10 Time Management Tips for Busy Moms: Balance Work, Family, and Self-Care

Hi there, I'm Tami. I have to tell you, I'm utterly amazed at the things I can get done now. It wasn't always like this. Quite a few years ago, when I was a new mom, My life erupted into chaos. It was not pretty. I had an 8-month-old boy. We moved to England. My husband deployed all the time, and I had to take care of everything. And it was just There was no such thing as time management. Are you kidding me? Like, it was just crazy. But I have to tell you, I have looked into several different time management methods. There are some good ones out there. And then there are some that are like, eh, not really me. But I have 10 time management methods that I have investigated over all these years and that I pull things from to manage my time so that I can get things done. Mm-hmm. Don't get me wrong, I'm still human. I still slip through the cracks sometimes. I still make mistakes. But it's just a lot easier for me to get back on track because I know how to get back on track. Yeah, like, I recently— we had foster kids in the home. That messes with your time management, let me tell you that much. Then they left and things settled down and it was like I got back on my time management wagon and everything went great. And then my 82-year-old mother had to move in and got diagnosed with dementia and it's just been, for lack of a better term, insanity since then. That was a few months ago. Mm-hmm. And I am now getting back on my time management system that I've created from learning from all these other systems. Okay, so I'm going to go over them fairly quickly, and I want you to know that I will go further into it eventually, but not today because it would take too stinking long. I have pulled— Oh, Sorry, I got hair in my mouth. I've got my fan on here 'cause it's kind of warm. So I pulled several elements of each one, and I wrote it down here so that I'd remember to mention them. Let me see here, where was number 1? Well, number 1 is, actually don't even need my notes for that one, is time blocking. I don't know if you've heard of time blocking. And when I first experimented with time blocking, I was like, I can't freaking do this. This is crazy. Like, they want you to go in your calendar and, you know, you can block off any timeframe you want, really. But I was trying to block off like 2 hours to do this and an hour to do that. I was— so I still use time blocking, and I do it in a different way, though. Okay, so I have broader subjects for my time blocks. Instead of saying, here's an hour and I will do the dishes or do the laundry or whatever house chore it is. I will take that hour and usually I'll put it into 2-hour time slots and say housework. I run a business out of my home. I do hair and I am building an online business as well. And so I will take an hour, sometimes a 3-hour time block and say business. So that's kind of how I set, how I use the time blocking for me. Yeah. Okay, some people can do it like 15-minute time blocks, hours, and they have it specifically labeled for different things. That doesn't work for me. So a big part of time management, a big part, okay, is figuring out what works for you, and not just for you, but for you in this season of your life. Your season is going to be different from mine. Mm-hmm. My son is older now and mostly takes care of himself. He still needs help, but you know, that's a forever mom thing. But now I've got my mother here. So that's a different season and I have to help her. So those kind of time blocks, like I took, I think it was an hour and a half I blocked out to spend time with mom. Mm-hmm. And we went grocery shopping. So we kind of killed two birds with one stone, which was pretty awesome, 'cause she loved going grocery shopping. And she has been, since moving and going through all this stuff, she's been doing much better these last couple weeks, not going into the dementia as much. So, Ooh. Let me tell ya. That's another story altogether. So that's the first one, is time blocking, okay? The second one is the Pomodoro Technique. I really did like this one, but I found it— I couldn't just use it. Like, it wasn't— I can't just use one time method, time-saving method. I just can't. It's not in me. So the Pomodoro Method is like you set a time frame, like it— when she does it, like I was reading her book a while ago, and she does it in 25-minute work slots, and then you take a 5-minute break. That doesn't work for me. I usually want to work for at least an hour. And once that hour's up, I'll take a 15-minute break. But I don't always do that either. Like, I have a timer that I have on my computer I'll say, okay, I'm gonna give myself an hour to do this on the computer. And if I'm not done in an hour, sometimes I want to keep going, so I do. But sometimes I'm ready for a break, so I do take a break. Like, it just depends. So I do use the Pomodoro Technique as well. Then there's the prioritization technique. Um, this one I like it. It's actually the Eisenhower Matrix. And