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Time management is all about prioritizing tasks, not doing them all at once or when you think of it. A to-do list is useless if it’s too ambitious. What’s the point of writing down unachievable tasks?
These time management tips are meant to be actionable things you can actually implement to make your life better. On the weekends, obviously I have more free time and I don’t have to double dip as much. This is where I sprinkle in some self care and workouts. I get to spend less time cleaning and more time with my family doing things we love to do together.
Prioritize Your Work Tasks and Home Tasks
Those little distractions, like the social media or your chatty work bff, can be really detrimental to your focus when you are trying to get tasks completed. I cannot stress enough how important this one time management tip is, and I am constantly reminding myself of it as well. If you have deadlines for something and they aren’t kept, than what good are they? So set a deadline and try your best to keep it.
In her leisure time, she tutors kids and spends time with moms. Learning is one of the most fun things in life and one of the amazing ways to learn is by reading. She is on a mission to help parents make parenting easier. Follow along if you want a seamless parenting journey. We hope you can adopt any of our time management tips to your daily routine as a working mother in 2021. Best of all, you don’t have to listen to your kids asking you what’s for dinner 100 times a day.
Practical Time Management Tips for Working Moms to Make Life Easier
Yah moms, it’s called chores and they are wonderful. Start your kids early and I guarantee you, they will enjoy them and do them without having to be asked. Nora is only 4 years old and she has 6 chores before bed time and 5 when she wakes up. They aren’t difficult, but do you know how nice it is not to have to worry about the shoe rack in the entryway? Not hard, but one less thing for me to worry about. You need to be in the right context and mode to effectively manage your tasks.
I’ve found the best time for me to clean the kitchen is when my kids are sitting down to eat. I can simultaneously keep an eye on them and help them with whatever they need and still clean in the kitchen. This gives me a solid twenty minutes to keep the kitchen tidy while feeding my kids. I like to do this at the beginning of each season. I take a look at our schedule and our routines and see what’s working and what’s not. Take time to look for bottlenecks in your routine and do what you can to make that time more effective.
Practice Smart Time Management
And without good sleep, your focus, productivity, patience, and general wellness all suffer. Things like writing blog posts and newsletters, working on social media as well as children’s activities, church, and my housework schedule. I have color coded the set activities (like children’s activities) to stand out next to the tasks I just like to do at certain times . You could also color code work and personal activities separately. Sometimes, even with masterful time management and productivity, it isn’t enough to get everything done. There are so many things moms have to do to keep everything running smoothly for their work, their home, their family, themselves.
Then, when you have time planned to review your tasks, sort and prioritize them. Have the kids handle a chore and pay them for it. Even if they don’t do it perfectly, they are learning how to do it and participating in day to day household chores.
Embrace Routine but Stay Creative
If it’s a meal chunk, we gather together to eat and then move straight into table chores. And I don’t have to try to keep track of who is supposed to do the dishes today or who’s turn it is to vacuum. While you’re working on perfecting your budget, add learning about money to your list of financial to-dos. This book was a huge help to me years ago when I was struggling to get out of debt and save.
Meal planning, grocery shopping, and then preparing meals is tough when kids are around, and if you start a week without a plan, everything fails. One of the downfalls of working from home is the fact that you are constantly reminded of everything that needs to get done around the house. Sometimes it feels impossible to be productive when you have piles of laundry and dishes that need to be taken care of.
Being a working mom means you have a lot to think about. A lot to do.You’re trying to focus on your job while not forgetting about school, meals, laundry and housework. If you are working outside the home you may be able to compartmentalize, slightly. But if you are working from home it is easy to get everything in a mess and forget what you should be focussing on when.
I’m not saying your house has to be spartan or anything. But if you don’t have a dedicated place for everything where it fits well, it’s going to be more difficult to keep things tidy. Self-care for moms doesn’t have to be complicated. Your kids are never going to do laundry or wash dishes the exact way you would, trust me.
Think about all the things you do each day as a busy mom. Most of them probably fall under the home management tips umbrella. And it can be even more challenging if you’re a working mom or a stay at home mom who’s chasing littles around all day. I know, I’ve done both and trying to keep up with all the household chores is no easy feat. Don’t have reliable neighbor kids or church kids? You keep all the little ones M/W mornings for a couple hours, then she keeps them T/Th.
One of the main reasons why I struggle with time management and productivity is that plans are often changing and no week is the same. While dealing with the business deadlines and meetings I also have to weave in school events, dentist appointments and play dates. My week might be all organized and then a notice comes home from school, or there’s a webinar I want to attend and all the plans have to be changed.
Fix your “Me” Time
If you can, buy pre-cut vegetables, processed spices or canned stew to make your meal preparation faster. You can even invest in a good dishwasher or washing machine to lessen your work. No one will crucify you for using shortcuts to achieve certain chores.
Part of home management means getting systems and routines in place. And while you might be focused on cleaning or decluttering you can’t afford to neglect your finances. Give yourself a second to reward yourself by saying ‘done’ as you remove the post-it notes. It may seem silly (it’s a bit out of my comfort zone) but this simple action helps to encourage and motivate you to complete more tasks. Weekly review, I highly recommend starting this practice.
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