build you or break you?

Watch on YouTube

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More resources for you:

✨ AI helps me work faster and better… but you need to know how to work with it. Grab the AI-Ready Brand Brief to train your ChatGPT.

✨ Want to see what’s possible for you? Learn more about 1:1 consulting with me.

✨ Get inspired and see what your day to day could really look like. Download my Anti-Burnout 15-Hour Workweek Schedule.

✨ Email marketing makes my business world go round. Get 52 Newsletter Prompts to grow your list.

✨ Explore templates + resources inside The Biz Bar.

Your business productivity doesn’t have to burn you out. Let’s make it work for your real life.