Time Management for Working Moms

As a working mom you need to have good time management. You have a million things to juggle, a busy schedule, and need to prioritize tasks for your family, yourself, your home and work.

I have been a work at home mom for 4 years now and I can tell you, it isn’t easy. I often get distracted with home tasks, have to cut work short because of something, and can feel pulled in a million pieces.

But you don’t have to feel frazzled all the time. It is possible to have good time management as a working mom!

Whether you need help with your morning routine, balancing work and home or easy systems to make your life run smoother, know that it’s possible!

This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing extra to use but may provide me with a commission. To read my full disclosure head on over here.

3 Time Management Tips for Busy Moms

From With the Huddlestons

Work at Home Mom Morning Routine

From A Purpose Driven Mom

How to Save Time and Get More Done

From Sorey Fitness

How to Schedule Your Day at a Work at Home Mom

From A Purpose Driven Mom

The Best Time management Tips for Work at Home Moms

From Fabulous Habits

Using a time blocking template as a busy mom

From A Purpose Driven Mom

3 Ways to Get Motivated as a Work at Home Mom

From With the Huddlestons

How to time block and get things done

From A Purpose Driven Mom

Amazing Organizational Tips that’ll Make Life easier

From Daisies and Pie

How to have a productive weekend so that you can have a productive week

From A Purpose Driven Mom

5 Easy Tips to be Happy and Productive

From Brittney Long Curations

What is Time Batching and Why You Should Do It?

From Brittney Long Curations

How to Find time to be more productive as a busy mom

From A Purpose Driven Mom

How to reduce the mental workload for moms

From Coffee and Carpool

Work Life Balance: How Does She Do It?

From Stepmomming

10 effective time management techniques that produce massive results

From Bitz N Giggles

How to be more productive and save time

From Making Manzanita

Want to come back to these tips for when you need help with time management? PIN IT for later!

More Time Management Tips for Moms

Simple Steps to Make Your Morning Easier

How to Set up Your Week to Be More Productive

How to Schedule Your Day as a Work at Home Mom

How to Fit Self Care Into Your Day

How to Find Time to Workout as a Busy Mom

Digitally Organize Your Prayer Time to Become a Prayer Warrior

Create a Morning Routine in 3 Easy Steps

How to Time Block and Get More Done!

More Resources to Manage Your Time as a Busy Mom

Ultimate Productivity Bundle

Design Your Day: Time Management for the Busy Woman

Organize Your Life with Trello

Podcast 11 – Using Time Blocking for a More Productive Schedule

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Purpose Driven Mom Podcast

Episode 11

Using Time Blocking for a More Productive Schedule

Today’s episode will focus all on how you can use time blocking to create a simple and productive schedule! Instead of overwhelming ourselves with the tasks we have to get done, you’ll learn how to make things more simple and have them fit into your busy mom life!

Episode Show Notes

2:50 How Time Blocking Decreased my overwhelm

7:35 Why you need flexibility and structure with your schedule

8:25 How many time blocks do you need in a day?

10:55 Anchoring Your Time Blocks During Your Day

13:20 What to do when you have no events to anchor your blocks to

14:56 Using pens, washi tape or Trello to identify your blocks

18:30 Start by adding in non negotiable appointments into your block and add in time to work on your goal

21:40 The Power of Batching

25:40 What is you have extra time in your block or don’t finish everything?

Subscribe & Review in the Podcast

Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, make sure you head over and do it now so that you don’t miss an episode!

Click here to subscribe at iTunes!

While you’re there, I’d love an appreciate if you’d leave a rating and review! These allow other purpose driven moms to find the show and help grow our community! Just click here to review, select ‘Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know your favorite part of the podcast! I’d love to feature you as our ‘Review of the Week’.

Links and Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Busy Mom Goal Setting Challenge

Join the 15 Minute Formula Waitlist!

Ultimate Productivity Bundle

Design Your Day: Time Management for the Busy Woman (use code PODCAST for $5 off the course)

Organize Your Life with Trello

Plum Paper Planners

Free Trello Basics Course

Podcast 08 Using Habit Stacking to Make Life Long Changes

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Purpose Driven Mom Podcast

Episode 08

Using Habit Stacking to Make Life Long Changes

In today’s episode we’ll have a chat about habit stacking and how it can help you make life long changes in your life.

Episode Show Notes

1:38 Join the Waitlist for the 15 Minute Formula

2:08 What is Habit Stacking?

