When I was asked by a long-time friend if I would like to work from home as a member of remote resume writing services team, I said, “count me in!” While being a mother of two unbelievably spirited boys has kept me busy, I was honestly feeling the urge to re-enter the workforce that I had so happily left five years ago. Besides, I thought to myself at the time, “how hard could this be? I used to hang in the big leagues up there in Wall Street as a recruiter for one of the Big 4 accounting firms. Working with a few job seekers each week to tidy up their resumes while in the comfort of my own home should be a synch!”

The reality is, it was all way tougher than I thought. While it was true – working with job seekers to perfect their resumes and create their LinkedIn profiles was certainly something I could easily handle, the problem was it still took a lot of time to do, and that’s not something a mother of two generally has a lot of. When I first took on the job, I remember myself in a constant frenzy for pretty much the entire day. From waking up at 6:30 am in order to prepare Jax and Alex for school to staying up until as late as 1:00 am writing my clients’ resumes, I felt like I never had a chance to do anything that wasn’t work-related or mom-related.

However, I did eventually figure out a way to co-exist as both mom and professional resume writer just like perhaps how Batman was able to juggle between being Bruce Wayne and Gotham’s crime fighting vigilante (my kids just love the Batman cartoons). Here are the 5 adjustments I made that allowed myself to achieve work-life balance and solve the problem of being stretched too thin:

Incorporate “me time” into your schedule

One of the reasons I never had any time for myself was because I never actually bothered to include fun activities in my schedule. Whether it’s watching a Netflix movie or going out for dinner with your spouse, these are things that need to be planned ahead of time and then officially marked on your daily schedule.

For me personally, setting aside an hour of the day in the morning, after I’ve dropped off my kids from school, and then another hour before I go to bed ends up working best. My morning break gives me just enough time to catch my breath before work and my break before going night night lets me de-stress so that I can have a nice, calming end to the day.

Optimize your daily schedule

Before working for my company, Resume Writing Services, I never really had the need to be super ultra-efficient. I spent a lot of time cooking super fancy online recipes that happen to catch my eye and did household chores on a whim. While I could get away with all that when I had the luxury of being just a full-time parent, this is not the case when you have work on the side as well.

You’ll be surprised to find just how much more time you have in the day if you take the extra effort to optimize your daily schedule and find shortcuts to your activities. I’ve personally found that optimizing my schedule ends up giving me an extra 2 hours every day – which is a boatload more time when you really think about it. Some habits I ended up adopting were changing the way I cook to be more efficient, shopping online for what I need instead of in stores, only spending time on the household chores that absolutely needed to be done, and training my kids to be more independent so that they can handle a lot of their daily tasks without my guidance.

Outsource your activities and chores

Now that it wasn’t just my husband bringing income into the family savings, it made a whole lot of sense to outsource many of the chores that needed to be done in order to make sure I had enough time in the day to focus on my work as a resume writer. This could mean hiring a housemaid to come in once or twice a week, bringing in a baby sitter to watch the kids or pick them up from school, or even getting someone to help prepare the food.

For moms who might be reluctant to tackle a part-time or work-at-home job because of the fear that they simply wouldn’t have enough time to take care of their kids, remember that the extra income you get can be used to outsource many of the mom duties that are currently taking up all your time. So be sure to factor this into your decision making.

Ask your spouse for help

Always remember that you don’t have to face the challenge of balancing your work-life alone. Your spouse is always there by your side, and I’ve found that being open about your situation and getting your spouse to help out when convenient goes a long way. It might make more sense on some days for your spouse to pick the kids up from school or to cook instead of you. This is a part of being a cohesive couple and by realizing there’s someone right there that you can rely on, I’ve found that working as a resume writer while also being a parent of two is quite manageable.

By taking control of my schedule, I’ve found that this has enabled me to spend more time and put in more effort to ensuring that my clients’ resumes are as well-written as they can possibly be which is something that really makes my work more fulfilling and enjoyable as well. I still have time in the day for some leisurely activities while also taking great care of my kids.

Hopefully moms everywhere can find a way to manage their schedules and achieve the same level of happiness that I’ve been able to find - even while among all the chaos.