The Efficient Mom: Strategies for Time Management and Simplifying Family Life
Is there any bigger stress as a mom than the pressure to “do it all”?! As stay at home-ish, small business owning moms we understand how our time and energy can be pulled into so many directions. Through tons of research and even more trial and error, we have found some simple strategies that help us feel confident, organized, and less stressed. YES PLEASE!! There are 3 of our go-to strategies for staying efficient and minimizing stress. If you want all the deets, check out our Efficient Mom Guide here.
Time Blocking and To-Do Lists
We know from experience that heading into the day flying by the seat of your pants doesn’t end up being very productive. Prioritizing our tasks and blocking our time has helped both of us so much. Instead of randomly choosing something to complete that day, we create to-do lists and assign an amount of time to “work” on that tasks each day. For example, if I know I need to do laundry I will allocate time to put laundry in, change laundry over, and put laundry away at separate times during my day.
-After breakfast, put laundry in (10 minutes)
-During naptime, change laundry over (5 minutes)
-After bedtime, put laundry away (25 minutes)
For printables and templates to create effectrive to-do lists and time blocking check out our guide here.
Realistic Meal Planning
I am not a great cook and can easily get overwhelmed by meal planning. I used to have high hopes on Sunday that quickly fall apart by Wednesday, anyone else? To help with this pain point, I have started to realistically meal plan on Sundays and hold myself accountable with a written meal plan. To make this process less overwhelming I always:
-Have a Sunday quick family meeting to discuss what we have going on that week and which nights we will need dinners. Some weeks we only need 2-3 dinners and that’s okay!
-Brainstorm easy recipes we love for that week and write them down.
-When we’re stumped, we follow themed nights like Taco Tuesday or Casserole Night.
-Freeze extras when we have them for a future busy night.
Dividing Responsibilities
Make it stand out
Okay moms, let’s have a heart to heart—we can’t do it all! Instead of driving myself crazy or feeling inadequate every week, I’ve accepted that I need to divide up household duties with my husband. Groundbreaking, I know! To get the ball rollowing with this we:
-Openly discuss what needs to get done around the house
-Honestly discuss which chores each of us are better at or enjoy more. For example, I would rather clean the kitchen while Johnny would rather take the trash out
-Create a family chore chart with daily and weekly chores that we are each responsible for completing and yes, we’re flexible if it doesn’t get done!
Heres to small changes that can keep us sane and make us feel accomplished!! Remember to celebrate those small wins. How do you stay sane and organized at your house? We’d love to hear!
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