My kids have been out of school for a few weeks.  Enough said, right?

While I LOVE having my kids home with me and wouldn’t change that for anything, I run my business, AtlantaMoms.com and this blog, from home, and have for 12 years.  Summer break can be a bit stressful because I have to make sure the kids are entertained while I work.

Each year toward the end of the school year, I feel a sense of relief that summer break is approaching.   After all, with summer break comes fun family travel, and less chaotic days, right?  Wrong!!  Well, I suppose the fun family travel is right, but the days are not less chaotic when the kids are out of school, that’s for sure.

In the 3 weeks that the kids have been out of school, we’ve been to Florida and Indiana, and home for 1 week.  I worked about a total of two hours during each trip which odd as it sounds, stressed me out more than when I work a long work day.

Why is that, you ask?

When I’m working, I know that I am moving my business forward and being productive.  When I’m not working, I think about the emails I should be answering, the ads I should be publishing, the newsletter I should be editing, and the blog posts I should be proofing.

I worked very hard to create and build my business, AtlantaMoms.com, 12 years ago and like many business owners I had a difficult time giving up control of any part of the business so that I didn’t have to do it all.  The lack of desire to give up control of some aspects of the business didn’t last long though.  Within 2 years of launching AtlantaMoms.com, I had a full-time advertising sales representative who made tons of money, more than me it seemed (you know.. businesses expenses.. and all that), and she stayed with Atlanta Moms® for 8 years.  Giving up complete control was the best thing I could do for my business and I recommend that all business owners hire someone to take care of some tasks as soon as they can.  I was less stressed almost immediately after hiring my first employee and I couldn’t do without help now.  I thought surely no one would represent my business as well as I did, but I was wrong.

Having employees has given me the opportunity to spend more time with my kids.   My son was a year old when I started AtlantaMoms.com and I am so glad I’ve been able to watch him grow up and be with him every day to be there for moments like these..

No matter what, I will always want to keep tabs on my business even when I’m on vacation, but I know now that I don’t have to answer every email within 15 minutes and that it’s not a big deal to have over 30k emails in my inbox.  Speaking of email, I’ve known bloggers and other business colleagues to say a lot about having soo many emails in their inbox, but why is it a big deal?  No matter what, the emails are going to be stored somewhere so why not just keep them in your inbox?  Doesn’t everyone just use search to find an email? Who labels emails or puts them in folders anymore?

I expanded my business when I started this site, TheMommyInsider.com, in 2006.  I am equally proud of both sites and can’t imagine not having either of them.  It’s like having a second child.  You don’t think you could love another website as much as the first, but you do.

On that note, here are a few photos of my daughter, starting in 2007 and ending with a photo of the two of us taken just about a week ago, in June 2013.

This summer, I accept that there will be times when I can not check email more than once a day and I am not going to stress about it.   Please don’t quote me.

That is just one way I am going to make this summer less stressful than past summers.

Over the last 12 years I’ve learned some techniques that have helped me keep my stress levels down, in regards to business.

Here are a 12 blogging and business tips that I’ve learned in the last 12 years:

1. Don’t try to respond to every email you receive within 15 minutes, or even a few hours
   The people who send you the email have a life too and are probably not expecting a response right away.
2. Don’t say yes to every blogging opportunity that arrives in your inbox
   If I am not excited about the opportunity or don’t feel like it’s worth my time to travel or write about it, then I say no thanks.  Your time is valuable.  Make sure you are getting paid what you are worth!
3. Write a blog post and leave it in draft status for a day at least
   Mom bloggers often are distracted while writing a blog post.  Such is the case with me.  I have found that when I check a blog post a day or so after writing it and when I am not going to be interrupted, I catch more errors than if I publish it right away.
4. Don’t hesitate to invest in products and services that will help you be more productive
   I was stubborn for the first few years of AtlantaMoms.com being online. Paying for an ad server and an email newsletter service like Mailchimp were 2 of the best things I have done for my business and myself.  Paying for a good hosting service that will provide 24/7 support is a good idea too.
5. Have a separate phone number for business calls
   Use a Google number or get a second cell phone or landline that is 100% dedicated to business calls. Enough said.
6. Use a Social Media Service like Hootsuite to monitor your social media accounts 
   If you use social media for your business, invest in a service like Hootsuite to manage your Twitter and Facebook accounts.  Hootsuite makes viewing messages that you have sent and received as well as all messages with a specific hashtag or user you’d like to follow, a breeze.
7. Schedule blog posts and social media posts 
   Write blog posts and social media posts ahead of time when you have extra time and schedule them to publish later.
8. Limit how many browser tabs you have open
   I have been guilty of having 15-20 tabs open in my browser at a time.  That just sucks productivity like almost nothing else.  If a page was taking a few seconds to load, I would switch to another tab to read something else and forget what I was doing.
9. Get small tasks done before tackling large tasks
   Getting small tasks done before starting on larger tasks allows you to feel like you’ve accomplished something.  That’s always nice.
10. Use an app/service like Feedly to keep up with your blogging buddie’s blogs
    Having all the latest posts from your favorite blogs presented to you on a single site/page means you don’t have to visit 20 different blogs every day!
11. DO NOT compare yourself to other bloggers!
    Just don’t do it..unless you’re into self-torture.
12. Enjoy your kids
    I can’t believe my kids are 13 and 7 and I started when my son was 1!  They have grown up so fast but I’m happy to be able to say that I haven’t missed any of it.

If you are a blogger or a work from home parent, please share your productivity and blogging tips with me below!