Firstly, Please tell us about your Business…
So, my business is called the Nanny Junction, and it is a Nanny recruitment agency that supports families with children with special needs, helping them with support and respite. The business is going to shortly split to provide more of a support for the whole family around the SEN child.
How many children do you have? Tell us about them…
I have 4 children and 2 step-children. I have 2 children with special needs who I am carer to, and life is very busy. They are very varied in age. My eldest is 15 and he’s autistic. Then I have an 11 year old going on 30, who is dyspraxic and very bossy. And then I have an 8 year old boy and a 3 year old boy too. And my step daughters are 7 and 10.
Wow! Busy!
Yes! Life is very busy and very expensive with lots of children.
Was your business inspired either directly or indirectly by your children or family?
My business was inspired COMPLETELY by family, by my children and by the struggles that we have experienced with having SEN children. Ultimately that’s where the inspiration came from. Obviously, I’ve got a childcare background, so I kind of brought the two together to form the business.
What is your biggest productivity struggle?
I don’t even know how to answer that because I really struggle with productivity.
Facebook is my nemesis. I think I need to do away with Facebook to be productive. Unless I’m out… I find if I’m out, if I go out for coffee, or go somewhere else I actually work. When I’m at home, I don’t work as much. I find it’s because I sit and sit and sit, and do nothing and scroll, unless there’s anything important to do, because the witching hour that’s going to arrive when the children are going to arrive home is such an intense 3-4 hours, that I find I spend my day just chilling, building energy for that, which is what needs to change.
What are your favourite tools that help you with organisation, time management, productivity?
I use Trello, but I need to use it more consistently, but I’m finding that the process of using Trello and adding all of the information… that’s what I don’t make myself productive enough to sit down and do. I do have it saved as a favourite, so as soon as the laptop goes on it’s there… first screen , so that I can then work on it, but then I find that I don’t go into it as much.
I like to use actual pen and paper. I like my diary. I colour code all my jobs and bits and bobs in there. I have blue which is family and black which is for work and pink for notes, and I write across my diary. So I like to use pen and paper.
Other than my diary and Trello, and Pages Manager for my business, that’s all I really use at the moment.
And what about Productivity tools for the home?
(Michelle Chuckled)…
Well… My husband said to me “what do you do all day long?” because I don’t do the cleaning. So there’s my productivity around the home! I don’t like being told what to do, so if my husband mentions “this needs doing”, it’s not going to get done. I say to him that I will do it in my own time, when I want to do it, and if you tell me to do it, I won’t do it. And I will then find a day where I am happy to do it. I prefer to be productive around the house, clean the whole house top to bottom, when I know I don’t have to go out anywhere. I hate that thought that I know I have to go out at this time, and actually am I going to get enough time to do this. And then also I find that I do it, and within 5 or 10 minutes of everyone being home, it doesn’t even look like I’ve touched the house, and so it has such a negative impact on me. Why should I do it and then you lot destroy it as soon as you come home.
But I’ve got better with food prep and meal planning, only because I’ve joined Weight Watchers, so I have to be now.
But, yeah, productive around the house is as and when I feel like I’ve got the energy to do it.
To contact Michelle:
www.thenannyjunctionltd.com
www.supportingsenfamilies.com (coming soon)
www.facebook.com/specialnannies