3:37 Benefits of Habit Stacking and How Habit Stacking Works

5:50 Internval vs External Motivation

7:35 Why you need systems in your home

8:14 Where you can use Habit Stacking

10:07 How to Get Started with Habit Stacking

15:01 Using Habit Stacking with Your Kids

24:07 How Habit Triggers Help

27:30 Tracking Your Habits

30:48 Finding Accountability on Your Habits

Subscribe & Review in the Podcast

Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, make sure you head over and do it now so that you don’t miss an episode!

Click here to subscribe at iTunes!

Links and Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Busy Mom Goal Setting Challenge

Join the 15 Minute Formula Waitlist!

Healthy Habits Transition Course (use code PODCAST for $5 off the course!)

Using a Time Blocking Template As a Busy Mom (Free Download)

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What is time blocking and how to use a time blocking template?

Time blocking your schedule is a must have time management strategy for moms!

When you time block, you are looking at your schedule in a way that gives you flexibility AND structure

Time blocking is the concept of looking at your day in extended period of time instead of hour by hour.

Hourly schedules used to work great for me. When I was teaching and in the classroom, I had a million things to remember. I had to be at many meetings throughout my day, show up at certain times and follow a ton of deadlines.

When I left teaching 5 years ago to become an entrepreneur and work at home mom, I thought that using an hourly schedule like I did in the classroom would keep me focused and on point.

Instead, it led me to burn out FAST.

I had left teaching so that I could have more freedom, be more in control of my time and allow my job to align with my top priority – my family.

I found that by using an hourly planner I was stressing myself (and my family) out, felt more overwhelmed and behind and didn’t have a system that I could use to run my home that left space for us to just be human.

This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing extra to use but may provide me with a commission. To read my full disclosure head on over here.

How does time blocking help save time?

Time blocking is a mom’s best friend when it comes to time management.

We have so many things on our plates as busy moms and it sometimes feels impossible to get anything done.

How many times have you let overwhelm just paralyze you?

I’ve been there too.

I jam pack my schedule on Monday with a ton of to-dos, pretend that I’m superwoman and can get it all done, and feel overwhelmed and defeated by Wednesday.

When you use time blocking, you give yourself the freedom to live life while still being productive.

Yes, you’ll probably put too much on your plate and there are times when you’re still overwhelmed but if you incorporate time blocking into your day you’ll feel more in control and actually productive – instead of just spinning your wheels day in and day out.

Time blocking helps busy moms manage their time because it gives you and your family structure AND freedom.

Examples of time blocks as a mom

When you time block, you split your days into chunks around events that are happening.

For example, you might have a morning chunk from when your kids wake up until they go to school, or an afternoon chunk from lunchtime until nap.

Time blocking can help so much because you can customize them to what you need and change it each week or even each day.

I make a typical time block for our Monday through Friday that pretty much stays the same. I change it on the weekends when we have more activities or I have to go to work.

This week for example, I have had to switch the entire time block around because of summer camp and sports practices.

Even when you have to move your time blocks around, you can easily shift things from block to block.

Here is an example of our current summer time blocks. It’s important to note that I have a 2 year old who naps 1x a day, a 3.5 year old who goes to summer camp from 9am-12pm and she is currently dropping her nap (I know… I’m sad about it too) and a 12 year old who goes to camp 9am-3pm that is 30-40 minutes away.

I’ve listed below how I space my blocks out and you can read this post if you want to see what I put in each block and how I structure are day!

Time Block #1 Early Morning

5:00 am – 9:00 am

Time Block #2 Morning

9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Time Block #3 Afternoon

12:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Time Block #4 Evening

3:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Time Block #5 Mommy Time

7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

As you can see I don’t recommend making any of your time blocks longer than 4-5 hours.

I’ve also anchored our times around an event – school drop off, naps, or bed. This allows for natural changes in our schedule as needed. If for example, the kids naps get switched or someone has to get picked up early, I can just move things around.

When you fill your time blocks, instead of exact times (unless you have an appointment or something you have to do at a certain time) you fill them with general things. It allows you to manage your time but not be tied down.

For example, if my morning time block is always errands and outside play time for the kids, I can figure out what time we need to leave or where we have to go.

If my kids know that during our evening block, I”m going to workout in the playroom and they get a show, it’s predictable for them. The know what is going to happen during that block and I can customize each day with what workout I plan to do.

