10 Practical Time management tips for working moms

Are you struggling as a working mom to get all done? You have many responsibilities and limited time. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. The solution to your problem is better time management.

Get ready to wave goodbye to the struggle, because I’m sharing with you practical time management tips for working moms. These are tried and tested by me as a working mom of a 3-year kid and have helped me keep my sanity.

These time management hacks will help you as a working mom to have the best of both worlds. You can have a successful career and a happy family life without the guilt of being a working mom by managing your time well.

With better planning and effectively using your time, it is possible for you to do it all.

Let’s look at how it’s done …

10 Time-saving hacks for busy moms

Here are 10 time management tips for working moms to manage work, life, and motherhood. With these time-saving hacks, you will surely be able to manage life as a working mom.

Tip 1: Wake up before kids

One of the best things to do as a working mom for better time management is to wake up before your kids.

Waking up early in the morning before kids give you uninterrupted time. You can do work and practice your morning routine without distractions. It allows you to have peace of mind and some time for self-care without hustling.

When you are giving divided attention to chores and kids, you tend to spend a long time completing them and feel overwhelmed. So waking up before kids and tackling the most crucial tasks will give a positive and productive start to your day. And you will be over the top of the tasks.

Tip 2: Make a to – do list and Prioritize tasks

As a working mom, you have many things to take care and remembering everything is difficult. Forgetting a task or timeline may cause issues at work or in personal life too.

Hence having a running to-do list is a saver, make note of everything you need to do in your personal, and professional life so that you can plan for the same and ensure it is not forgotten. You can use a digital app to capture all your task or use an old-style pen and notebook. I personally prefer to write and carry a notebook with me always.

Check out 10 Ways To Make An Effective To-Do List make your To-Do list the right way.

Next, you need to prioritize your task based on urgency and importance. All the tasks that are urgent and important should be your priority, followed by important and not urgent. There are different methods to prioritize the task the most common being the Eisenhower Matrix

Prioritization of work is very important as a working mother since there may be situations wherein you would need to prioritize between work and motherhood, each takes priority over the other based on situations.

But it is essential for you to have clarity on the order of tasks you will attend. Otherwise, you end up attending to the urgent crisis at hand and get overwhelmed.

P.S you may like to read How to prioritize work tasks

Tip 3: Use Timeboxing

There are many time management techniques but one of the most effective techniques is timeboxing.

In timeboxing, you allot a time slot during the day to a task and ensure to complete the task in the assigned time slot.

This makes you work more efficiently, keeps you focused, and not get trapped in perfectionism.

In my daily routine at work or personal life, I use timeboxing to ensure the work is completed without spending much time on the work.

For example, I timebox meal preparation at the weekend as I tend to spend more time doing it or completely miss it on some weekends but with timeboxing, I am bound to do it in the specified time. In the same way at work too I would timebox a practical amount of time to a task and make sure to finish it at the same.

You must read Timeboxing at work: An effective way to get the most done to know more about it.

Tip 4: Be Organized

Being organized at work and at personal life will be of great help to you as a working mom. When you are organized you waste less time and are more effective in doing things making you save time and use your time well.

Having an organizational system for your house and schedule will make time management very easy for you.

With many things to take care of as a working mom, you cannot afford to be all over the place. Find the things that are most challenging for you and organize them, it will take effort from you initially but will be rewarding in the long run.

Being organized also reduces stress and overwhelm and is one of the most essential for a productive lifestyle. Here are 10 Tips To Be An Organized Working Mom.

Tip 5: Do multitasking where possible

Multitasking of work is not recommended by many, however, I believe if not overdone and used wisely for selective tasks. Multitasking can be quite a save and help in better time management.

You must identify small tasks that do not require much attention and couple them with a task that has a scope to work to be accommodated.

For example, I find taking out time for self-care and unwinding difficult as a working mom. So I try to couple it with simple mundane tasks such as listening to podcasts or audiobooks while cooking and watching T.V while folding clothes.

Similarly, at work, I do mundane tasks like filing paper and organizing paperwork at a web call that does not require much of my attention.

Find such simple tasks in your routine and try to get little creative in accommodating them in your routine.

Tip 6: Have white space in the plan

Every time you are planning always ensure to have a white space in the plan. White space is basically a buffer in your planning, you intentionally leave some time in your day or some days in your monthly planning without any scheduled task.

This is very important to be practical about your time use as we all know unexpected things come up and disturb our plan.

If you get lucky to not have an unexpected task disturb you, the white space can be used for relaxation where you are not hustling. We all need downtime as busy working moms.

Tip 7: Batch your work

Batching your work is a great time saver. Essentially you batch a process of the related tasks together to get more productive or you batch some tasks that you do on daily basis on one day so you don’t spend time doing the same each day.

You can practice batching of work at home and work too.

For example, You may spend time each day picking clothes for work or for your kids. You can do it for the whole coming week at once on a weekend and save time each day.

Similarly, chopping all the vegetables and fruits for the week and storing them well, save you time every day. By batching you save time on cleaning and getting the utilities.

When you batch the work you save time as:

You are already in the momentum of the work so you can do more in less amount of time.

All the prep and prerequisites required for doing the work are laid out once.
You are more focused.

Tip 8: Have routines

Having routines in your life makes time management very easy for you. You should have routines in your day revolving around your schedule and needs.

Routine is not about doing things at a fixed time but doing them in a way that is beneficial and time-saving for you.

I highly recommend having a morning routine, as mornings are the most chaotic in a working mom’s life. If you are looking to make a helpful morning routine read 5 steps to build a morning routine before work that is best for you.

Also, have an evening routine after work to relax and unwind along with getting ready for the coming day.

P.S You make like Simple After work evening routine to keep you sane.

Tip 9: Automate payment and shop online

Try to automate tasks wherever possible. Payment is a monthly task and it can be very easily automated by setting a standard instruction to the bank to clear all the dues on a particular day of the month. You can do the same for your electricity bills, credit card bills, daycare fees, etc.

This way you don’t have to spend time each month to do the payments. You can also use wallet-based payment methods for frequent services like buying groceries etc. This way you will spend less time on payment activities at the same time will be able to keep a tab to regulate your spending.

Shop for groceries online so that you do not spend time and energy going to the supermarket. You can do the same while commuting while eating lunch at work to save time.

Tip 10: Identify time wasters

Look out for things that waste your time.There may be things at work or home that take your time and are not essential or valuable for your time. These tasks can either be delegated to others or you can get rid of them.

Similarly, there may be some people at work or friends who distract you or waste your time with stories of their lives.

Long conversations on the phone or scrolling on social media can also be a time waster.

Identify the time wasters in your life and get rid of them or try to minimize and regulate them so you don’t spend wasting time.

By building meaningful routines around your chores and responsibilities, along with self-care your routines will take care of chores being done without you even realizing it.

Conclusion

Hope these time management tips for working moms will make your life easier. These tips are practical to be followed and will reduce overwhelm and stress from your everyday life of juggling the role of a working professional and a mom.

10 Practical Time management tips for working moms