Are you wondering how to improve your organization and time management skills? Being a mom can be exhausting and overwhelming. Unlike most jobs where you clock out at the end of the day, being a mom never stops! Although being a mom is the most amazing job I’ve ever had, at times it feels like it’s impossible to keep a clean house, a clear head, get all my tasks done, and spend quality time with family.
To help fight through the mom fatigue and motivate you to live your best Marie Kondo life, I’ve come up with organization and time management tips to help you with staying organized, maintain balance, and ensure time management, even as a busy mom.
You may be wondering – what is the difference between organization and time management? Organization is defined as an arrangement of related or connected items. This includes taking an efficient and orderly approach to tasks. Time management, on the other hand, means planning your time in a way that is productive and effective.
Once you get the hang of organization and time management, you’re well on your way to a more balanced and productive lifestyle.
In this post, you’ll be learning all about organization and time management skills to help you navigate your busy life as a mom. I’ve included practical tips, advice, and examples to help you achieve more peace and balance in your home.
This post is all about No BS organization and time management strategies every mom needs.
Organization Strategies
It’s no secret that being organized is directly linked to clarity and higher productivity.
1. Plan out your week
If you’re new to planning, start with planning one week at a time. Take 30 minutes out of your week, sit down, and think about the next seven days.
Ask yourself:
- What goals do I need to accomplish this week?
- What events do I have coming up?
- Are there any specific activities I want to do with my family this week?
- What errands must be completed?
My Favorite Planner: This planner has a monthly calendar you can use to plan out holidays, birthdays, etc. Your daily tasks can be written in the weekly-view. It also has spots for monthly goals and reminders! I love it because it is so easy to see exactly what I have going on that week. The quotes on each page are motivational and inspiring.
This planner is also great because the pages come out! You can mix and match new pages in the planner to customize it for you.
Here are my favorite stickers for my planner. Adding stickers is so much fun for me! It helps me know what to pay attention to and gets me excited for what I have coming up. Stickers are yet another way to make yourself feel more organized while using a planner and help you stick to the tasks you have planned.
2. Meal Plan
Meal planning is one of my biggest tips for organization. Every week I write down five meals for the next week. Then, I create my grocery list according to those meals.
Here is the exact dry erase calendar I use to meal plan!
Anytime I deviate from meal planning – forget to write out meals or buy groceries without considering the meals I’ve planned – my grocery bill is too high and I have to make random trips to the store during the week because I don’t have everything I need.
3. Clean at the end of each night
My husband and I clean up the high traffic areas of the house every night. This includes the kitchen, living room, playroom, and office.
Every night, we take 30 – 45 minutes after the baby goes down and do a tidy-up, speed clean of your home hotspots. Cleaning at the end of each night ensures you will start the morning with a clean home and be much more prepared for the day.To make it more exciting sometimes I pour a glass of wine or set a timer and challenge myself to see how much I can get done!
4. Find a Home for Everything
Everything in your home should have a set place. What I mean by this is that every physical thing in your house should have a location where it resides – a home.
Knowing that everything belongs in a specific place helps keep you organized for several reasons:
- Everyone knows where to look for it. This helps when you get the inevitable mom question “where is my *insert lost item here*”. If everything has a home, it helps to have a place to start.
- Cleanup should be easier because you know where it goes. Have you ever cleaned out a junk drawer or a catch-all area in your house? Part of the battle with tackling these areas is that they’re filled with a collection of items with no home and you have no idea where to put anything. Cleanup is much faster when everything has a designated space.
- Your home appears more neat and clear. Making sure everything is in its place creates a clutter-free home. A clutter-free home helps to relieve anxiety and provide clarity.
5. Budget and Autopay
Setting bills on autopay is one of the easiest tasks you can do to keep yourself organized when it comes to money.
Currently, I set aside 30 minutes to an hour a week to organize bills and double-check my budget spreadsheet. Setting the bills on autopay takes one more task off your hands.
I use this weekly budget sheet from Joseph Sangle’s I Was Broke, Now I’m Not budget tools. The budget sheet is saved in my Google Sheets and I share it with my husband so we both have access to it.
I use a zero balanced budget to assign a value to every dollar we receive.
Here’s an incredible book to get you started with budgeting and organizing your money:
6. Find cleaning/organization YouTubers who motivate you to get moving
Below are two of my favorite YouTubers for organization motivation.
I feel so motivated after watching their videos. I usually turn them on while I’m cleaning the house or when I need a good kick in the butt to get a task done.
This Crazy Life: Love her! She’s a mom of three boys and creates the most motivational and inspiring videos. You’ll finish her video wanting to deep clean your entire house…and scrub out your sink!
Jessical Tull: Jessica Tull serves us her weekly vlogs as a single, stay at home mom while also serving us deep clean and organization videos weekly. It’s a must-watch for any busy mom looking for some motivation to get things done, maintain a clean home, and keep a house full of happy kids.
Time Management Strategies
Benefits of time management
Adequate time management helps ensure work is completed on time and helps you deliver a better quality of work. When your time is well managed you’re putting your energy on the right task at the right time.
6. Focus on one task
Take on one thing at a time. I used to think multitasking was an art until I realized in most cases multitasking means doing several things ineffectively at one time. Multitasking splits your brain in a bunch of different directions which makes it hard to complete one thing.