basically what I do is I make a cross on my piece of paper, okay? Just go, ch-ch. And you have like, what does he put them in? Ah, da-da-do-do-do-do-do-do. I change mine. Sometimes, and you can look it up, the Eisenhower Matrix, and the way that they word it is a little bit— oh, here it is. You have 4 quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, and urgent but not important, and neither. I don't know how there's a neither because there's only 4 quadrants, but anyways. The first two, the urgent and the important, are the most vital ones. So the top two are the most important. And then other things go into the other areas. So then once you've done filling that out with your brain dump, that's where— that's how I do my brain dump, okay? At— I don't know if you know what a brain dump is. It's just to get everything out of your brain that you need to do. Yeah. I do it weekly and I do it monthly. And weekly really helps me because then I can look at my calendar and figure out where I can fit some things in. And it also helps me to have some grace with myself because then I understand what's not important. Okay, so that's a good technique to be able to prioritize what you need to get done. Okay. Then there is batch processing. So I did a bit of that today because I— one of my things to do is to create this video today, and then I also need to create— excuse me— social media posts that point people to this video. So I went into my social media planning, um, software and wrote out my plan and got that all together. Batch posted quite a— well, not posted, but batch made a bunch of things in Canva because Canva's my go-to. I love Canva. It's so fun. If you like designing stuff or anything like— oh man, I didn't know I loved that stuff, but I do. So yeah, like another thing that they mention is So instead of checking your email 20 times a day, schedule it. Schedule it into batches. Do it twice, once in the morning, once in the evening, or, you know, whatever time frames you decide. But schedule it. Put it in your, your time blocking that you're going to get— check email for half an hour. I mean, half an hour generally isn't enough time, because I spend a lot of time unfollowing people and unsubscribing, and there's a lot of email. But it is what it is, right? We all want information. We all want to know these things. So, um, but you can batch process your email. You can batch process your, uh, social media time, like That's what it is, is making that timeframe just for that. That's batch, batching it, okay? Then we have one of my favorites, but I haven't really gotten to this point in my— oh no, no, I missed one, sorry. Setting SMART goals. Do you set goals? You know, It's a very small percentage of people in our world who set goals. And it's even a smaller percentage of people who actually reach those goals, 'cause it's hard. Sometimes we set goals that are like way out there. And so I really like the SMART technique. SMART is specific. So I want to lose 20 pounds. By the end of August. So that's, I want to lose 20 pounds, that's specific. That's also measurable because it's 20 pounds. It is achievable because I've lost 10 pounds in the last month. And it is relevant because I want to lose more weight. Just feels better to be a little bit thinner than I am. And it is time-bound. So I want to get that done by the end of August. So that is one of my SMART goals for myself. SMART goals— it's a smart way— sorry, it's a smart way of setting goals. So that they can be achievable. You don't want to set them too easy. Like, it— if I wanted it to be easier, I would have said, I want to lose 5 pounds by then. But 20 is a bit of a reach. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to try. All you can do is try. Yeah. Okay, so that was the goals, setting SMART goals. Delegation, this one, I really want to get to this one, but first I need to create more income and my husband needs to go back to work because yeah, he's not working right now, he's, yeah, I can't even talk about it. Not that, I'm not upset about it. It's just because there's a lot of security and weird shit, and I don't know what I can say and what I can't say. So yeah, he's not working right now. Delegation is, I do do that in the home. So my son does the dishes. Well, he empties the dishwasher and we load it. I make dinners. Mm-hmm. And my mom, she does what she can. Right now she likes to do the dusting and she likes to vacuum in her area, although I think that vacuum's broken, but that's another story altogether. Uh, I need to— oh, my husband does the laundry. Like, he's my laundry dude, which is awesome. I still take on way more than I'd like to. Yeah. And I'd like to delegate more, but right now my husband is studying a course and possibly going to be doing a different job. So I need to give him time for that, and we're all working part-time, so it's a big juggle. But in the delegation, I got— I had a lady come and clean the house a while ago because my boys got me a— A vacuum cleaner. House cleaning thing for— I can't remember