Creative Mama Writer Tips
Originally Published on Medium.
For anyone looking to pursue their career or start a side job during these times, there are jobs available in the digital and online universe.
Yep, it’s not easy for everyone. When I wrote this, I’ve managed a whole day without my kids watching TV. I know for parents working from home, you feel like a superhero when it happens on most days. Which trust me, that’s already a win during times COVID-19 quarantine. #stayhomesavelives
If you had the time to be and had a great time learning and talking with your kiddos. Then manage to do some work and me time in between. That’s good enough. Kids are the most important job of all.
Those with no kids, learn to work on your inner imagination and creative child. We are all here for a purpose. It’s usually that thing you love to do the most.
If you don’t know yet, that’s okay. Make it your own personal challenge to find out.
What did you like to do when you were younger? What career or job you would like to try to learn or build during this times at home? How do you see yourself in the future months? Let go and forgive past traumas and learn to enjoy being in your own company.
We are not perfect, we are enough and we are doing the best we can. I’ve instead been taking it day by day. We focus on learning through books (most days, but storytelling is fun. Imagination is part of learning. ) , painting, me playing a merchant, and they, my customers. Hey, nobody taught me that when I was little. Learning about money is important too. Also, math is more fun to learn this way. Now they are crawling on the couch and my walls pretending they are Spider-Girls.
Life is changing and we need to learn to adapt. Let go of perfection and embrace the suck, because life right now it’s freaking hard. We cannot discard mental health and take care of it after.
Mental strength should be our priority before everything else. _AO
We need to mentally, physically and emotionally prepare ourselves. The emotional toll that these months will take on our spirits and wellbeing, during lockdown and after the vaccine is found. It is yet to be determined. This is a world shift, for all of us, but especially Health practitioners. ( here) So, grateful for their bravery and kindness.
This blog was published on a Easter Sunday while my girls are with their dad. After I manage to tackled most of all my writing/research/clients/learning/scheduling/planning for work and activities to do with kids in the coming weeks.
This is to ensure to schedule my time accordingly (building flexibility too) and share with our audiences through social media, (building brand while helping our communities at the same time) as much as my team and I can. In other words, adding reasonable time frames to my daily routines, has being helping when my girls are home with me.
Basically, what I’ve always wanted to improve, learn, teach and write or blog about. I do during times that I don’t have them at home. Heavy work and mental work first, then scheduling and planning ahead, which makes sharing faster during the days they are with me.
As results, during mommy time half week, after working (1–4 hours max during the day while they are drawing, playing, or watching youtube video to learn spanish or Netflix documentaries or Peppa Pig episode time… The rest I do at night or early in the morning before they wake up). I purposely make the time, (co-parenting 101) so I get to spend the rest of my day creating, cleaning, cooking and enjoying more time being present with my girls.
I missed them terribly while they are away, but they know and appreciate alone time with dad too. ( It’s very important)
Meanwhile, parenting is hard already and we are learning as we go. Thankful and love my friend Sonia Zarbatany live IG coaching. Amazing mom life / entrepreneurship/ business/ relationship inspiration and motivation with cherries on top. Mamas and papas go follow her, single people or those starting your own buzz, book her coaching and take notes!
Now, co-parenting and being in lockdown, has giving us the opportunity to teach our girls and re-learn ourselves too important life lessons.
Working or improving on what you love to do; everyday, while also being present with love ones.
Learning through mistakes, understanding our emotions and voicing our feelings, has its own inner consistent reward.
Happiness and satisfaction created from you, from within is the hardest but most vital human job. And that in order to achieve inner gratification from your own work, we must prepare ourselves mentally, physically and spiritually; for all life external BS that will resurface every different stages of our human existence.
You have to work smart, be kind to you (especially, now!) and believe in yourself. If what you love can sustain your lifestyle financially and it can help others too. It’s an honest, valuable and rewarding job.
Money don’t grow out of trees, right? Absolutely not, money/ online currency/ different streams of income, doesn’t buy happiness either. But it does help create stability, security, builds confidence (rely on yourself) and time freedom. If you are being smart and not an asswipe with your money; you can create and open future opportunities for the less fortunate.
Grateful to be Canadian and received financial assistance for food, medical supply if needed, to pay our bills and save while we are safe at home. Not all countries or cities, minority communities can say the same. Those who feel stuck at home, you need inner work and stop avoiding it. It makes life harder and mental health issues arise faster in isolation.
