22 Working Mom Hacks to make Life Easier

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Being a working mom is tough, you’re constantly juggling a million different things and trying to make everything work perfectly. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered, I am sharing here 22 working mom hacks to make life easier for you.

I am a working mom with a full-time job and a 2-year-old beautiful daughter, so I have been juggling work and life as a working mom for quite a while. 

I have transitioned from a working mom of an infant to a working mom of a toddler now, and know that the struggle is real and different at every phase. But certain hacks and things have made life easier for me. And in this post, I am sharing these with you.

 So let’s have a look at these working mom hacks to make life easier.

22 Working mom tips to make life easier

Here are hacks to make life easier as a working mom

1: Keep your expectations real

You need to remember as a working mom, there are many things in life that you need to take care of. You have responsibilities at work, maintaining the house, and raising kids. With a limited amount of time and energy from juggling the responsibilities, you should not expect Instagram and Pinterest perfect life.

So keep your expectations realistic and acknowledge that everything cannot be perfect. there will be situations when you would need to give priority to one over the other and you may lack behind the other things, and that’s just ok.

It is perfectly fine to sometime have a messy house on weekdays when you are too busy at work.

Extend grace to yourself.

2: Simplify your life

To make life easier to handle as a working mum you need to simplify your life. When things are simple they are easier for you to do, have a look around your house and identify things that can be simplified to reduce your work. It can be a decluttering or better organization of things at home to make them easily accessible during the morning rush hour.

P.S. Here are 10 Tips To Be An Organized Working Mom

You should also go through your schedule for the day to find things that are taking more time or work that can be batched together so you end up spending less time. Be mindful to look for work and time spent on things that are unessential and try to get rid of them. Organizing your life will make your life simpler and easier to manage. To find more on organizing your life read my post on How to organize your life and make it better.

Keep your life only with things, people, and tasks that are essential to make life easier as a working mom there is no scope to deal with anymore.

There are many ways in which you can simplify your life, and get creative. I would suggest starting to simplify those things that seem most overwhelming to you.

Sometimes getting rid of things make life easier too. Here are 10 Things to quit to simplify life.

3: Get down time to energize

There’s nothing quite like a good break to energize yourself. Whether you need a few minutes to yourself or to spend some quality time with your kids and husband.

Make a schedule for yourself, and carve out some time each day to do something that you enjoy. It can be taking a walk in nature, reading a book, taking a nap, or simply taking some time to relax and reflect. As a working mom, you need to take time for self-care to avoid burnout. Here are Self care ideas for busy moms you must try.

Scheduling some downtime can help you to recharge, make things less overwhelming and easier for you, and make you a happy working mom.

P.S Here’s a post on –5 step system to help you relax and unwind after a busy day

4: Do weekly planning

As working moms, we need to be well-planned and prepared for the things coming. The best hack to make life easier as a working mom is to have plans to deal with work, life, and kids. Weekly planning is the best way to do so. I like weekly planning as it is not as long as a month’s plan and not very short like a day plan, just a perfect sweet spot to make sure you have a grip on life.

Use the weekend or Sunday to plan your entire coming week. It can include activities for the kids, planning tasks and meetings at work, and household chores that can be split throughout the week.

You can put a weekly plan on the fridge to keep you on track.

Weekly planning not only makes sure everything is addressed and accommodated but more importantly, it gives peace of mind as you know you have got the coming week covered.

You may find this helpful- Weekly planning secrets for work life balance.

5: Do end-of-month reflection and goal setting

There are so many things that need to be taken care of on a daily basis that we tend to lose track of life and the way we want our life to be. Hence doing monthly reflection and monthly goal planning is a great hack for working moms to make their life the way they want to be.

This helps you ensure you have a system in place for tracking your progress. You’ll want to be able to see how much progress you’re making and whether you’re on track to meet your goals.

 Also allow you to reflect on your accomplishments and goals for the month, to feel a sense of accomplishment, and feel positive.

 It’s also a great time to take stock of how you’re doing and make changes if necessary.

P.S Here’s a post on – Monthly Goal Planning for Balanced Life under 30 min

                                   How to do Monthly reflection quickly

6: Always write everything

With many things to remember the brain gets foggy and you feel stress and anxiety about missing out on something or trying to remember things. To avoid this always have things written down.

Keep a running to-do list to make sure you are not missing anything. Also, having a to-do list makes planning easier and gives you a clear idea of the number of things that you need to take care of. You can have a physical to-do list or a digital one through a to-do list app. Chose the one that suits you.

I personally prefer writing down in a notebook or diary.

Write not just your task or to-do list but other things like groceries to buy, appointments with the doctor or kid’s teacher, and birthday or anniversary.

When it is written it will be done. Having a master list of repetitive things can save you time and keep you better organized, you can try these 20 Lists to make to organize your life

You can keep a whiteboard on the fridge or in the kitchen to write the grocery you need and meal plan for the week. It is a simple hack but makes life really easier for me as a working mother.

P.S Here’s a post on –10 Ways To Make An Effective To-Do List

7: Build practical routines

Build routines accommodating the important things to be done in that part of the day. 