what it was for now. Maybe it was just because I wanted it, I don't know. But anyways, I got it. This is when my husband was working, and, um, so I had the lady come and clean our house, and that was awesome. I'd love to be able to do that, love to be able to hire somebody to do that all the time. I'd love to be able to hire somebody to mow the lawn for my husband. I'd love to hire somebody to pick up the dog poo for my husband. You know, like, there's just lots of things I'd like to be able to throw money at those things so I can do other things. That's delegation. You know, same with having my husband do things, having my son do things, whoever else is in your family. Train your children young. Train them young to do chores. It's important. Mm-hmm. Using technology and apps. So I really like— there's a few that I like. Google. Oh my gosh, Google Docs and Google. Oh my goodness, I love Google because I can get to it from anywhere on my phone, on my computer, on my tablet, on like just wherever I need to get to those documents. I'm in there. As long as I remember my email and my password. It's pretty awesome. I also use an app called Trello. Trello is really good for project management. And so I have boards in Trello for my business, for my branding, for like, a whole bunch of things. I also have a Trello board for housework, for, um, well, I don't know if we need the camping. Well, yeah, we'll still go camping. My husband, or my son and my husband, were in Boy Scouts, so we had the camping one. We had like, we have all sorts of things in Trello. Um, yeah, and Canva. Sorry, I'm addicted to canva. It's like, woo! Sorry. Okay, so number 8 is routines and habits. Okay, so what I have discovered, and this is a recent one, okay, this is one that I, in the last year, I've added this to my agenda or whatever you want to call it, my time management skills. I'm sorry about the weird light here. I have blinds in front of me that are reflecting in, so— Oh, okay. Oh, nope. Sorry. Anyways, I discovered how to build routines, and then how to make them habits. And it's from reading a few different books about routines and habits. So I can't even tell you exactly where I pulled all this from. So I started, when I brush my teeth in the morning, this is how it started, okay? I brush my teeth and wash my face, and then I do wall push-ups. Mm-hmm. Just, just like I started with 5. Now I do 20. I'll keep going. I do wall push-ups every day. And it's helping. I had a frozen shoulder many years ago, and it's helping my shoulder, my arms to be stronger. I cannot do full push-ups, never really have been able to, but wall push-ups I can do. So that was— it's kind of like adding a micro habit, no, a micro routine onto a habit, okay? So that became part of my habit. I brush my teeth, I wash my face, I do my pushups, and I get dressed. That's my morning, right? So then recently, I've been wanting to stretch every day for, I don't know how long I've been talking about it for, forever it feels like. And I have finally added it to my day. When I wake up in the morning, I— Okay, so I have issues waking up, I really do. I'm a chronic insomniac and it just is an issue that I've had all my life. And waking up has always been a struggle. And it is for my poor son too. It's just, it's sad. However, I would have my phone alarm go off. I'd have all these other loud alarms go off, all these crazy alarms going off and nothing ever really worked until I used my, I'm gonna spell it because I can't say it 'cause she'll wake up, A-L-E-X-A, that's in our bedroom. Alexa. And I ask her to set an alarm for the morning and play Christian music. So she does every morning now, and I wake up in a happy mood, and I lay in bed and I stretch my hips, and I stretch— like, I do all these stretches in bed, and then I get out of bed and do some more stretches. And it's probably like 15-20 minutes of stretching, and then I go brush my teeth and go into the other part of my habit. Like, this has become my morning routine. My evening routine is a little bit different. I, um— Yeah. I'm— with my mom moving in, with all this stuff happening in our lives, We have accumulated a lot of crap in our house, like I'm sure a lot of people have. I've never really lived somewhere this long in America. I'm from Canada, in case you didn't know. But we just have too much stuff, and we had to move all my mom's stuff here, and it's just like, holy moly. So My bedtime routine, 'cause, okay, so a lot of that stuff has been moved, unfortunately, into our master bedroom because it's a pretty big master bedroom and there was room to put all the furniture and all the crap, and the garage is full, we have 3 bays, and it's just, like I say, too much stuff. So part of my nighttime routine is brush my teeth, wash my face, do my pushups, get my pajamas on, and then I spend 10 to 15 minutes decluttering in the upper level. I'm still working in my bedroom, and eventually I will work into other— like, my office is a little bit cluttered. That's why I have this fake wall behind