Financial stress is real and intense for others who don’t get the privilege to stay or work from home. Be grateful if you have enough money saved because it definitely makes life at least right now, less F*&%^ up.
Again, this assistance is still uncertain if the virus continues to get worse, and the economic toll these future months ahead are unknown. Teach your kids about saving and how to rely on their own selves. Show them how you work, show them the value of honest and hard work you do or want to start doing. Hey! it’s never to late! Life is unpredictable and tomorrow is undetermined.
I’m not perfect and neither I want to be. I do want to be a better creative writer/artist/multipurpose person than yesterday.
Improve everyday as a writer and creative entrepreneur.
While progressingly being present, mindful and loving single mama to my girls, so they learn how to treat themselves and others too. Staying positive and being the example during times of adversity for my kids, my family and my communities has become my mission. Then, showing them the freedom to choose happiness, creativity and love has become soul fulfilling goal. This took a lot of years, hardships, failures, reflections, forgiving past traumas and understanding to get to this point.
We are all growing and evolving human beings. Kids learn behaviours, manners and values through us and their surrounding. Which during these months is going to get tougher for them emotionally. Keep checking in on those who you know might be having a hard time right now.
Working on during quarantine: sharing more mom life, artists, creatives and influencers work that inspires ( stories) and my own entrepreneurship journey on social and on YouTube. ( hence: My book title: “You’re NOT Perfect! “ Mostly Parenting and creative, mindful living. Re-editing process at the moment aiming to self-published while at home. Welcome to this journey with me if you are new here). I want to help others and make people laugh and feel good. It’s that too much? Anyways, we all working on something and trying to stay safe and healthy at the same time. I just found my purpose a few years ago, kept working on it, got pumpy along the way, made a lot of mistakes last year, I’m still learning to forgive myself for not knowing better and to those who did me wrong.
I’m a mama entrepreneur still work-in-progress and this year, committed on improving and being authentically unapologetic about it. What are your personal goal during these times?
In other words, some days the routine and schedules work, and some days they don’t. This post today is just my personal experience and what is currently working. It does not mean that what works for me and in my home, will be the same for you. I do hope that by sharing my way to deal with working from home and raising two toddlers ( half a week co-parenting) during quarantine, that you’re able to find your own way to survive these new changes and are able to continue building and providing for you and your families.
Numero 1:
You have to establish strict rules and schedule your daily routine, for yourself and your loved ones. People around the house have to learn to respect your “work-time” and support each other. I know it sounds easy, like it’s all flying rainbows and unicorns.
Well, I’m not here to sugarcoat it for you. It’s hard work, and unfortunately, it must be done every day. Which is why, first you need to find your “why” — research, develop and educate yourself. Be open and leave room for flexibility. This will ensure you don’t hit the burnout zone or at the very least, it will ensure that you don’t feel so overwhelmed when you are in the thick of it. You are what you love and can’t live without doing. So, when days are harder to get things done. It becomes second nature, to just start and finish when you are able to.
My single mom life and scheduling my stressors have taught me valuable lessons, that hopefully can be of used to you and others. Communicate through and through with your customers, clients, coaching peeps and others that Zoom meetings must be re-schedule or done at another time.
I’m not saying that some days won’t be harder than others. But you’re your own accountability buddy. So be honest with yourself and your coworkers, especially if you have deadlines. But also, keep in mind the amount of time tasks require. You need to make a schedule and stick to it! Now, more than ever, communication must be clear. I will suggest adding persistence to the mix of what we are living through these days.
Trust me, distractions will happen… with Netflix, Facebook, the news, Zoom meetings lasting longer than they should… All this, while trying to send emails, work on client contracts, writing blogs, editing, creating content, social media engagement and posting, kids’ homeschool lessons and playing time, cooking meals, taking online courses, reaching out to loved ones, making sure your communities are still alright and seeing how you can be of value to others. Find how you can help somehow, while everything is on pause.
It’s definitely a battlefield within ourselves and focus. Productivity now more than ever its the ultimate challenge.
I definitely recommend to start building your resilience mindset. This article read recently, made everything feel worthy of keep trying to do our best. It’s a world pandemic, we need to be patience with ourselves and others. One day at time, but keep progressing at your own pace and adjust as you can. Whatever that looks like to you, and however you can manage in your own way to stay consistent with your goals. That’s what will help you get through this.
Numero 2:
Wake up early or make sure you nap during the day if you like to write, finish work or create late at night.
