Time Management Tips For The Busy Mom
Hey fellow mamas – do you feel like you’re drowning? Do you swear every day you’ll figure out how to better manage your time? Do you consider the hours between bus pick up and drop off your work day? Me too! But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Moms Can Enjoy Their Lives And Have Fun
Moms constantly feel like we’re on a hamster wheel. We juggle everything and the disorganization and pivoting drives us nuts! However, with a system in place and some efficient weekly planning, we can better manage our time and lives.
Enter Megan Sumrell And Her Time Management Tips For The Busy Mom
Like life imitating art, as I was stressing about my day, I received a message from Megan Sumrell – the master time management, organization, and productivity expert – wanting to have a chat. YES! I do, Megan! Teach me time management tips for the busy mom! I’m a busy mom! Help me!
Megan is also a busy mom so she gets it. I told her how I constantly feel like a character in the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and clearly needed help.
We discussed her evolution of managing and creating technological systems for large industries, to focusing her attention on the networking complexities of a mom’s day. Megan understands that moms are not only responsible for being the CEO of the family but also burdened by the invisible loads of motherhood that we carry on a daily basis.
Megan Sumrell’s Top Five Time Management Tips For The Busy Mom
For the full (FANTASTIC) interview of Megan’s spectacular tips, head over to my new YouTube channel or watch it at the bottom of this post. In the meantime, these time management tips for the busy mom stood out to me.
1. Keep On Top Of Housework With Scheduled “Resets”
Working from home is both wonderful and challenging. Understandably, boundaries are blurred between your office and the laundry basket staring you down from the corner.
To keep you in check, Megan suggests leveraging routines. She adheres to decluttering goddess Katy Joy Wells’ concept of 5 – 10 minute “resets” scheduled thrice daily to get pesky household chores done.
She goes on to add that everyone in your home should have an assigned part (knowing exactly what to do) at each reset. Megan suggests scheduling these resets when your child/ren leaves for school (clean up the morning mess), midday (when you transition from work ending to mom chaos beginning), and after dinner (cleaning up from the day).
With this organized system in place, the anxiety of task completion is replaced by the control of knowing exactly when things will get done.
2. Be Realistic With Your Time
Women are notoriously unrealistic about the amount time they have to get stuff done. Even though one’s kids are at school for six hours, you don’t have six hours to accomplish what’s needed.
Learning the right way to create a weekly plan empowers you to control the unexpected things when they pop up and require your time and attention (read: the dreaded call from the school nurse).
Be realistic with the actual time you have so you can schedule things accordingly. Next, map your tasks efficiently and strategically into your day by aligning them with the time you have throughout the week. Finally, by creating boundaries into your week you won’t feel overwhelmed.
Once you establish this (realistic) weekly map, you can see where tasks fit in and where they can easily be moved if needed.
3. Layering In Time Management To Productivity Reduces Stress
You can be productive without having good time management skills. However, layering in time management maximizes getting important things done and reduces your stress levels.
Megan suggests starting this process with a time audit to see exactly how you spend your time. This data will help identify the needed tools to optimize yourself (including planning processes) and prioritize spending time on the things that matter the most.
4. Plan Your Week, Not Your Day
In Megan’s opinion, the biggest time management mistake is daily vs. weekly planning. Daily planning is overwhelming, inefficient, and often checks off only the low hanging fruit. Instead, approach your week like a game of Tetris – each piece fits, you just have to figure out where it goes.
Megan suggests creating your weekly plan in a calm space. In addition, you need a clear picture in front of you (a/k/a not on your phone) of your weekly tasks and how much time you have to do them. Next – and with intention – fit in each item based on your non-negotiable schedule (sports, meetings, things you can’t control). Following this approach allows you to construct efficient time blocks with things that organically fit together. It also allows you to plot in your most creative tasks for when you’re the most focused (this is different for everyone, but it’s often in the morning).
Implementing this process creates flex time throughout your week. In addition, it gives you freedom to move things around as curve balls come up, or to check off quick tasks.
5. Phones Are Our Biggest Time Sucks
This is not shocking news. The little computers in our pocket constantly distract us. Megan suggests changing phone notifications to “VIP” alerts only (read: kids and spouse) and assigning a personalized sound for each.
She points out that we can proactively take our phone’s power away removing its ability to pull us in and suck our time.
Final Thoughts On Time Management Tips For The Busy Mom
In conclusion, Megan believes everyone deserves work/life harmony. As client zero, she not only reaped the benefits of her program but also feels good about helping thousands of other moms enjoy their lives.
Want to know more fun stuff about Megan? Check out her answers to my “Rapid Fire Five” questions in the YouTube video!
You can find Megan on her website, Instagram, or Facebook. Also be sure to check out her 10 minute weekly podcast The Work Life Harmony and her app – ThePinkBee.
Namaste
Thank you for sharing!