Everywhere you look people are going to give you suggestions, tips, and ways to work harder not smarter. And while so much of it extremely well meaning, it can often have the opposite effect. If you the same piece of advice over and over again, and you can’t get it to work in your life you can start to feel overwhelmed, or like something is wrong with you. When in reality, it just means that there isn’t some one size fits all solution for every single person’s life and business.

For example, one tip that I see EVERYWHERE is getting up well before your kids and knocking work out in the wee hours of the morning before the sun is up. In theory, this makes so much sense. The house is quiet, you don’t have anyone distracting you, and it gives you a set time to  get work done each day.

The only problem? I HATE getting up early. Like seriously hate it. I will if I have to, but only when absolutely necessary.  The hours of 5 a.m. – 7 a.m. may be seriously productive for some people, but for me it would take me most of that time just to wake myself up enough to be motivated to start working on my day. For a long time I tried to fight this and thought I just needed to change my sleeping habits. But guess what? I wasn’t getting much done on those mornings.

Instead, I much prefer to work at night. On days when I have my kids at home and it’s not possible to find set work time during the day, I get most of my to-do list done after my kids go to bed. I send emails, edit photos, create blog posts, plan out social media posts, put together clients gifts, make wedding day timelines, and just about every other task you can think of from the comfort of my couch with The Bachelor on in the background.

For me, the trade off of giving up a few hours a night when I could be reading or watching a movie is worth it to me if it means I don’t have to wake up early. However, it might not be worth it to you. And there’s a million more examples just like this. What works in my life might not work in yours.And vice versa.

So while over the next several weeks I’ll be giving you my tried and true tips and tricks for successfully running my business while also raising small kids,  I want to give you permission to take what you need and leave the rest. Some of what I will teach you may set off a lightbulb moment of something you haven’t thought of you. And some of it may not mesh perfectly with  you, your schedule, your life, your preferences, etc. AND THAT IS OK. Because just like parenting in general, not all of us are going to look the same. And we shouldn’t.

Do what works for you. I will repeat it over and over again. Do what works for you. It might take some experimenting, trying new things, shifting priorities around, and building your own way of doing things. But in the end, if you do what works for you, it will all fall into place.