Hey, friend. You're listening to Harmonious Mompreneur, where faith, family and business come together. I'm your host, Phylicia Pough, a Christian wife, mom of two, and life and business system strategist for moms. If you've ever felt like there just aren't enough hours in the day or find yourself craving more time for yourself, but feel guilty about it, you're in the right place. While many strive for balance, I believe it's harmony, an integrated flow that works for you, that truly sustains. Each week, I'll share insights from my personal journey and practical strategies to help you design systems that bring peace to your business and home life. So give your kids another snack, take a deep breath and let's dive into today's episode where we'll start creating your harmonious mompreneur life. Hey, friends. So today I am so excited to talk about why business systems alone are not enough. I talk a lot about business systems here on the podcast, but we need to talk about other types of systems as well that are going to allow you to create and experience work, life, harmony. And today we're talking about life systems, specifically home management systems. And so I'm talking about this because, yes, business systems are essential, but without the life systems, we as mompreneurs can still feel overwhelmed. And I have just seen this firsthand in my own journey. I started focusing on my business systems, but I still did not have anything in my life or at home. And once I did that, it really changed how I was able to just operate on a day to day basis with more ease. And so this really matters because you know you can have the best workflows in your business, which I believe I have some pretty good workflows. But again, if your home life and your personal life feel chaotic, you're still going to have this struggle to keep up. And so the key is, is to really integrate both business and life systems. Okay? Now business systems, they are great, they are needed and they do some things well, right? So they allow you to streamline your client processes or your project management, it allows you to increase efficiency and it allows you to automate tasks. And so we need those, but they're not enough. Because the overwhelm that you feel in your life is not just from business, it comes from managing the home, it comes from managing the home, it comes from relationship stuff, it comes from the kids, it just comes with day to day life outside of the business. And so what this might look like is you could have a run, you could have a well Structured workday. But then everything falls apart because dinner isn't planned out. And for me, this was where my struggle came in. It was around cooking and meal planning. And so I knew that in order for me to not feel overwhelmed in that area of my life, I needed some type of system to support me. And so I literally created a system. And just for context, if this is your first time listening, for me, a system is just the way that you do something. I define it as your unique ecosystem and integration of processes, tools, and people. So when it comes to meal planning, for me, it's like, what is my process? What is my process for planning out meals for my family? Right. And I literally just created step by step what that looks like. And I have very specific things that I do at certain times that allow me to not have decision fatigue when it's time to have dinner or when it's time to have a meal. Okay. And then also why these life systems are important is because when the home. When the house, when this area of, especially if you're working from home, when this area of your life is chaotic, then it can impact your productivity. And so for me, again, having these different systems in place where the household is managed, this allows me to be productive in my business as well. So what are life systems? Life systems are literally just structures. They are supporting for your personal life so you can show up well in your business. Right? So it's those processes, it's those tools, and it's those people that are integrated in a way that support you in your personal life so that you can show up well in your business or in any other area of your life. Okay? So key life systems that every mompreneur needs. Okay, there's three that I'm going to mention. So first is household management. And when I say household management, I mean things like meal planning, laundry, your cleaning routines, your decluttering routines, anything related to your household and making sure that it's managed all of those things. Next is family routines. So thinking about what your morning and your evening rhythms are going to be or your morning and evening routines, thinking about your kids schedules, thinking about communication with your spouse. Right? So what are your family routines or rhythms, as I like to say, what are your family rhythms? And then finally, personal care. So yes, you need a system for personal care so it can support you. So really, what does it look like for you to incorporate time in your schedule for faith, time in your schedule for rest and self care? What does self care look like for you? So where do you start with all of these things. You start with your biggest pain point. And so I'll use myself as an example again. For me, when it came to my life systems, specifically household management systems, it was the meal planning. I hated cooking, and I never knew what to cook for dinner. Dinner time was always stressful. The kids would be hungry, I would have to cook, which I didn't like to do. So it's just not a great time. And so I realized recently that it was not that I did not like cooking, it was the actual prep work for cooking that I did not like. And so now what my meal planning system looks like is that by Friday of a particular week, I will have mapped out what our meals for the following week are going to look like or just what, anything from the store that I need. I know what that is. By Friday, so that Saturday morning I can go to the grocery store. Okay, I go to the grocery store, get everything we need for the meals for the following week. And just the everyday things that my kids eat. Like, they eat a ton of fruit. So I'm always getting fruit when I go to the grocery store. But I do that on Saturday mornings, and then I'll cook something Saturday evening. And I decided, okay, this, I need to cook Saturday evening. Why? Because we go to church on Sunday. There's really not time to cook. By the time we come home on Sunday from church, the kids are already hungry. I don't, you know, have time to be. Or. And I don't have the desire to be trying to cook something for them while they're already hungry. So I cook Saturday night. I, or my husband will cook Saturday night, and then Sunday, you know, we'll eat that and then Sunday night. Sunday night, I just discovered this, and I added this to my system. But Sunday night is when I prep all of my food for the upcoming week. And so I do this after the kids have gone to bed. You know, my husband is resting, doing whatever he does, preparing for his week. And this is a quiet time. The house is quiet. I'm in the kitchen prepping. I have worship music on. And the first time I did this, it was so peaceful. And it was almost like an intimate worship moment between me and God. And, you know, I'm just chopping up a bunch of vegetables, cleaning fruit, cutting and cleaning meat or whatever I need for the upcoming week. And it takes me maybe about two hours or so, depending on what I'm cooking. And then the scraps and everything, they can go right out into composting. That's picked up Monday morning and for the week, everything is prepped. And so when it's time to make a meal, when it's time for lunch or whatever, I can just grab what I need and just throw it on the stove or the meal might already be made. It's less stress and it's less pressure. And when I had my items prepared, it just made cooking so much easier. It eliminated the decision fatigue and it wasn't stressful. And it just saved time throughout my week as well because I am like heavily interacting with the kids and the days go by super fast and just having the meals already prepared was so helpful. And so for you, think about in your life or in your home, what is your biggest pain point? What is the area that gives you the most stress? And start there. So I want to encourage you though, you don't have to choose between being a great mom and a successful or impactful business owner. Right? You don't have to choose between being a great mom and an impactful business owner. Systems, business and life systems will allow you to do both. And so your action step for this week is to pick one area of your life to systematize or systemize. Some people say systemize, some people say systematize. But pick one area where you are going to create a system. And again, a system is just your way of doing things. It's, it's your process, any tools that you need and any people that's going to help you. Okay? And so I want to invite you to continue this conversation. As always, feel free to DM me on Instagram but also join our email community because I share more behind the scenes of my home systems, my business systems and you kind of get an insight into what this looks like in my day to day life. So join our email community. The link is in the show notes. Thank you so much for tuning in. With grace and gratitude, I will see you in the next episode. Hey friend. I'm so glad you tuned in today. Before you go, will you take a moment to leave a review? Leaving a review ensures other mompreneurs like you can find this show and get the insights and strategies they need to create harmony between their business and home life. I appreciate you so much. With grace and gratitude, see you in the next episode.