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Simple time management tips can help moms manage their days and bring peace to their lives amid the busyness of daily life.
Are you a stay at home mom? A working mom? A tired mom? No matter what we have going on each day, a mom always has a lot on her plate.
I remember a situation when our fourth child was a baby and my husband said to me, “You can’t do two things at once.” My initial reaction was, “Since when? I’m a Mom, of course I can do two things at the same time!” I am usually doing at least two things at the same time. Sometimes I try to do even more than that.
In his defense, my husband meant I couldn’t be in two places at the same time, not that I couldn’t actually do two things at the same time. Even so, his comment has stuck with me.
Yes, as a Mom you can do two or more things at the same time, but does it come at a cost? Do you usually feel frazzled, tired, preoccupied, forgetful, or stretched thin? Are you regularly short-tempered with others and yourself?
There is hope! Learning some time management tips can help you to set boundaries on your time and help you keep your peace.
Now, before getting into the steps, I have a piece of advice: start small. Pick one of these tips (whichever one is the best one for you right now) and begin there. You do not need to try to do all of them right off the bat! Trying to do that might become overwhelming and frustrating, and who wants that? (Not me!) Remember, peace is the goal, not more stress!
So, read over the tips, pick your favorite one, and start there. When you have it working for you and you are seeing the results you want, then pick another one.
8 Simple Time Management Tips for Moms
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1. Set up am and pm routines.
Morning and evening routines do not need to be complicated. They are basically a checklist of what you need to do in the morning and a checklist of what you need to do in the evening to help you manage your day so it goes more smoothly. It is that simple.
Take some time to think about what you need to do first thing in the morning. Write the items down. Next, write down the things you need to get done in the evening. Now, (if you are anything like me) your list may be long. Try to cut it down to five things or less.
Keeping your lists short and simple will help you to be focused and not overwhelmed. It is better to get five things done than to have ten undone because you feel overwhelmed and uncertain as to where to start.
Am and pm routine examples.
I’ll give you examples of my routines.
am routine:
1. Morning offering.
2. Exercise.
3. Take a shower and get dressed.
4. Read and reflect on the Mass readings of the day.
5. Start a load of laundry and eat breakfast.
The purpose of an am routine is to get your day off to a great start. As you can see, it does not need to be fancy. A simple routine is all you need.
pm routine:
1. Make sure any leftover food from dinner got put away and the lights are off in our living rooms and kitchen. (These are the rooms that are now usually empty of teenagers who tend to leave lights on when they leave the room!)
2. Double-check the calendar for activities for the next day. Make sure my alarm is set for when I need to get up in the morning. Put my phone and electronics away.
3. Based on what is going on tomorrow, decide what I will wear the next day and lay out those clothes. Plan out my day tomorrow if I haven’t done so yet.
4. Get ready for bed.
5. Read for a while before I go to sleep.
The purpose of a pm routine is to help you get your next day off to a great start. By laying out your clothes ahead of time, you won’t end up in the morning with a bed covered in clothes you pulled out of your drawers or your closet as you tried to figure out what to wear. By checking your calendar for activities ahead of time, you won’t forget the appointment you have or need to change your clothes (again) when realize you shouldn’t wear what you picked out to the event you have scheduled.
2. Plan your day the night before.
If you wait until the morning to plan out your day, your littlest child may decide to wake up super early and your day may begin without a plan. If this happens, you may not remember until 1:00 what you wanted to do at 9:00 that you didn’t do because you got interrupted so early and did not create a plan for your day as you intended to. So, your day ended up planning itself instead of you planning it. This can lead to you feeling frustrated and unproductive.
To combat this, take a few minutes the day before to plan your day. It is is important to plan your day even if it is a day when you will be home all day. Sometimes the day can get away from you with an unexpected phone call or spending more time than expected on a project. When you plan your day on paper ahead of time, you block off time for what you need to do and what you want to do.
You can use a planner or just a sheet of paper to list any appointments that are at a specific time and list when you want to get other things done, like starting dinner, renewing library items, or calling a friend.
When you plan your day ahead of time, you will have peace of mind and feel more focused on your day.
One important note: plan for things to go differently than you expect or hope. For example, if you plan to go to the library for an hour, remember to include travel time to get there and back. If you happen to run into someone you know or the baby needs to nurse while you are there, you may be there longer thank you planned. It is important to add extra time before and after tasks to make sure you don’t put too much on our plate and feel overwhelmed and frazzled-which are two things you are working to avoid by planning your day in the first place!
By having the understanding that your day may not go as planned and by adding in extra time for tasks and activities, you set yourself up to minimize extra stress in your day.