Have a morning routine that includes things that you need to do before you leave for work and things that are related to your family and kids to ensure their day is smooth. 

Don’t follow a fancy routine from YouTube that includes many things that may not be relevant to you, keep things real and practical for you.

You may find 5 steps to build a morning routine before work that is best for you useful.

Also, have an after-work evening routine, a routine to relax and unwind after work. 

You can also have a weekend routine.

Having a routine gives you predictability to your day and when routines are built mindfully it ensures all the major things are ensured to be completed with the routine most effectively.

When you have routine work that is part of it just flows along and gets completed without realization.

8: Opt for subscriptions

Another great hack to make working mom’s life easy is using subscription services. It makes life easy in many ways. I highly recommend using a grocery subscription service, You don’t have to remember to do the order every time but based on your usage you can set the frequency for the frequent item such as milk, onion, tomato, etc. And they will be delivered to you.

I set my subscription to common commodities like bread, frequent use vegetable, and fruits every Saturday morning so that I can keep the item in the right place and also do my meal prep for the coming week without spending time at the grocery store.

You can do the same not just for groceries but other routine-use items. I have a subscription at Amazon for diapers and wet wipes for my kid and I have never run a shortage of supplies, I just change the size as my kids grow.

Use subscription-based services wherever possible, it one less work for you, and many times the subscription service provides offers too, so maybe you can save some mon

9: Use delivery services

As working moms weekends and evenings are already quite packed with chores, so going out shopping seems like a waste of time. It saves not just the time but also the energy that you need to spend on getting the kids ready, keeping an eye on them all time during shopping, and not forgetting the drama when they want something.

All of these can be avoided by using a delivery service to get your grocery and other household items. It is not just a time saver and gives peace of mind but also avoids impulse buying that happens when you visit the store in person.

10: Make technology your best friend

As working moms it is very difficult to get all done by yourself and having help can be really expensive, the best choice you have is to make technology your best friend and automate tasks where possible.

I use a dishwasher to wash the utensils, so every night before I go to sleep I put my dishwasher on so that when I get up in the morning, the utensil will be washed and ready for use.

Use a robotic cleaner that I programmed to do the vacuum and mopping of the house at night after we sleep and I get up to a clean house.

And put a round of laundry in the morning as soon as I get up, so while I am cooking breakfast, washing is happening simultaneously.

Similarly, you can set your coffee maker too.

You can find things that you can automate by using technology to make your life easier.

It really takes off a lot of workloads and makes you independent of help from others.

11: Set reminders

With many things to remember either we miss a task or end up stressing by recalling them.

A good hack to be peaceful, and organized, and make life easier as a working mom is to set reminders.

You can set reminders for an entire year or for a few months based on your needs. 

This can be to set reminders for birthdays, anniversaries, festival preparation, vacation planning, or vaccination schedule.

You can also use reminders for many other things such as monthly reminders to pay bills, yearly reminders for insurance premiums, etc.

You can even set daily reminders for things such as taking medicines.

I like to set a reminder of just 15 minutes every weekday before we leave home so that all of us get in the sense that we have just 15 min to leave the house or we will be late.

Reminders take the load off your mind as you will not end up stressing about remembering and there is very less probability of you missing the things you need to do.

12: Try for work flexibility

As a working mom, at times it may not be possible that everything would sync in the right schedule.

In such cases, you should try to reach your workplace for some flexibility in your work schedule. This can be allowing you to have flexible working hours or allowing you to work from home. You can also opt for a hybrid work model where in you work from home for some days and be at the office the other days.

Try to convince your supervisor with flexibility at work to make things easier for you.

By trying to look out for the option to work from home you would save time spent on commuting and can be around your kids although you are working.

It is worth trying to seek flexibility at work, in case it workout life as a working mom will be easier.

13: Make a cleaning schedule

House cleaning is never complete and as a working mom, you find very less time to do house cleaning. Hence a good hack is to make a cleaning schedule so that you can attend to all the house cleaning and related tasks by splitting them throughout the week.

You should identify the things that need to be done on a daily basis and those that can be done once a week or so and include them in part of your routine. 

Try to break cleaning work into small tasks so that they do not overwhelm you. You must try these 10 simple working mom cleaning hacks for a tidy house.

Also, you can assign your partner and kids some chores of the cleaning schedule depending on their capacity. This can make cleaning time a family bonding time.

When things go out of hand don’t shy away from taking help from cleaning services, to bring things back in order.

P.S. How to get household back on track after busy times in 1 day or 2

14: Prepare the night before

A very basic but most effective hack is to prepare the night before. Every night before going to sleep just think of things that you would need tomorrow morning and try to keep them ready so that you have less to do in the morning when you’re in a rush to leave for work.

You can prepare the following things the night before:

• Set your bag for the day
• Keep your kid’s clothes for the next day ready and handy.
• Fill your kid’s water bottles for the next day
• Set out items required for cooking the next day to avoid rushing.

Here is a complete Working Mom evening routine that will be helpful for building your routine after work to be better prepared for the next day.