Why you should have a template for time blocking.

I suggest having a template when you’re time blocking so that when you do your weekly schedule you don’t have to always start over.

Templates allow you to have predictability and help you think of your day and task in chunks instead of saying ‘what do i have to get done each day’

I use my time blocking template each week to pre plan out errands, activities and tasks.

I suggest trying to keep things as predictable as possible for yourself. Try to batch all of your errands on one day or one time of the day (maybe after you’ve just done school drop off so that you’re only in the car at that one time in the morning)

By using a template to preplan things, it also gives you some urgency to stay on your time blocks and allows you to see the week at a glance.

A time blocking template also helps because it will allow you to know the best time to make plans. If you know that your afternoon time block tends to be more time bringing kids to activities than if someone asks you to meet at the park for a playdate, you can suggest meeting during a better time block.

Sample time blocking template and free download

I use a very simple time blocking template each month. I have a general one that I fill out and adjust it monthly as needed.

Again, you can adjust your time blocks daily if you need to, but know the more predictable you can keep it the better! Time blocking is more about predictability and routine that being time bound and super structured!

This template is great to keep on the side of your fridge so that your kids and family can see what the week looks like or to put in your planner so that you have it at a glance.

If you want to start time blocking for your family , you need to grab this free template.

It’ll help you identify your general blocks (or even print one out for each day! Whatever works best for you!) so that you can start being more intentional about how to spend your day and get done what you need!

Make sure you PIN this to come back to later! I’d love to know how you’re using this template! Post it in the comments!

More Time Management Tips for Moms

Simple Steps to Make Your Morning Easier

How to Set up Your Week to Be More Productive

How to Schedule Your Day as a Work at Home Mom

How to Fit Self Care Into Your Day

How to Find Time to Workout as a Busy Mom

Digitally Organize Your Prayer Time to Become a Prayer Warrior

Create a Morning Routine in 3 Easy Steps

How to Time Block and Get More Done!

More Resources to Manage Your Time as a Busy Mom

Ultimate Productivity Bundle

Design Your Day: Time Management for the Busy Woman

Organize Your Life with Trello

How to Time Block and Get More Done!

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How to Time Block and Get More Done!

Time blocking is one of the best time management tips for moms out there! As a busy mom is can be hard to figure out what you need to get done, when you will have time to complete your tasks and how to juggle everything on your plate! Time blocking allows you to give yourself a framework for your day without feeling too structured or tied to a schedule.

What is time blocking?

Time blocking is the concept of taking your day and breaking it into smaller chunks. Instead of using an hourly schedule (which can be helpful but not all the time) you’d break your day down based off of events that happen each day.

If you used an hourly scheduling method, you might have a jam packed day and everything planned very structured and stacked. While this can be helpful when you have a lot of moving pieces, a super structured week at work or with kid’s activities, being too rigid with your schedule can make you feel overwhelmed and behind.

This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing extra to use but may provide me with a commission. To read my full disclosure head on over here.

Why time blocking works for busy moms

With time blocking, you’ll use chunks of time instead of the hourly planning. This allows to you have the best of both worlds – structure AND flexibility.

When I was a high school teacher, I found myself pulled in a million directions. I had to teach my classes, hold a resource room period, accommodate and modify tests for other teachers and run all of my extra activities. During this season of my life, I needed to be on an hourly schedule for my time management or I would possibly be late to something or miss a meeting I had to be at.

Now that I’ve transitioned into a work at home mom running my own business, I have had to adjust how I schedule things. In the beginning, I tried to stick to this more tight schedule but after my children were born, I learned how hard it really is to be that planned. I was burning myself out with too many things on my to do list, feeling overwhelmed because we’d inevitably get behind at some point each day, and frustrated with my homemaking, motherhood and work tasks.

Time blocking really has been one of the best things that has happened to my schedule and time management! Instead of being so structured that the littlest thing would set off our schedule (and my mood), I now break my day up in chunks around events. I am able to use time blocking to be flexible and accommodate each day based on what we need to get done while still providing routine for my kids and myself so that things don’t always feel frazzled.

How to create time blocks in your day

When you set out to create time blocks for your day, you’ll want to follow a few guidelines so that you can set yourself up for success.

You want to try to keep your blocks around 3-4 hours long. They can be shorter than this but, any longer and you get into a space where it’s easy to procrastinate because you ‘have the time’ to do it later.