3. Pray.
It is important to have prayer as part of your day for two reasons: It is important to turn your eyes to God and ask Him to be part of your day and you can receive His grace to help you fulfill your vocation to the best of your ability. When you start your day with prayer (a simple prayer from your heart to God is all you need to say), you are acknowledging Him and asking for His help. You are offering your day to Him. This can also give you peace, knowing He is with you.
4. Plan meals ahead of time.
Planning meals ahead of time is a key component to help your day go smoothly. When you plan your meals ahead of time and have your ingredients on hand, you save yourself from asking at 4:00, “What should I make for dinner?”
Just remember to defrost anything you need for dinner ahead of time. (Yes, I have forgotten to do this a few times!) You can write the meals you plan to make on your calendar so when you check your calendar each night you can see if there is something you need to get out of the freezer to defrost.
Just this one simple step can help you to be more in control of our day.
For more information and tips about meal planning, see Simple Steps for Meal Planning.
If you desire even more help specific help with meal planning, the Simple Healthy Meal Planner may be just what you are looking for.
5. Keep your to-do list short!
As you know, life has a way of going differently than you plan or expect! When you mentally prepare for and leave room in your daily plan for the unexpected by not overloading your day with too many things, you set yourself up for greater peace in your day.
You won’t feel so frazzled when your potty training toddler doesn’t make it to the bathroom in time (for the second time that day) when you have the mindset of knowing that things will go unexpectedly and you haven’t packed too many activities into your day.
For this reason, keep your to-do list short. You can always choose to add more tasks to your day if you get everything done that you hoped to accomplish. Or, you can just enjoy the feeling of having finished all you set out to do and enjoy some extra time for fun for yourself, with your family, or both.
6. Schedule time for self-care.
It may feel odd at first to actually schedule time to take care of yourself, but when you do, it is more likely to happen than planning for “one day…”
Taking time to care for yourself is just as important as taking time to care for the members of your family. You are part of your family and you need to make time to take care of yourself and do activities that renew you and fill you up. When you are depleted you can then become frustrated, short-tempered, moody, and down on yourself. This is not good for you or your family.
To combat this, regularly schedule time for self-care.
If you need some tips to help you with self-care, look here for more help: 7 Ways to Take Care of Yourself and The Importance of Self Care.
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7. Sleep.
Oh, sleep. “What is that again?” you may ask. Yes, sleep can be elusive at different times in our lives as a mom. Because of this, it is important to be intentional about sleep.
Do you have a bedtime for your kids? If so, do you have a bedtime for yourself? If not, why not?
Sleep is important for our bodies and well as our minds. We can rest and renew ourselves as we sleep. Because of this, sleep is not a luxury, but a necessity. Just as we need food to fuel our bodies, we need sleep so that our bodies can work their best.
8. Evaluate your day and reevaluate your plans from time to time.
It is helpful to spend a moment or two at the end of the day to evaluate your day. Did you have peace today? Did you feel frazzled or lose your patience today with your kids or yourself? What in your plan for the day worked very well? What in your plan did not work? How do you want to do things differently tomorrow?
You can take what insights you have learned through evaluation to make a plan for tomorrow that will serve you better. We learn and grow from our experiences. It is good to take time to reflect so we can learn from them.
Every month or so evaluate the previous month. Are you putting too many things in your am and pm routines? Have you gotten away from planning your days and feel directionless and frustrated? Do you need to schedule time for self-care? Do you need to plan a fun family date night?
When you take the time to evaluate how things are going, you take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. This is valuable to do so that you can make sure you are working to achieve the life and peace that you want. Just like traveling somewhere new is easier to do when you have a map, so achieving the peace and life you want is easier when you create and stick with a plan that will work for you.
Time management plan of action: pick one tip to start with
There is a lot of information packed into these 8 time management tips for moms. It may be helpful to just pick one and follow it for a while. Then, when you are ready, pick another one to incorporate into your day.
The purpose of these tips is to help you have greater peace in your life, not for you to feel even more overwhelmed. So, start small and add to what you are doing when you are ready.
Review of the 8 simple time management tips for moms:
1. Set up am and pm routines.
2. Plan your day the night before.
3. Pray.
4. Plan meals ahead of time.
5. Keep your to-do list short!
6. Schedule time for self-care.
7. Sleep.
8. Evaluate your day and reevaluate your plans from time to time.
What tip will you start with first?
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It was quite a useful piece of advice when you told us to set up morning and evening routines using a simple checklist of what we need to do to manage our day much more smoothly without it being too overwhelming. I’m a stay-at-home mom for now while my baby is still a year old and I’m currently taking my masters, so I wanted to know how I should manage my time better. I’ll keep this in mind and consider taking an online course for time management designed for moms in case it might help me.
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad the tips were helpful to you.