After virtually a decade of making and some years of working remotely, turning into a mother in mid-2024 made consistency and work-life steadiness my greatest challenges.
Earlier than I knew it, I used to be burnt out, questioning myself, and barely staying productive. TL;DR: I discovered myself spiralling, and it felt just like the partitions have been closing in on me.
For those who’re a creator, small enterprise proprietor, or marketer juggling distant work and parenting, precisely what I imply. Fortunately, this season didn’t final too lengthy.
After a couple of messy months, I discovered a easy system—together with some sensible outsourcing—that now helps me:
Publish 2-5 instances per week throughout LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTubeGrow my viewers (from ~7k to ~10k) and enhance engagement (from ~50 to ~80+ per put up)Join with potential employersStill have time for shopper work, household, and relaxation
So right here’s the tea. ☕
1. Work with a hybrid content material assistant
I work with a content material assistant who helps ideation, capturing, design, modifying, and logistics. We meet in particular person 2–3 instances per thirty days to batch-create, and I pay her a retainer price. She additionally attends occasions, like events or outings, with me to assist seize moments for vlog-style content material.
This association works as a result of it:
Lightens my psychological loadKeeps me accountable (as a result of I’m paying for it!)Permits for versatile collaboration relying on my schedule and budgetBoosts my distant work productiveness
To align expectations and keep agile, we talk by way of cellphone calls, e-mail, and WhatsApp conversations.
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You don’t essentially want a full-time rent. Begin small—even a couple of hours a month could make a distinction. It was a simple rent for me as a result of she’s my cousin, who’s additionally a social media supervisor with nice content material creation abilities. However you will get yours by means of referrals or an open hiring name.
Outsourcing goes past human capital, although. Automation can be the place the magic is, which brings me to my subsequent level.
Creating persistently isn’t about having the perfect content material technique or making out-of-budget hires. The suitable instruments—whether or not free or paid—can maintain your manufacturing quick, organized, and scalable, even on a good schedule.
For instance, I used to ship my publication, The Worthwhile Content material Marketer, so haphazardly that its progress plateaued. As soon as I mastered ChatGPT prompts and commenced scheduling social media posts with Buffer, although, I spent much less time writing and posting—and extra time rising my Substack.
Listed below are the precise instruments my assistant and I depend on essentially the most:
Instrument
Objective
Hack
Canva
Designing fast, clear graphics
Save 3–5 templates for various content material varieties and create a model package for constant + memorable visuals
CapCut
Enhancing social movies (short-form and YouTube)
Use the app’s ready-to-use transitions and caption types for straightforward, professional-looking movies
Buffer
Scheduling social content material forward of time
Schedule posts as quickly as they’re able to keep away from a pile-up or missed days. Be open to guide posting or in-app scheduling if needed
Google Sheets
Making a content material calendar and monitoring what’s been revealed
Depart room for freestyle posting. Typically the best-performing posts are the spontaneous ones
iOS Notes app
Notice-taking, drafting captions, and creating to-do lists on the go
Let go of perfectionism and simply braindump. You possibly can refine later.
ChatGPT
High-quality-tuning concepts, doing fast analysis, and turning tough ideas into polished textual content
Keep away from copy-and-paste. Information the AI with strategic prompts and watch it elevate your voice.
Selar
Promoting digital and bodily merchandise like books and 1:1 periods
Construct content material and CTAs round your merchandise to drive regular gross sales
I don’t use each instrument each day, however I mix them based mostly on my workflow every month.
I’d jot down concepts in Notes whereas cooking, then refine them in ChatGPT earlier than a shoot. My assistant may then design and edit all of the posts in Canva and CapCut, whereas both of us updates the calendar.
Fortunately, most of those instruments are both utterly free or include strong trial variations, letting you discover them with minimal monetary funding.
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Begin with free or trial variations, and solely improve if you’ve confirmed your workflow or monetized. And, when you’re comfy, give your assistant entry to your instruments and social accounts to maintain issues on monitor.
After all, instruments solely work if you could find the time to make use of them. Right here’s how I carve that out of my very packed schedule…
3. Use late-night deep work periods
With a toddler and freelance work, my days go by rapidly. So typically, I take 2–4 centered hours after bedtime to:
Generate content material concepts Reply to emailsComplete shopper deliverablesRecord contentTrack analytics and replace my content material calendar
This isn’t endlessly — it’s simply what works in my present season of life. For context, I wrote most of this text late at night time whereas my child slept. No jokes. 😂
In the meantime, past not having time in the course of the day, I’ve additionally change into fairly nocturnal because the pandemic lockdown interval. And I do know I’m not alone.
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In case you have early mornings or childcare assist, modify your “deep work” window to suit. Additionally, set a cut-off time (mine adjustments every night time relying on after I begin) and maintain a heat drink or a light-weight snack close by, quite than limitless caffeine. Prioritize one “must-finish” job every night time for a way of accomplishment.
However right here’s the factor: incessantly working at night time is unsustainable. You can fall into an limitless cycle of unproductive days and sleepless nights. And take it from somebody who’s been there, you actually don’t need that. That’s why, apart from the occasional nightcrawling, I additionally recommend you
4. Go to co-working areas as wanted
When I’ve tight deadlines or want uninterrupted daytime focus, I ebook a co-working house. It:
Helps me get extra accomplished fasterProvides a psychological shift from house life to work modePrevents me from working all night time and being drained all dayCan be paid for each day, weekly, or month-to-month, relying on price range and particular wants
My native house prices about $3/day and a centered session simply pays for itself in shopper work. Exhibit A:
On today, I had a number of deadlines to fulfill and knew that even with a babysitter, I wouldn’t have the ability to end all of the assignments if I labored from house. So, I went to a close-by work hub for a couple of hours and completed the remainder at house, largely throughout my late-night deep work periods.
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Use co-working for “sprints”. E.g., ideate and add 2 weeks of content material to your calendar, apply to your weekly dose of job alternatives, or full pending tasks which were dragging on.
Even with all the following tips, you may’t actually optimize what you don’t measure. Therefore, why you need to all the time
5. Monitor outcomes
I don’t use any sophisticated instruments for monitoring social media engagement—simply the built-in analytics in every platform (e.g., LinkedIn) and Buffer’s weekly e-mail reviews.
Each month, I:
Overview follower progress and engagement (likes, feedback, shares)Establish which posts carried out bestLook for patterns (format, matter, time of posting) and modify future content material concepts accordingly
A technique this has performed out is that we observed LinkedIn had a scarcity of video content material creators, however folks truly recognize them greater than you may assume.
We started posting extra LinkedIn movies and considerably elevated engagement. Useful list-style posts (job ideas, network-building recommendation, sensible sources) additionally carry out rather well on the app.
Need extra detailed insights? All paid Buffer plans embody an easy-to-use report builder. This checklist of 11 high social analytics instruments can be value exploring.
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Decide one key metric per platform (e.g., shares on Instagram, DMs on LinkedIn, or feedback on Twitter) and monitor it month-to-month. This helps you make small, data-backed tweaks with out getting overwhelmed.
So sure…
Creating persistently is tough
It’s even more durable when you’re additionally a mother or distant employee with out the proper construction.
Unsure the place to start out? Right here’s my advice: Enhance not less than one a part of your course of and watch the way it reduces posting gaps and burnout.
Critically. It may very well be turning your messy notes into an organized calendar, or capturing video content material for the subsequent two weeks on a Sunday to unencumber your weekdays.
Belief me, your future self will thank us! 😎