Grab your calendar and look at your day and the major events and transitions that you will come across. You’ll want to anchor your time blocks around those events. For example, if you have to pick your kids up from school at a certain time – that’s a great place to start/end a new block. If your kids go to bed at a certain time you’ve found another good anchor for your blocks.

If you don’t have any events to anchor your day around, anchor around your blocks around meals. I know in the summer our days can be more flexible and, maybe you truly don’t have anything planned at all. If this is the case, you can make your blocks between breakfast and lunch, lunch and snack, snack and dinner and dinner and bed. This allows you to still cut your day up in meaningful chunks and has a nice transition time attached to it.

Below I’ve given you an example of my (current) time blocks. You’ll notice that some are longer than others but each one starts at a certain anchor. I’ve listed the anchors that end my block next to each one so you can see examples of what I use to chunk a typical day.

5:00 am-9:00 am – drop Arianna at school

9:00 am-12:00 pm – pick Arianna up at school

12:00 pm -2:00 pm – kids go down for nap

2:00 pm -4:00 pm – kids wake up from nap

4:00 pm -8:00 pm – kid’s bedtime

8:00 pm -11:00 pm – my bedtime

You can make each day the same or have different time blocks depending on the activities you have going on. The above listed is my typical Monday-Friday blocks which changes on the weekends. These blocks are now starting to transition again this summer as my 3.5 year old is starting to drop a nap and my 1.5 year old is moving his nap up. Be fluid and flexible but allow the anchors to guide you when you make your day.

How to Time Block in Your Planner

There are a few ways you can distinguish your time blocks in your day so that it makes sense in your planner. I often will make a template of my time blocks on an extra large post-it and keep that in my planner for reference. I also use a Plum Paper planner which I LOVE! You can customize the planner to actually say Morning, Afternoon and Evening instead of hourly time which fits perfectly with how I structure my day.

You can also color code each time block with a different marker or colored pen or use Washi tape to separate it! If you use a bullet journal, you’ll have total flexibility to set it up in anyway you want! Be as creative (or non creative) as you choose!

Here are some great and fun things to make your planner pop!

What do you put in time blocks?

When I first fill my timeblocks for the week, I start with all of the things I can’t change. These can be appointments I have to keep, meetings I am in, kid’s activities or drop offs or events I am attending. This allows me to see the day at a glance and I can adjust what goes in the other blocks accordingly.

Make sure that you also have one event in your day that is where you are working on a goal of yours. This could be 15 minutes planned out to declutter your closet, 30 minutes at the gym, or 20 minutes to read. Plan that in advance so you know that, no matter how busy things get, you’ve scheduled a little time out for you.

You’ll want to add in another time block with a habit that you are working on. I suggest just picking one habit each week and then adding to it. For my morning time block, I simply write ‘morning routine’ down but in a separate place in my planner I write down all of the tasks that I want to get done in that routine.

It’s smart to batch out the rest of your time blocks. Have a lot of errands to run? Put them in the same block! Phone calls that you need to make? Do them in the same chunk of time!

By batching out your tasks, you’ll spend less time doing them and take more action and actually get things done!

One of the biggest tips I can give you if you are going to give time blocking a try though is to NOT put too many things in each block. Each block should have 3-5 things maximum for you to work on. This way you know that in that period of time you need to get things do and can time manage yourself. Since you know that the next block is starting soon, you’ll have urgency that helps you procrastinate less!

Time Management for the Work at home Mom

So what does time blocking look like for a work at home mom? I wanted to share with you what a typical day looks like (when all naps and stars align!) so you can get an idea of how many things I put in each block and how I structure things!

5:00 am-9:00 am

Prayer and bible time
1 Work Task
Breakfast and morning chores
Workout and Shower

9:00 am-12:00 pm – pick Arianna up at school

Daily Cleaning
Phone Calls
Morning Walk
Errands or Play Date (my 1.5 year old is still home with me and the 3.5 year old and 12 year old are at school)

12:00 pm -2:00 pm – kids go down for nap

Lunch
Reading Time
Outdoor Play/Chores

2:00 pm -4:00 pm – kids wake up from nap

Work! (I break this down using the 15 minute formula)

4:00 pm -8:00 pm – kid’s bedtime

Snack and Playtime
Answer emails/clerical tasks for the home
Make Dinner
Evening Chores and Routines

8:00 pm -11:00 pm – my bedtime

More work tasks
Live calls, coaching and training
Planning for tomorrow
Reading for me!