Yep, sacrifices must be made. You just have to choose out of your daily things you do. One or two of these things must be dedicated to your goals. You must sacrifice, for now, some sleep, less TV time, less bad habits that do not add to your personal growth — your choice — until you build up or are where you want to be.
Remember, writers are creative artists too. We research, and use words and images to express our art so we can connect with our audiences better. Our peoples can have a slightly better understanding of who we are, so they can connect within themselves as well. Then, inspiration ignited within a sense of joy, can trigger inner creativity. This is any artist’s goal after we finish our work.
Believe me, we all have a creative side. It’s called: imagination.
Yep, and if you learn how to use it right, it’s like a muscle. You build it up over time by practicing. Take a child’s mentality, for example. Children are masters of imagination. So learn from kids, and don’t forget you were a kid once too. What was that thing you used to love to do and imagined you were doing all the time?
Using your imagination to ignite creativity, can be very rewarding for you and for those you share your work with. There will be trolls that will criticize you, bully you, and leave you horrible comments. It doesn’t matter. Keep going, take their feedback as “constructive criticism” (trust me, I’m learning this too) and make your next move even better.
You should always try to improve yourself and your work everyday. Have this mantra:
If is good enough today, it will be better tomorrow.
Numero 3:
*If you have more to add to this list, please let us know in the comments or on social media. You can even email us your list! I’m going to give shoutouts to those who participate in our monthly newsletters 🙂 Good luck!
Build a habit of writing any chance you get. Start with a mantra of writing something, anything, every day. In the laundry room, while doing dishes, while cooking, when your kids are painting or napping. I’ve found this builds consistency, which is my goal for this year. 2020 watch me, I’m just getting started. (Use this saying when April gets to be too much. You got this.)
For those not in the writing spectrum, the same thing applies for those of you currently working on something. Set daily, weekly, or monthly habits that can get you closer to what you desire to accomplish. How many leads per day/week/month you’d like to hit, the number of sales you’d like to make, hitting a target audience, creating ads, meeting with clients on Zoom, whatever your goals are for yourself or your employers. Make sure you don’t forget to set your intentions, boundaries and be clear with your employers and/or audiences.
Numero 4:
Write with an audience in mind. Just like acting, you build a character and their personality; how they will talk, what their ticks are, their likes and dislikes. So with this in mind, your writing has an audience with similar characteristics that you want to reach with your words.
Same goes for those in sales, marketing, coaching and customer service. Make sure you have your target audience in mind and the persona your employer needs for the company to thrive. It is a requirement for small businesses or startups. The more specific your employer is about their business goals, the better you will be able to help them get through these periods. Do your research and let your peers get to know who you are in digital form for now, and grow by getting to know who you are (While at home during quarantine) and how you can help or be of service to others. One day of time…
Numero 5:
Creativity takes time and can’t be rushed.
Have clear goals, and just like Dory says, “Just keep swimming!”
Literally… You must shift your mindset to let go of old, traditional, and not-so-productive habits. You won’t be an expert today, however, if you start slowly, one day at time, you will be unstoppable and you will achieve what you set out to do. We are all working to progress. BUT, it won’t happen if you are not working at it. Yes, take your breaks, rest when you need to. But get back at it. Someone out there needs what only you can do.
Now, it’s the opportunity to learn, heal and show others as we evolve through confinement for the greater good of humanity.
Last but not least: Love what you do and do what you love. It helps.
Keep others safe by remaining home and let’s make sure we flatten this curve. Parents your kiddos learn from you. They see and do what you do. Teach them good habits by you implementing them. This will be us for many months to come. Let’s use our time by improving a little of ourselves and help others while we grow. Tell me in the comments what will you like to see or learn in the lives and podcast. Yep, we are planning to go live on Youtube every Saturday 1pm. Inspire, talk about life in quarantine, new cool things to do, cooking videos (why not?) And Friday’s IG video guest, Books, music, arts, designers, authors, content creators and yep #yourstorymatters #quarantine2020chronicles
Thank you for reading, and I hope this helps a little, as you get used to these days of working from home. If you have more to add, let me know in the comments! Share with someone who needs to read this. Don’t forget that in order for work-life balance to work, you need to take care of you first. Schedule it in that new routine you are building. “Me-time”, okay? Stay safe and stay home.
By Angie Abreu Olivo -Founder, Creative Entrepreneur and Environmentalist Single Mom. Edited by Vanessa Hasid.
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