Preparing for your baby’s arrival is exciting. Here are some ways to get productive on maternity leave while waiting for your baby’s arrival.
Finally going on maternity leave and preparing for the arrival of your baby is an exciting time, but as a mompreneur, chances are you’ll want to do more than just sit around and twiddle your thumbs. Here are some ways you can get really productive while you wait for the arrival of your little one.
Startup a side hustle
Side hustles are great as they allow you to earn money in a flexible way, they’re often fun to do and are totally on your own terms. While you can’t often earn money while on maternity leave (or if you do, it will be deducted from what you’re being paid) you can still get a side hustle up and running so it’s ready to start earning money later on. For example, you could start a blog and spend time creating content and building it up while you’re not working. You won’t be offered any paid work until later on anyway, but you can set up the groundwork. If you want to start a home-based business buying and selling products when the baby arrives as a way to supplement your household income, you could order the products now, take photos, get the website ready to be launched and generally get prepared. Then, later on, when you have less time, you already have everything set up and ready to go.
Study
Online study is fantastic as it’s so flexible. It’s something you can start now, and easily pick back up again later on when you have more time. You could research longer courses like an accredited accredited MBA degree online, or you could do a shorter course like a diploma and have it completed by the time the baby arrives. Either way, it’s a great way to occupy you and fill your time and also look great on your CV. If you’re able to study around having the baby (admittedly, you might not be able to spend much time on it in the beginning) but it prevents you from having large gaps in your history and can improve your job prospects later on.
Organize your finances
Having a baby is an expensive time, not only do you have lots of things to buy but you’re also losing money where you’re not going to work. To make things run as smoothly as possible, it’s worth getting very organized with your finances– automate where you can such as setting bills to be taken direct debit and try and pay ahead on whatever you can. Work out a budget based on what money you have coming in and be sure to stick to it.
Get the house organized
Finally, being on maternity leave is a good opportunity to get your home in order. You, of course, shouldn’t be moving heavy furniture or overexerting yourself, but throwing away clutter and making sure everything is where it should be will make your life easier over the coming weeks. You could even batch cook and freeze meals ahead of time so that you have access to tasty, home-cooked food during a time that you won’t be able to do much cooking.Â
