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Thursday, July 24, 2014

Guest Post- How to Balance it all – Three Tips to Balancing Online Time

The Following is a guest blog post from Diahana Barnes, who is the author of Mommy Summer Camp. I was thrilled that she asked me to be part of her blog tour, and when she offered to write a guest blog. Right now I've been juggling a lot between our shop, homeschooling, consulting, workshops and summer fun, so it was great to see a guest post on the subject of finding balance. Online balance is so important and one that I tilt the scales on often. I often say how can I even question whether our kids are having too much screen time, if I can't control my own? Diahana offers some great tips here in the post and I look forward to seeing more of her work, and her book, in the future. Thanks Diahana!

How to Balance it all – Three Tips to Balancing Online Time

As a busy mom with a health coaching business, a corporate job and a new ebook out, finding ways to have balance in my life can be a challenge. One thing I have learned over the years for myself, was that being online and connected all the time, really affected my overall balance and were one of my biggest time drains. Online time wasters for me included social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram) and email. I actually have over five email addresses and regularly check at least three of them.

What I’ve found is that these sites can suck you in, consume hours of my time and before I even realized it I was distracted. So how do I handle these online time wasters? Here are a few tips on how I identified what was sucking up my time and the actions I put in place to balance it all.

Tip #1 – Identify Online Time Wasters. The first think I looked at was which online time wasters were taking up most of my time? For me it was Facebook and email. Uncover what it is for you, and write it down.

Tip #2 - Set a Specific Time to Check Online Favorites. The goal for me wasn’t to eliminate the browsing of these sites, the goal was to create balance in my life. Instead of letting these online activities run my day, I set the pace and balance that was best for me by limiting the checking of these sites to a manageable amount that didn’t distract from my day to day activities.

I set a few specific times to check these sites. For example, I started to check my personal email once before work, once at noon and after work. I also started checking Facebook only once a day (during lunch), and at night.

Tip #3: Let Everyone Know. The key for me in finding balance was communicating with my friends and family my decision to take control of these time wasters. I let my co-workers and my Facebook friends know that I would no longer be checking email/Facebook, etc. every hour. Turns out friends and family are great at helping hold you accountable and make sure that you don't waste time on these sites.

What I learned after doing this for awhile was that the world would not end if I wasn’t online 24/7. I have more respect for myself, my time, and my goal of achieving balance, and as a result, those in my life have respect too.


About the Book:

Mommy Summer Camp started in 2011 when as a busy working mom with both a corporate job and a small business. Summer was fast approaching, what could we do?

So, one Saturday as my kids were complaining about something…not wanted to do whatever chore they were supposed to be doing…inspiration hit. I sat down and outlined my idea for a stay at home, Mommy Summer Camp where the kids earned, "mommy bucks" in order to attend camp by doing chores, being nice and various other good deeds.
It became so popular other mom's asked me how I ran it, so here is everything I have. Over the years I've refined the program and created a custom camp that you can use too!

Once you purchase you will receive nine (9) flies, five of which are 100% editable in word format that you can use your own activities, children's names, etc. I really hope you enjoy it. The nine files are:

1. Mommy bucks template
2. Mommy Summer Camp template
3. Mommy Summer Camp Activities for Kids
4. Mommy Summer Camp Journal
5. Mommy Summer Camp Catalog for Kids
6. Mommy Summer Camp Recipes
7. Mommy Summer Camp Sticker template
8. Mommy Summer Camp weekly checklist template
9. Read Me First - How to Run Mommy Summer Camp a step by step guide
10. Mommy Summer Camp eBook - this 142 page book goes into a bit more detail how I started Mommy Summer Camp and how I used the templates. It combines some of the above into one easy to read ebook.


Where to find Mommy Summer Camp: http://etsy.me/1oosbBM

About the Author
Diahana Barnes
Mom. Health Coach. Corporate Woman. Small Business Owner.

Diahana loves coffee (and a newly found favorite - tea), spending the day at the beach with family, and her iPad Mini! She is energetic and passionate about creating a community that leaves you feeling energized, focused, happy and purposeful. She loves being a coach, a cheerleader, a positive and inspirational influence to everyone around her.

Her formal bio includes a Master's Degree in Organizational Management & Development, eLearning Certification, and Coaching certifications while currently authoring a book called, "Design Your Bliss in Work & Life".

She has over 20 years of experience working in the technology and insurance industries in training & development, sales strategy, enablement, marketing, and communications. She is an award winning speaker and trainer and has spoken at events hosted by the American Society of Training & Development, Training Magazine, eLearnting Guild and the Learning Consortium.