A Mom's Nappy Hour

Make their nap time your Nappy Hour!

Baby down for an hour nap? You know you need to work on your business or household but you are extremely exhausted and can use a nap yourself. Well, you can do both! Keep reading if you want to learn how you can be a present parent, grow your online business and not look like a tired hot mess.

You may have heard from other mommas that you cannot pour from an empty cup and they are right. You need to take care of yourself if you expect to take care of your family. I challenge you to take an hour a day while the kids are playing or napping to have what I like to call a “Nappy Hour.” Now, while you may not agree that there is such a thing as a perfect work-life balance, you can definitely try to live a more balanced, less stressful life with this method.

How this works is that in the hour that you have available, you will choose 1 activity from Column A and pair it with an activity from Column B. You will spend 26 minutes doing Column A activity then take a 4 minute break to transition into the activity you chose for Column B. You will do the Column B activity for 26 minutes then use the last 4 minutes to plan your next Nappy Hour activities. These last 4 minutes are crucial because you must set the intention for your next Nappy Hour and get excited about it. It is ok if you choose different activities when the time comes but you want to make sure to start looking forward to how you will feel accomplished each Nappy Hour. If your schedule is unpredictable, planning out your next Nappy Hour will be very instrumental to it being a productive hour.

Feel free to change the activities to something more suitable for your situation. However, if you are needing rest, be sure you do something relaxing for Activity A to recharge then get busy with Activity B.

Column A Activities (Should be relaxing and help recharge or reward you for 26 minutes)

• Nap--I like to use the timer on my Calm app to take a brief yet effective nap. The combination of the timing and white noise is the perfect mix to help me feel well rested without feeling guilty for taking that break.

• Meditate-- The Calm app is a great resource for this activity too! Sometimes we just need to rest our minds to find peace and clarity.

• Pray/Spiritual Time-- When you are building a business and running a household, our minds can get cluttered with negativity and unnecessary head junk. Take time to pray about what is troubling you. If you are not into prayer, release in a journal. Check out our playlist of relaxing music to listen to as your journal.

• Bubble Bath and Facial-- Soak in a hot bubble bath as you wear a rejuvenating face mask. My favorite bubble bath is Dr. Teal's Foaming Bath, Eucalyptus Spearmint and I like to wear a Mint Mask while relaxing. The mint aroma makes my space feel clean and organized.

• Stretch/Yoga-- One of the best ways to feel energized is to get your blood flowing with simple stretches or yoga poses. If you are not a yogi, no problem. Check out YogaDownload for simple poses you can do from home. It may even get you to try a class in public at your gym!

Column B Activities (Should be tasks that you keep putting off and help make progress small bites at a time)

• Housechores/Laundry/Clean Surfaces--If you brain can handle it, try listening to a personal development book on Audible otherwise, enjoy the silence while doing the laundry or other household chores. Whatever you do, remember to go hard for only 26 minutes so don’t allow distractions to break your focus.

• Admin Tasks-- Answer emails, write a blog post outline, schedule social media posts, batch create graphic content with Canva, record a podcast episode, etc. Do those “busy tasks” that indirectly help build your business but don’t necessarily have an immediate return. These are tasks that we think are necessary to grow our business but really require time and consistency to have a payoff.

• Brainstorming Session--Similar to journaling, this activity will allow you to release all the ideas you have floating around in your head but they will be strictly related to your business. Maybe it is a business to-do list or future project ideas, just let it flow. This is especially crucial when you are having a creative moment after a refreshing nap or stretch sesh. I like to use a section in my PushJournal for a brainstorming session like this. I then use sticky tabs to be able to refer to that section later.

Now that you have a few ideas on how to break down an hour into half restful and half productive, you can start practicing this method to feel more relief. When you are able to practice this daily, it allows you 3 hours per week for restful “me time” and 3 hours per week for focused work. When you sign up for our Lazy Girl Online Business Program, you will find that you don’t need more than a few hours per week to work on your business. The key is proper planning and being prepared to work when time allows.

If you are interested in learning how to simultaneously grow 3 income streams from your home that won’t eat up your entire day, join our waiting list for the Lazy Girl Online Business Program.

stress-free