A Busy Mom's Strategy For Managing Time

Time is one of the few things in life that makes us equal. We all have a 24-hour portion. You cannot have more or less than the other person. How you use yours is entirely up to you!

Moms are one of the busiest humans alive. The task of caring for family and home is far more than anything else known to man. 

From the start of your day, you are busy. You have endless daily household chores. Dropping kids at school, picking up and heading over to afterschool clubs, constantly planning dinners, ensuring the kids stay safe and last another day, eliminating every home chaos as best as you can. While sometimes working outside the home in paid employment.

You can't even find time to breathe!

And here I am urging you to create the time to write. Where on earth will you get such time?

How to Create Time?

Have you tried solving a Rubik cube? I have. I am not an expert. But people who know how to solve this within minutes know they must follow some rules. Or they will never solve it.

Some strategies suggest working your way from the corners. Then, to the middle. Tweaking the blocks as you go! You solve your Rubik when each piece is in the correct position. How is this related to time?

You have a 24-hour portion of time each day. With your Rubik, you have a certain amount of blocks. You cannot add any extra to solve the Rubik. You can only work with what you have got. In the same vein, you have only 24 hours. You cannot get any extra time. You will work with what you have. You move things around until you find a sweet spot for everything.

What can help you tweak things around?

 Maria Edgeworth wrote, " When we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves."

What does this mean? Although we have 24 hours each day, each moment or second adds up. The sum of where the time went shows us how productive we were. If we waste the moments, we have a wasted day. If we use them well, we have a productive day.

To know how you spent your day, you must have an honest record of how you spent your day. Have a record of time spent on the internet, social media and any other activity. You can then tweak things around to create a comfortable spot.

Although, you still need to do a few more housekeeping. But knowing where the moments go will help you make other adjustments.

Five Productive Habits of Busy Moms

  1. Have A Simple to-do list. Yes, I used the word simple. Do not overwhelm yourself with many tasks. Keep things simple. If you have more than ten items on your list, that is too much. Prioritise what is important and leave out the rest for another day. Also, write your to-do list the night before. So, you are clear on what to do the next day.
  2. Practice time blocking. Put the task from your to-do list into blocks of time. Assign each group of activities to a specific time. For instance, I do my laundry, cooking and cleaning almost simultaneously. If I throw my dinner in the slow cooker, I also put some clothes in the washing machine. While those two tasks are fixing themselves, I can do my cleaning. And I end up finishing all three at about the same time. I can do more items on my to-do lists. So, by proper planning and grouping, you save time and get a lot done during the day freeing up time to use later for your writing.
  3. Learn to say no. Now, we all have family and friends who may want to hang out sometimes. They have their place. Do not abandon great relationships. However, you must learn to say no if it will interfere with your creating time to use later. Why not create a couple of hours every week to hang out with friends and let them know you will be available at those times. Say something like: "it is a shame I can't have coffee with you today, but I am free on Wednesday, at lunchtime. Will that work for you?" Be in charge of your time. Do not allow others to dictate how you spend your time!
  4. Get rid of distractions. The number one distraction for most of us is the little device we call the phone. Notifications are a distraction. Make sure to use your 'do not disturb' setting to silent notifications. Unless there is a life-threatening situation, checking your phone every moment you have a notification is not productive.
  5. Ask for help. The moment you start asking others to help around in the house or outsourcing some of the things you do, you will move from overwhelmed to refreshed. Less stressed. 

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