Do you want proven strategies to help you manage your time as a mom? If yes, you are in the right place. I will show you proven strategies that have helped me and other moms manage our time. Moms are no strangers to wearing multiple hats. From raising children to supporting their husbands, caring for family, performing at the office, maintaining friendships and communities, and volunteering at charities and church events, women's roles have been legendary.
Introduction
Moms are busy juggling various activities within a specified time.
Like every mom, I wore multiple hats and tried to make everything work with my hands full. I soon discovered that things could fall through the cracks or drop from your hands if you were not intentional. I needed a strategy to help me run a start-up, juggle a graduate degree, and care for three young children and a sick close relative at the time. The little hacks I learned during this period helped me to do more with less stress and overwhelm. Every mom needs a time management strategy to help them navigate multiple terrains to accomplish personal and work goals. Some helpful time management strategies for moms are listed below.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Time Management Strategies
- Self-Appraisal
- Self-Management
- Compartmentalization
- Mental Rehearsal
- Plan Your Day
- Create a Routine
- Set Purposeful Goals
- Delegate
- Outsource
- Prioritize
- Event-Based Timing
- Learn to Say "No"
- Standardize Meal Planning
- Develop Time-Saving Habits
- Minimize Clutter
- Self-Care
- Take Action
Easy Tools to Use
How do busy moms manage their time?
How do I make time for myself as a busy mom?
How do you manage your time during a hectic time?
Conclusion
Time Management Strategies
1. Self-Appraisal
Honestly appraise yourself and your abilities. When do you work best and what is your style? You will always defer to your natural disposition as an individual. It is best to work your activities around your natural style. Schedule activities according to the time of day you are most active and focused.
Always do "you". Motherhood is a lifelong calling. It is for the long haul. The calling does not change only the seasons do. Being a mom is what you should do with ease and grace. Put yourself where you want to be in your dreams. What do you want your house to look like? What do you want your children to look like? What is important for you in your home? How do you want to show up at work? What makes you happy? These are important questions you need to ask yourself. Your answers to these questions provide the overarching goal, which you break up into your daily goals and activities.
2. Self-Management
When you understand yourself and your motivations better, create a system that works for you. I always tell people that you cannot manage time. It is an independent phenomenon. You can only manage yourself within the specific time available to you. Everybody has 24 hours in one day. Manage yourself to achieve more. Time management strategies are designed to make you more effective and efficient. You don't need to practice all but adopt those that work for you.
3. Compartmentalization
This is one strategy that I encourage every mom to adopt. Critical to success in anything you do is the ability to focus. Compartmentalization is putting every activity into a mental compartment where you give it 100% attention excluding all other activities within that specific timeframe. Moms have competing wants, seeking their attention. This system thrives on "The power of one". You focus on one activity at a time. Thereby giving your best. This strategy has been shown to yield great results both at home and at work. I used it extensively to focus on my PhD study while raising three children, caring for a slick loved one, and publishing a book. This minimizes stress as you block out whatever is happening in other areas of your life to give your best. When it is time to focus on another activity, you will also give it the same level of attention. When you are at the office, do not think of the laundry or dinner waiting to be made at home. Likewise, focus on your children and homework without trying to respond to an email.
4. Mental Rehearsal
Mentally rehearse your schedule for the next day. It is best done the night before with minimal distractions. You mentally go over the next day's tasks vividly imagining all you have to do and how you will do it. Break the task into steps and move through each step one after the other until the task is successfully concluded. While going through your tasks, anticipate any bottlenecks and immediately visualize your response. Go through your next day's schedule in-depth as you lie on your bed undisturbed. Doing this will remove the guesswork from your tasks no matter how difficult or new. Working through any anticipated challenges elevates your confidence in handling them. Use the opportunity to account for every time you spend building flexibility in your mind. Sequentially go through the next day's activity from morning till night going through all you have to do at home and work. This activity does not take long. It can be done undisturbed as you drift off to sleep confident in your ability to handle all tasks. You know exactly what to expect and have rehearsed to yourself what you will do if there is any deviation from what you expect.
5. Plan Your Day
An age-long adage says, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Planning is crucial to success. Planners, trackers, and calendars have become popular in recent years because of their importance in planning. Schedule your activities for the day. List everything you need to do, like meals, shopping, work, school, study, appointments, projects, sleep, rest, and recreation. Assign timelines to them and progressively follow through on all activities for the day. It will keep you informed of the succeeding activity each time you are busy, which helps you to organize yourself in a way that allows you to attend to everything promptly according to your plan. It prevents your time from bleeding into the next activity. Planning your day helps you to be punctual, diligent, and committed to your daily goals.
