6 Essential Time Management Tips for Working Moms

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Here are my 6 Absolutely Necessary Time Management Tips to control your day, so it stops controlling you!  Plus my day-in-the-life work at home mom schedule!

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Every day I wonder where the time went.

Especially if we are in working mom hustle-mode, the time seems to fly by, laughing at us as it goes.

But we are in control of regretting not getting enough done, or high-fiving ourselves for a productive day.

The fastest route to a high-five is being aware of where you are in life and what your goals are.  Then making just a few choices about what systems you prefer, and what tasks you can put on autopilot.

I promise if you follow these time management tips, at the end of your day you WILL high-five yourself.

You will be able to measure your progess toward your goals.  Because you WILL be one to two steps closer to them, every day.

 

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TIP # 1: Decide If You’re a Morning Person or a Night Person.

If you work from home you have to find extra time in your day.  You are going to have to choose either mornings or nights for “you”-specific time.  It’s an easy way to “make” extra hours for yourself appear in your day.

You can use this time for anything, really.  It can be for exercise, breakfast, reading or other self-care.  It can mean a solid 2 hours of uninterrupted work time.  Or a mix of both.

** Don’t pick *both* morning and night.  You’re going to burn out and also inadvertently neglect your s.o. That’s a recipe for disaster.

I choose early mornings, mostly because my kids sleep until 7:30am.  I don’t get any creative work done but I can easily unload the dishwasher, start laundry, check emails, publish posts I’ve already written, and exercise for 10-15 minutes.

Then that stuff is out of my hair during the times I am in my “creative” zone.

Here’s a quick video that has my 6am morning routine as a work at home mom.  If you found it useful, please give it a like!

 

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TIP#2: Use the Eisenhower Method.

Here’s how you make sure what you DO use your time for is actually productive……

I touched on this method in my “How to Plan Your Work Week” post.

Here’s a snippet from that post:

Basically, all of your tasks, work and life, can be sorted into one of 4 boxes:

Urgent & Important – Has to get done and only you can do it.  A client or project deadline, for example.

Urgent but not Important – Delegate the things that have to be done, just not specifically by you.  Yes, your 7-year-olds can take out the garbage and fold their own clothes.

Important but Not Urgent – Scheduling your yearly physical, long-term family or life goals without a specific deadline.

Less Important & Not Urgent – Scouring your inbox for coupons.  No more! Get it off your to do list, out of your planner and out of your life forever.

If you are more of a visual learner, here’s a more in-depth article with a video!

**If you sign up for my email list you can get my free planner and matrix here, get you started on the right foot:

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TIP#3: Decide If You’re a Paper Planner Person or an Electronic Planner Person.

Highly personal choice.

On the one hand…….

Paper planners are easy to find in the dollar store, Walmart or Target, or you can jump on my email list and print mine out!

Writing is cathartic and is widely considered a form of self-care.  Also, pencils are awesome and erasing is totally therapeutic if you ask me.  Pencils everywhere is one of the perks of having school-aged kids around.

If you have the budget for a quality paper planner, there are 2 I love:

1- Erin Condren LifePlanner.  This is a high-quality, sturdy planner with lots of accessories & stickers you can buy.  It’s easy to create a really customized, effective time-management tool for yourself.  You can check out my review here.

2- Passion Planner.  This one is geared toward goal-setting, and how that fits into your day-to-day tasks.  For every planner you buy, the company donates one to someone who can’t afford it.

On the other hand…….

Electronic calendars usually easily sync to your phone.  When do I not have my phone?  That also means nothing extra to carry around in my already bulging tote bag.

Google calendar is easy to share with your s.o., its easy to move stuff around & you get notifications & alarms when things come up.

It’s also easy to type in tasks and bounce them around, depending on how your day is going.  I’ve had several instances of my kids waking up at 5:30am with me.  Being able to last-second shift my work stuff to another time is helpful.

Another option is Trello.  The basic version is free, and includes one “power-up” at a time.  Power-ups are like little additional features that sync your Trello tasks to other third-party apps.  I suggest the calendar power up, it will sync your Trello tasks to your personal calendar, which literally keeps everything in one place.

No matter what your choice, I will say that having a paper CALENDAR to glance at is very helpful.

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TIP # 4: Pick One to Two “Move-Forward” Tasks Per Day, and Force Yourself To Do Them.

Since you already filled out your Eisenhower Matrix (Hello Tip #2), you already have a list to choose from.

No matter how much time you have in your day, you can do this.  Even if right now you’re in newborn season and you have a whopping 15 minutes a day of focused time.

Ask yourself HONESTLY “What can I do in 15 minutes that will move me the most?”

It’s not going to be “check my emails.” And you already know that since your Eisenhower Matrix is staring you in the face.

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TIP # 5: Streamline Your Busy-Work.

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the idea of being prepared in case something goes wrong.  In case someone gets sick and you lose your work time, or in case you forget to take meat out to thaw for dinner (I literally did that today).

If something messes up your perfectly-managed time, your baseline day-to-day stuff will still be (somewhat) taken care of.