You can think of any other things that you can make ready for the next day. This will make morning easy and remove chaos. If your mornings are easy and smooth your day tends to be quite positive and productive.

15: Plan and prepare your meal

This is by far my favorite and life-saver hack as a working mom. Plan your meal for the entire week on the weekend so that you don’t end up worrying about what to cook each day.

Plan not just meals but even the tiffins that you need to give to your kids every day at daycare. 

With meal planning and prepping, you make a conscious choice of meal you eat each day rather than making anything with time available at hand or the takeaway menu.

You get a complete view of what you are eating each day and can include healthy options in your and your family’s diet. I do my meal planning using Google Sheet Meal Planner which has an automated grocery list. That makes meal planning and grocery shopping easy. It just takes a few minutes to plan the meal.

You can also do some basic food preparation to make things easier during the working day. But if you already have many things planned for the weekend you can find it difficult to do meal preparation in such cases you can skip them, weekends are not just for preparation but for refreshing yourself and spending quality time with kids

16: Share calendar with family

A family with working parents must be on the same page as both the mom and dad have things to do at work but also take care of the family and the best way to do so is by having a common calendar shared with everyone in the family. You can easily do this with a shared Google calendar or by placing a physical monthly calendar somewhere visible in the house and all can note their plan on it. 

In case you have an important meeting and will not be able to pick up your kids your husband can be aware of it to not plan anything important on the day for him and be available with the kids. 

You can also be informed of your husband’s holidays and availability to plan quality time with him.

17: Have an emergency kit

As a mom of infants and toddlers, you may be in need of many things anytime, but as a working mom, since you spend more time away from the home it a good to have some emergency items, I like to call emergency kits, it is a great hack to be always prepared as a working mom.

Some of the emergency kits that you can keep ready are

Back-up clothes: Always keep a pair of clothes, inners, and towels for your kids in a small pouch in your car, in your kid’s bag.

Hunger kit: Hungry kids are very difficult to deal with. I suggest keeping a small bag with some dry fruits, biscuits, and candies in your car and also in your work bag in case of emergencies. 

First aid and medicine kit: Toddlers and infants fall sick quite frequently and you may find yourself in situations to receive a call from daycare for your sick kids. In such cases having emergency kits with over-the-counter medicine, bandages, and nasal relievers can be very handy.

18: Use the weekend to prepare for next week

Plan your entire week on the weekend so that you are well-prepared for the coming week. The weekend is the best time to plan your coming week as you have fewer things to take care of on weekends and you are mostly aware of the things that you can expect in the next week. 

You can prepare yourself for the coming week by planning meals, organizing your house, catching up with kids’ assignments and many more to be prepared for the coming week. It is wise to spend some time on the weekend to have a better week ahead than spending a lazy weekend.

Here is a working mom weekend routine that I follow to help me prepare better for the coming week.

19: Have a backup plan as a working mom

Things may go unexpectedly even with the best planning. As a working mom, you have a lot on your plate and cannot afford to have things go messy either at work or in your personal life and especially with kids. Hence a backup plan is essential for any working mom, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. 

Here is a tip to help you create a backup plan:

• Think about the things that are most important to you and have a probability to get uncertain in your life and look out for a backup plan for it.
• It can be a backup of a close relative or friend to take care of your kid when a nanny or caregiver is unavailable. Or doing work from home when kids are sick.
• Or simple instant noodles in the pantry for days when you are late from work and unable to cook dinner.

List the things and make a backup plan.

20: Share chores with kids

Take help from your kids to share the chores to make them involved with the routine work. This will make them independent, value the effort you take to make things available for the family, and also ease the workload for you.

It can be simple things like packing their bag for school or taking out clothes for the next day to school. Depending on their age you can try to give them some chores.

My little girl is 2 years old but likes to help me with putting the washed laundry back in the closet and it is a little fun time together. They may not do it perfectly but will eventually get better and little help is better than no help.

You can make a fun daily chores chart for the kids to make them clear about the work they can do and reward them to encourage them to follow it.

21: Don’t have working mom guilt

This may not seem to be a real hack to you but let me explain. When you feel guilty for being a working mom it affects your mood and your mindset. Rather than focusing on the things that can be done and the best that you can do for your kids, you are discouraged this does not make your life easier.

Rather try to focus on appreciating yourself for the best that you are able to do with the available time and energy. It will bring a positive mindset for you and help you focus on good changes you can make in your life to make life easier. 

22: Make peace with the mess

Learn to make peace with mess around, it may be difficult for people who like to be organized but at times things at home can be messy, your bathroom can be dirty, and there may be a pile of laundry to wash. But you need to know that your priority is to make a balance between work and life. 

You need to ignore the mess around and be grateful for the least you were able to do. Extend grace to yourself and don’t set unrealistic expectations.

In real life, things go out of control but you can still have a great time with your family even if there is a mess around the house. You need to prioritize rest for yourself and time with family over cleaning and organizing the house.

Conclusion

So these are 22 hacks to make your life easier as a working mom. Reduce your overwhelm as a working mom by trying these in your life. These have helped me manage work and life as a working mom and will be of great use to you too.

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