6. Create a Routine
A routine brings order and structure to your life. It removes the guesswork in achieving your daily goals. Your daily actions become predictable and fluid. You don't need to sweat the small stuff because you already know what to do. Create a consistent routine that works for you. Morning routines can set the tone for the day, and evening routines can help you wind down. Mentally visualize all you have to do daily and put them in perspective. Create a To-Do List the day before to avoid anything falling through the cracks. Prioritize what is Important using the Eisenhower matrix as a guide. Break down your tasks into manageable bits you can sequentially and repetitively follow daily. Strategically implement your preferred activities, making conscious choices between competing alternatives. For instance, an urgent activity that puts you under pressure might not necessarily be important. Identify what moves the needle and stick to it.
7. Set Purposeful Goals
Set daily goals that are purpose-driven. Let your goals cascade down from yearly goals, which list some life goals you plan to achieve that year. Break down these goals further into monthly and weekly goals. You get the daily goals from your weekly goals, which you break into manageable tasks. For instance, if one of your lifetime goals is to set up a business, you can have a yearly goal of "Start my business 
this year." Your monthly goals can consist of getting a business name and conducting a legal search in January; the next month could be incorporating your business and writing your business plan in February, while in March, it could be product analysis and setting up operational business structures, etc. A weekly goal in January could be "Confirm my business name this week." A daily goal within that week could be "Call the lawyer and set up an appointment." Daily goals that feed into larger goals move you closer each day to your desired life.
8. Delegate
Assign activities to others to help you. In your office, delegate responsibilities to those under your supervision without micro-managing them. Delegating frees up your time and allows them to learn on the job. Delegate duties at home also. You don't have to do everything; let your family help you. As your children grow, introduce them to house chores to build their self-confidence and increase their independence. At times, let go and let God. Everything will not fall apart like you might think. Put things in prayer and have peace. Allow others to make their mistakes while they learn. Handle critical assignments and supervise the mundane ones.
9. Outsource
Leverage your time and effort with the expertise of others. You can outsource several activities to experts to free up your time. Cleaning your home, mowing the lawn, and driving you around can be outsourced to others for a fee. You can outsource to electronic devices that help you reduce effort and save time, especially in the kitchen, like the dishwasher, air fryer, and washing machine.
10. Prioritize
A time management strategy that helps you progress is prioritizing your commitments. Identify what matters most. Execute the most important tasks and urgent activities first. Move on to activities that are important and capable of causing problems down the line if left unattended. Identify their timeline and conclude on them quickly. Urgent matters requiring attention should be addressed, not because of their urgency but likely importance. Tasks that are not as important can done later. Don't get flustered by the urgency of the matter, but quickly check how important it is to do it and what the trade-offs should be. You don't need to open every email as it comes in. Skim over the headline and look at the sender to determine its level of importance. If that email is not critical to your personal or work goals, you can open it later when you have the time.
11. Activity-Based Timing
The unit of time in a day is in hours, minutes, and seconds. Measuring your time this way puts you under pressure while trying to finish a project or conclude an activity because you mentally pace yourself against the clock. If you are working and have a tight time limit, you might experience pressure, stress, and loss of time as you pause to look at your watch. When you turn off notifications and focus on concluding the activity, you lose time as you become immersed in what you're doing. At that point, you enter into a flow that makes you more efficient and productive. You produce results at a faster pace and save more time. Research has shown that when you have less time to do a job, you tend to finish faster. Less time makes you realize there is no slack. When you mentally understand this, you focus until your work is done. A "shorter workday can lead to higher productivity, better outcomes, and more motivated employees," according to a Harvard Business Review article.
12. Learn to Say "No"
It is okay to say "No". It is empowering to protect yourself, your energy, and your time. You cannot do everything all the time. You need to know your limits and set boundaries on how much you spread yourself. We spread ourselves thin, trying to show up for everything and everyone at our expense. You can politely decline some invitations, assignments, or workloads. Be firm, truthful, and authentic about where you are each time, and politely explain why you cannot accept a role, assignment, or invitation. Even at home, set out time to rest and recover. Set performance standards for yourself below which you choose not to engage. It is best to perform at your best. When you are not at that point, recognize it and say so. Learn to identify activities that energize you and say "No" to activities and interactions that drain you.