me. It's— yeah, it's just— Um, It takes a while to get through the clutter and get rid of stuff. And that's just the way it is. So that's my other habit, my evening habit, my evening habit that I have created from starting a routine. So start micro routines and attach them to habits you already have. You know, if it's something with your morning coffee that you do, or like, I don't know what you're looking to add to your time, what you wish you were doing, it can be done. It's crazy, it really can. Anyways, so that was— Ch-ch-ch. Routines and habits. Then there's limiting distractions, which, Oh, good Lord, it can be so hard. So hard. My mom will just randomly show up in my office and walk in like she owns it and try to talk to me, or my husband does that. My son is much better at that. There we go. My son is much better at not doing that. But right now, I— that's why my fan is on, because it's kind of hot in here. But I closed and locked my door, and I locked the cats out too, because the kitten— we have a kitten, and oh my goodness, he's trouble. She, she's trouble. So limiting your distractions. I know that, like, I don't know if your notifications on your phone bother you when you're doing office work or whatever. Doesn't bother me. It— I don't know, everybody else, if the phone starts ringing, they're jumping on it. I'm like, oh, whatever, they can leave a message. It's important. I'm busy. So I, I don't really worry about those kind of things, but for me it's about, um, managing the people around me more. So yeah. And then the last one is mindfulness and Mindfulness and stress management. So this is difficult. Part of that, part of my mindfulness and stress management, I'm adding to my morning and my nighttime routine. And I've just started adding these ones. In the morning. Now, this is going to sound crazy, people, because I am a little bit crazy. I love Jesus Christ. He's my Savior. He loves me. And if I call on him, he will keep Satan away from my family. So I do spiritual warfare every morning. Tell Satan to get out of my home, like right now. All you have to do, all you have to do, people, let's go. Satan, Get behind me in the name of Jesus Christ. You are not allowed in my home. You're not allowed in my car. You're not allowed in my life. Stay away. I cover the house in the blood of Jesus Christ. Bang. He has to stay away. So I do that every morning. Every night, I try to do a little bit of meditation. I'm not very good at meditation because It's hard shutting myself down, but I've been trying, you know, 5 minutes. 5 minutes seems like 5 hours, but it is what it is. So adding meditation, adding yoga, adding prayer, those kind of things are going to help you to get more centered. Mm-hmm. And just be able to breathe and relax and not feel so stressed out. And if you are doing a little bit of each one of these techniques, like I am, you can get to this peaceful end of things. I promise. It does take practice. It does take work, but you can get there. Thank you. So yeah, that's— yeah, that's how you do all 10 of those techniques. Like I say, I can get into them further. I am currently building out some courses and whatnot online. One of the things I did— there it is. is for my weekly schedule. I've created this, and I set this all up myself, as these are the things I need to do during the week. And then I went in and asked ChatGPT to help me set a weekly schedule for myself. And ChatGPT has done a great job at giving me some goals and parameters here to get things done. So I do like using ChatGPT and Canva. I'm a crazy Canva addict. Anyways, so I hope this has helped you to see that there are some time management techniques that can be used. And that you don't have to just spend your life pulling your hair out and being stressed out. It doesn't have to be that way, um, no matter what your circumstances are. I have a couple of freebies that are out there, and I'm going to mention both of them because I don't know which one you might be interested in, if not both. Okay, one of them is I have created a, I call it Mom's Playbook, and it's a playdate planner and a babysitter planner in one. Like it's two things in one. I will include that in the description and stuff so that you can get there. And I also have— and I just finished this. So I love— I love saving money. I really do. I'm very frugal. Love to be frugal. Saving money is a celebration for me, and a big way of saving money is using leftovers. In your home. So I have put together a little booklet about recipes you can make with leftovers. I can't remember how many are in there now. 25 recipes, maybe? Anyways, if, if you'd like that one, I will put the link for that down below, and if you want to go grab both, go for it. Um, Come join me in my Facebook group. Once you opt in to get the freebies, then it will invite you to the Facebook group, so you can get there that way. And yeah, I look forward to helping you to manage your time and helping you to manage your money and helping you to live a happy, happy life. Happy life. Thanks. Bye.