To better manage your time, focus on one task at a time.
Focus all your attention on an individual task and you’ll notice you can get it done much more quickly and effectively than trying to do many things at once.
7. Put your phone on do not disturb
There is power in disconnecting. Try placing your phone on do not disturb for a set amount of time. During that time, only focus on the task you are trying to complete.
Our phones are our lifelines, but they’re also major contributors to our lack of productivity. I’m so guilty of getting on my phone to “check something” and accidentally spending 30 minutes on Instagram or Pinterest.
In those 30 minutes, I could have cleaned the kitchen, put in productive work on my blog, made dinner, etc. etc. Instead, I’ve wasted time scrolling.
Add more value to your time by taking breaks from your phone more often.
8. Plan how you will spend your child’s nap time
Naptime can be “you time”, but it can also be time to complete a task.
Regardless of what you choose, plan out how you will make that uninterrupted time useful to you in some way.
For example, my son takes two naps a day. Generally, on his first nap, I focus on completing a blogging task, and on his second nap, I focus on a house task. This isn’t always the case of course, but it’s my general rule of thumb.
9. Stick to the plan
We talked about planning out your week, but it’s important to stick to the plan! Don’t let the fact that things may change deter you from planning.
It’s okay if you have to rearrange! Schedules are guidelines used to keep you organized and manage your time.
10. Wear a watch
Most of us are using our phones to tell the time!
As I mentioned in the tip above, putting your phone away is a healthy time management tool to prevent you from mindlessly wasting time.
If you only rely on our phone to check the time, there’s a large chance you’ll get a notification that is much more entertaining than the task that needs to be completed.
Wearing a watch helps you keep in touch with the time, but is much less distracting than a phone.
Monitoring the time helps you track the completion of your goal and holds you accountable to work steadily.
11. Delegate
Over the years I’ve gotten so much better at this.
You cannot do everything. Set your priorities and decide what you can delegate.
Choosing to ask for help or delegate does not make you less of a mom, employer, wife, or person if you accept assistance from others.
Do you really have to be the one who puts the baby down for every nap? Are you the only person in the household capable of making the grocery list and going grocery shopping? Can you divide up the house chores and smash them out twice as fast?
The same is true in your work life. Rely on the people around you to get things done so you can focus on tasks that are most important and use your time wisely.
12. Get the Toughest Tasks Done During Your Best Time of Day
When is your most productive time of the day? Are you a morning riser, a mid-day person, or a night owl?
Make sure that my most difficult tasks are accomplished first thing in the morning. This is not only incredibly motivating for the rest of the day, but it ensures I’m using my best time to do my best work.
13. Accept that perfection doesn’t exist.
What I’ve realized is that if I keep striving for perfection I end up procrastinating and never actually accomplishing my task. Or I spend so much time planning and anticipating I never actually execute.
To better manage time it is imperative to be okay being really great, not perfect.
Bonus Organizationa nd Time Management Tips:
1. Make lists
Live the list, love the list. Lists keep you focused and organized. Make one every single day.
2. Grocery shop online
Grocery shopping online is such a time saver. You order at home so you’re less likely to forget anything and it’s so much faster! No more 2-3 hours in the store every Sunday for me!
3. Combine tasks when possible
Can you go order groceries online for pickup, get gas at the grocery store and stop by bank on the way home all at once instead of making these three separate trips? Can you cook enough for two meals at once to have leftovers for dinner the next day? Maybe you can also do that for breakfast and lunch.
4. Have at least one “easy meal” every week
Whether that’s a frozen pizza or a quick meal like tacos. Every meal doesn’t need to be gourmet.
5. Take notes
You don’t have to remember everything. Taking notes keeps you organized and helps you set priorities to manage your time better.
We can’t do it all, but we can do a lot! Organization and time management are the keys to getting the most out of your days.
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These were some awesome tips. My biggest struggle is time management and planning.
Life can definitely get in the way of managing time and planning efficiently. Glad these were helpful!
I just love your blog, it inspires me so much! Thanks for sharing these tips!
Thank you so much! So happy these organization and time management tips were helpful!
This is exactly what I need. I feel overwhelmed at times during this pandemic and being a new mom. Time management is soooo challenging!
I’m so happy these organization and time management strategies were helpful! I understand exactly how challenging it can be! COVID-19 definitely adds more complexity. Happy to help. You got this momma!
Omg I LOVE these tips! I have been trying to incorporate a lot of these into my routine like weekly plan ,meal plan and cleaning daily. I will definitely be trying out some of the others you mentioned. Awesome post!
Yay! Thank you so much! So happy these organization and time management tips are helpful for you!
I live within reach all day! Definitely juggling a lot more these days and I do a lot of what you are suggesting! Thanks so much for sharing!
Happy to know you’re already using so many of these organization and time management strategies! Glad you enjoyed the post.
I’m almost certain that this is the most informative post I’ve ever read, regarding organization and time management. Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
Thanks so much!! So glad you found it helpful!
I live for my planner! If I didn’t keep it with me all the time there is no telling how many things I would miss. It is totally my life line!
Totally agree! We’re all juggling so much. Having a planner is so helpful for organization and time management. We can’t remember it all, but we can write it all down!