13. Standardize Meal Planning
Plan your meals ahead of time. You can plan for a week or month. Before you express shock, let me explain. You can use a digital or PDF weekly or monthly meal planner to plan your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and healthy snacks. Take some time out monthly or weekly to write out your proposed daily meals. They are tentative for flexibility. However, you do have meals planned out to save time. You can paste a PDF printout on your kitchen refrigerator. All you need to do is check what you're having the next day. Look through your pantry to confirm the availability of ingredients - and you are ready to go. To complement your meal plans, create a master grocery list divided into the different classes of foods. It is to ensure you spread your purchases to cover a balanced diet. Create your master list once. Your list should contain your needs - food and personal care products. Once you have a master grocery list, all you need to do is to restock at intervals. You run through your master list to get the items required each time you want to restock in the quantity needed without forgetting anything. Creating a meal plan saves you time and energy and minimizes stress.
14. Develop Time-Saving Habits
Cultivate habits that serve you. Ditch procrastination and do things at the right time. Keep to your schedule and daily plans. Commit to them and achieve your daily goals. Start projects on time, keep to project plans, and honor deadlines. Let your word be your bond. Commit to meeting appointment times, show up on time, and be punctual to events. Confirm that your rising time in the mornings supports your preferred lifestyle. Sleep well and on time. Try to get 6-8 hours sleep, if possible. It ensures you wake up rested, ready to go, and don't oversleep. When needed, use notifications and alarms to meet up with your commitments. Only accept appointments you will keep.
15. Minimize Clutter
Pick up after you and clean up as you go. Always return items to their position after use. It prevents a mess that could build up over time, with significant investment in time to clear it up. Minimise clutter, and teach your family and co-workers to do the same. Keep your workspace clean and well-arranged. It translates to mental space to do better work with less time wasted looking for documents on the table.
16. Self-Care
Prioritize self-care. A "healthy you" is needed to do what is listed above. You are to love your neighbor as yourself. That means you are to love yourself first before loving someone else. The bar is your self-love. Self-love is crucial to sustaining relationships and functioning well in society. So, care for yourself so that you can care for others. Eat healthy, sleep early, rest, play, go outside, enjoy the sun, exercise, drink enough water, and pursue the path of peace.
17. Take Action
The key to success is to take action. It is good to know but better to do. Commit to doing all you know to achieve results. The time management strategies listed above will enable busy moms and working mothers to take control of their day with minimal stress.
Easy Tools to Use
The easiest tools for managing your time are digital planners, trackers, and calendars, which can also be downloaded as PDFs. There are also productivity apps available to assist with time management.
How do busy moms manage their time?
Busy moms employ time management strategies like those listed above, and they use tools like daily planners, weekly planners, goal planners, task trackers, time trackers, calendars, to-do lists, and more to manage their time.
How do I make time for myself as a busy mom?
You have to be intentional to create time. One way to make time for yourself as a busy mom is to carve out "me" time. I value "me" time because of its benefits. It allows me to unwind, relax, and recharge. Every woman needs some time to herself for things that matter to her. Do not drown your personality, needs, and wants in the care of others. Protect your time, stick to it, and let everyone around you know when you are unavailable. If they care like you do, they will respect it.
How do you manage your time during a hectic time?
Hectic times don't last, but you need energy, focus, and structure to handle your assignments during such periods. Default to time management strategies such as mental rehearsal to determine all you need to do and how you will do it. It will act like a roadmap and give you confidence to navigate. Keep the pressure down and focus on what is needed. Break your task into manageable activities. Tackle that headlong and get it done without the temptation to look at your watch. Track your time after each activity before moving on to the next. Maintain your composure and deliver on results. Self-care afterward to recharge.
Conclusion
Most moms try to juggle it all at the risk of their health, burnout, stress, and demotivation. Your calling requires that you wear different hats at home and work without passing out - and you can. Life needs a strategy, and so do moms. These time management strategies will act as a guide to self and time management for busy moms. You don't need to do everything listed here, but do what works for you.
CREDIT
Photo 1 by Kampus Production
Photo 2 by Leeloo The First
Photo 3 by Viridiana Rivera
Photo 4 by Natasha Fernandez
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