As you can see, I don’t have a ton of things planned but, every day I know what to work on during that block and can be specific for what calls, errands or tasks need to be done when I plan out the next day.

Time blocking is a great time management strategy to help moms get more done without feeling overwhelmed! Post your typical time blocks in the comments and PIN this to read again later!

More Time Management Tips for Moms

Simple Steps to Make Your Morning Easier

How to Set up Your Week to Be More Productive

How to Schedule Your Day as a Work at Home Mom

How to Fit Self Care Into Your Day

How to Find Time to Workout as a Busy Mom

Digitally Organize Your Prayer Time to Become a Prayer Warrior

Create a Morning Routine in 3 Easy Steps

More Resources to Manage Your Time as a Busy Mom

Ultimate Productivity Bundle

Design Your Day: Time Management for the Busy Woman

Organize Your Life with Trello

How to Have a Productive Weekend so You Can Have a Productive Week

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How to Have a Productive Weekend so You Can Have a Productive Week

It’s important to have a productive weekend so you can have a productive week. This allows you to get more set, set yourself up for success and feel like stressed. Systems and routines allow you to live less stressed life and give you freedom to get done what matters.

I intentionally take one day off a week. I started this practice 2 months ago and am so thankful that I did. Prior to this, I was just go, go, go and didn’t rest, felt myself pulled by my to-do list, and was starting to burn out again. I knew the feelings of burn out, I had been there before. 5 years ago, I left teaching to become a full time entrepreneur and work at home mom because I felt the same feelings start to creep in. Now that I’m running my own business and family, I decided I needed some preventative measures to make sure that I was still taking care of me.

Hence… my Saturday’s off. I decided to take Saturday ‘off’ so that I could really just do what matters. The only work that I do on Saturday is what I just feel like doing, no pressure or to do list. On Saturdays if I don’t want to do laundry, house cleaning, or other ‘mom duties’, I don’t. I don’t really make too many plans unless it’s something we really want to do. Oh… and I take a nap.

I really love my Saturday nap.

But in order to make my Saturday rest day really work for me, I needed to make sure that I had a system for being very productive the rest of the week so I could relax, guilt free. And once I decided that I was going to schedule out a day of rest, it became so freeing. The week started to go more smoothly because I knew that I had a day to chill coming up, I didn’t feel guilty anymore about letting myself decompress, and I just started to laugh and enjoy our family time more. I learned to use my weekend to set my entire week up for productivity and keep it moving.

I chose to have my rest day on Saturday rather than Sunday for a few reasons.

On Sundays since we go to church, I still have us on a schedule to make sure we get out of the house on time. My husband delivers the newspaper as a side job right now so, he works Sunday mornings and I want to make sure I can give him rest time when get gets back at 6am before we go to church. Sundays are also my day to set my week up for success.

I may do some grocery shopping (though I often like to do that on Saturdays. I actually really like grocery shopping because I love to coupon and it’s a hobby for me and on Saturdays I get to go without kids!), I’ll meal prep so that I can save time during the week, and I’ll work on organizing my week, my planner, and other work tasks that I need to have a super successful and productive week.

This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing extra to use but may provide me with a commission. To read my full disclosure head on over here.

How to Have a Productive Weekend

There are a few things that I make sure to do over the weekend that help me have a productive week. I tend to spread them out over the weekend but you can create a schedule that fits best for you. You may have a busy Saturday and want to use Sunday as your prep day or you may spread it out – it’s up to you!

Tips for a Meal Prep System

The #1 thing that I suggest you start your Sunday with is meal planning and preparation. I actually have a system where I make the meal plan on Friday, shop on Saturday and cook on Sunday so that I don’t do it all on one day. This saves me time and decreases the overwhelm that I can face when it comes to getting it all done.

However you decide to do it, make sure you plan out your meals for the week. We keep it pretty basic and have a rotation of 2-3 breakfast, lunch and dinner options each week. My husband doesn’t mind eating the same thing each day and it’s easy to be predictable with the kids.

I’ll spend some time doing some basic preparation like cutting up fruits and veggies, making salads, cooking up rice, steaming veggies, browning some ground turkey for quick lunches, and boiling some eggs.