Some easy things you can do:

• Always use your dishwasher if you have one;
• Try to wash one load of laundry a day if you have a washer;
• List the 2-3 most annoying things from your morning routine and try to do them the night before instead.
• Keep a “pantry dinner” in the house.  Mac & cheese, canned corn, rice & beans – something easy that doesn’t require produce.

 

Here are some other resources to help get the day-to-day stuff on autopilot:

• Here’s a great post on meal prep from the Busy Budgeter if you like having frozen meals at the ready.  For a month!
• And here’s my meal prep post!
• Here’s a short post with an infographic from Brains Over Blonde on time batching.  Be warned, this lady is a cusser.
• Here’s a list of automation software if it’s in your budget to use as a small business owner.  Buffer is good for bloggers, and I also use Tailwind for Pinterest pin scheduling.
• My post on paying bills by payday instead of due date.

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Tip #6: All the Other Stuff  – Is It a Priority or Not?

Suzi Whitford from Start A Mom Blog has a really great interview on YouTube with Abbi Friedman on finding time to write when you have kids.

It’s an hour long, so it may not be easy to watch in one shot.  But Abbi had a really great perspective on priority at around the 23-minute mark.

She basically says you can choose to spend your time doing things that feel right to you.  You can choose not to do things if you truly don’t care whether they are done (or give them to someone else in your house to do).  Like folding laundry.

Most importantly, she says owning what feels good to you and running with it is empowering.  It keeps you in a positive mindset.

Like saying to yourself, “I love playing catch with my boys outside and that’s what I’m doing now,” instead of “I’m not working right now because the boys want to play catch with me.”

You aren’t necessarily choosing between spending 20 minutes either working or playing.  You are simply spending 20 minutes doing what feels right to you, and that’s what matters.

Here’s the video, there are definitely a bunch of great pointers about finding time as a mom in general:

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And Nowwwww………

My WORK-AT-HOME-MOM Schedule!!!

Here’s a day in my work at home mom life, using my time management tips!

I’m in the “kids in grade school” season of life so, 10 months out of the year, I have a big daily chunk of time for working.

UPDATE: So wow, we are in the middle of coronavirus school closures, and my schedule is all wacked out.  Here is a helpful post I found with a homeschool schedule for working moms.

Early Morning: 5:30am-7am
This is my “busy-work” Tip #5 time (I am absolutely not creative at this time of day).

• Laundry
• Empty Dishwasher
• Answer Emails & Check Social Media Accounts
• Schedule Pins for Blog Posts
• Mon, Wed & Fri: Exercise 10-15 mins in my PJs (eff it, I’m not washing extra clothes, thanks Tip #6!)
• Water & Coffee

 

Morning: 7am-9am
The kids are UP & super-annoyed that it’s not Saturday!  Its GO GO GO Time!

• Laundry in Dryer
• Make Kids’ Snacks & Lunches
• Everyone eats Breakfast
• Kids Ready for School and on the Bus

Daytime: 9am-3:15pm
Time to Work It!  I broke this up into days of the week to be thorough:

Mon, Wed & Fri:

• 9:15am: Shower (sometimes :/), Dressed, Makeup & Hair
• 9:45am-3:15pm: Creative Work
  • A LOT of Research
  • My Box 1 Tasks (Tip #2)
  • Post Writing
  • Responding to Comments
  • Brainstorming
  • Reaching Out to Fellow Businessowners in My Niche/Networking
  • Create Social Media Images

Tues:

• 9:45am-11:30pm Outside Errands
• 11:30am-3:15pm: Creative Work

Thurs:

• 9:45am-10:45pm Cleaning
• 10:45am-3:15pm: Creative Work

 

Dont Forget to Eat!

10am: Snack & Water
12pm: Lunch & Water
2:45pm: Snack & Water

 

After School Time: 3:15pm-6pm
So…..Much….Talking…..

• Homework
• Instrument Practice
• Playing Hopefully Outside

 

Dinner Time: 6pm-7:30pm
Not…..Enough….Talking…..

• I Prep my ingredients on Sundays, check out my post on that!

Evening: 7:30pm-9:30pm
The food crumbs struggle is real in my house.

• Kids’ Chores
• Reading
• Baths & Get Ready for Bed
• Clean Kitchen – wiping counters & sweeping the floor

 

Late Night: 9:30pm-11pm
Hubby time – usually me falling asleep during a movie

Sleep: 11pm-5:30am
Let tonight be the night nobody gets up for water…….

 

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What other Time Management Tips have changed your life?  And let me know if you are team Morning or team Night!  Leave a comment below, I love to hear from you!

XO,

-Mina

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If you liked this post, make sure to leave a comment & Pin it!!!

Checkout my other Blog Posts & be sure to follow me on Pinterest, I have TONS more great content!!

Here are some more posts that might be helpful:

–How to Reduce your WAHM Stress Level in ONE Day

–How I Meal Prep Lunch, Snacks & Dinner Working From Home + 3 Days of Recipes!

–6 Workouts You Can Do At Home + Tips for Overcoming Excuses

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