I then make sure that I have listed out what’s for dinner each week so that I can check the fridge and see what I still need to get at the store. I try my best to make our plan from what we already have to save money and not have to go to the store as much.

Honestly though, I cannot stand cooking dinner. I struggle so much with thinking of what to make and it was becoming super stressful. This month I’ve started using the Theme Night System from my friend Elisa at Meal Planning Blueprints. This allows me to sit down one time and create a monthly meal plan. I thought this was going to take way too long and be a waste of time but it’s proven to be a game changer! You can check out theme nights here!

I suggest even packing out as many salads for lunches in tupperware as possible (even if you stay home) because then you can grab and go instead of preparing things. This helps a ton if we decide last minute to go to the park, or meet up with friends because the food is ready to go. It also prevents me from running out of what we need or knowing what i have to stop for. These are the ones we used in the picture below!

Weekend Cleaning Routine

Even though, I have a cleaning routine where I do a little cleaning each day so that it doesn’t pile up that doesn’t mean I don’t do anything on the weekends. Often, after my Saturdays off, my house needs a little more TLC since I probably didn’t do as many dishes or pick up as much. What I have now just come to accept as a mom is that my house will probably always be covered in stuff, things will be out of place, and everything will just be sticky.

But just because my kids will always make a mess, doesn’t mean that I won’t try to make it just a little more clean and tidy. I also find that when the clutter builds up, my anxiety peaks and for me ‘outer order leads to inner calm’ so taking time on Sundays to clean up really helps.

My suggested Sunday system includes laundry (I do 1-2 loads each day so that it’s easy to put away so my Sunday laundry is normally the same), sweep and mopping the floors, vacuuming the playroom, and doing a Zone clean up.

We do a Zone Clean Up as a family after church on Sundays where everyone is in charge of a room or area (My 11 year old or husband normally does a zone with my toddler). I put on a 15 minute timer and everyone is in charge of putting away things that don’t belong in their zone. This really helps all of the out of place items to find their way back home and means that I”m not the only one picking up the books that have been on the floor for 2 days and everyone walks around (you know what I’m saying!). If you’ve never done a 15 minute pick up, read about how it can change your home here!

Before I go to bed on Sunday, I make sure that I’ve done my typical evening routine and an additional 15 minute clean up. There is nothing more exciting for me (I know this is going to sound really nerdy) than waking up on a Monday morning where there are no dishes in the sink, my kitchen table is cleaned up, and the clutter is gone. It’s really my favorite way to start the week and having a productive weekend is the first step in having a productive week!

Organize Your Weekly Calendar and To Do List

The last thing that I do to set my week up for success is make sure i have a plan in place. Often, people ask me how I can be so productive and get so much done and, while I have some hacks that help, one of the things that helps is that I always take the time to plan.

I took a training with the Franklin/Covey system once that really changed the way that I planned. I learned all about the power of weekly and nightly planning and have since been implementing it for years. It’s what I do in my life, what I teach the moms that I coach and what I teach in my e-book and course; Design Your Day; Time Management for the Busy Woman

On Sundays, I take out my planner (I use a mix of a paper planner from Erin Condren , google calendar, and Trello) and look at my week ahead.

I start with putting in all the dates of things that I cannot change like doctor appointments or meetings. We use a family calendar in the kitchen so these things always get written on their first and then transferred to my digital system.

After those dates are in, I then plan out what tasks I want to accomplish that week. I create a list of personal items, business items, and projects (around the house and for work) that I want to complete. I break them down into 20 minute tasks so that I know they are manageable and easily can be accomplished in a day, rather than over planning myself and getting frustrated when it doesn’t get done.

I then go into my planner and actually assign 3-5 tasks for each day. I split them up so that I Pick 1 personal task (call grandma, put pictures in frames etc….), 3 work tasks (write blog post, create images, email clients….) and 1 project task (brainstorm ideas for birthday party, work on mother’s day scrapbook etc….).

Assigning those things to a day BEFORE the week starts allows me to know what is going to happen and have a plan. This way, when it’s nap time and I get to work, or I have free time after dinner and want to work on a project, I’m not wasting time thinking about what to do, I can just take action.

Trust me when I say that if you set up your week for success you WILL be able to get more done, feel more accomplished and actually take a day off to rest and not feel the mom guilt! You can have a productive weekend for a more productive week!

I challenge you to start using this system (or one that works for you) to take more control in your life!