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With a busy and growing career, children and household chores, bills to pay and a desire to maintain at least some resemblance of sanity by taking time to yourself, you also want to show up for your marriage, children and not run yourself into the ground…
Does sound like anyone you know?
Between your career, chasing little ones and keeping the typical life stuff moving along, you are trying to learn how to make the most out of each day because working moms do NOT have the luxury of time on their side.
I’ve put together a list of 15 things that are totally wasting your productivity as a working mom!
I’ve had to figure out how to cut out the crap that distracts me and learning new time management ideas has helped me design new ways of doing things so I no longer get consumed by the exhaustion of trying to keep up with everything.
Time Management Examples At Home
Cleaning.
Obviously some cleaning has to be involved in your life. It is one area where you could decide to outsource and hire a house cleaner. I haven’t quite made that leap yet. As a result I’ve had to develop an easy to follow cleaning process that allowed me to keep up on things but not feel like I was constantly cleaning. And, the best part is my husband totally can follow along and pitch in!
Make sure and look at my practical cleaning schedule for working moms to help you find the balance between clean toilets and enjoying your evenings!
Over Committing.
Busy is not a badge of honor and I swear it actually causes more self doubt in motherhood than anything else!
Since working motherhood automatically puts you in the busy category, it is necessary to evaluate your busy and scale back where you can.
Spread things out, ask your mom to take a kid to a practice, divide and conquer with your spouse when you can.
Limit the number of activities you are letting your kids be involved in at a given time.
Above all else don’t add more stress to your family and your ability to get the important stuff done by saying yes to everything.
Sometimes saying no is your only way to be able to say yes 😊.
Helping you stay focused on your goals and not overcommitting is a huge part of why I designed the free weekly look ahead planner’s first two elements!
Using this simple weekly look ahead planner has kept me on track and accountable to aligning my time (and my family’s time) with the real priorities we have in life instead of feeling like we are rushing through our week on everyone else’s agenda!
Dinner Time.
Would you believe me if I told you I used to probably spend 70+ minutes a week going back and forth with my husband on the “what’s for dinner” conversation!
That is only 10 minutes a day but when you add it up…
70 minutes X 52 weeks= way too much dang time!
3,640 minutes, or 60.67 hours or, wait for it…..
2.53 DAYS A YEAR!!!!!
Are you kidding me?! Now, we’ve instituted a super simple process that has completely given us our time back when it comes to the dinner department.
This simple 4 step process I created let’s us know exactly what’s for dinner and allows us to never miss an ingredient in the shopping list!
Lack of Communication.
This one might surprise you, but have you ever paid attention to how you are communicating with your spouse?
Lack of communication is killing your ability to get things done.
Now, I recognize that a lot goes into creating a happy marriage and many relationships are different, but if you don’t have good communication with your spouse about what help you need, you are kissing away your precious time.
Multitasking.
I genuinely used to pride myself on my ability to multitask. And then I read a bunch of research and realized it actually horrible for productivity!
As I have shifted to a world of ‘single-tasking’, here is what I have found:
- You actually finish tasks sooner
- You will be a heck of a lot less frustrated trying to juggle multiple things at once
- Your brain will appreciate the break from the constant chaos of multiple inputs
Some researchers have cited as high as 40% reduction in productivity due to multitasking!
So, what does this mean for you?
No more cooking dinner, paying bills on speakerphone while trying to have a conversation with your husband in between pushing option 3!
Watching TV.
I know that suggesting you turn off the bachelor or skip the Sunday morning Netflix binge my not be popular, but girlfriend, it is KILLING your ability to get things done.
I used to think I was SO busy before I had kids. Such a joke- like, what was I doing with my time back then!?
I was making sure I never missed an episode of Homeland or Scandal which meant I struggled to figure out how to prioritize the gym and errands because I was glued to the tv.
Definitely DO take some time to yourself each week. And if your self-care is 1-2 hours of TV a week where you enjoy your favorite show, by all means, watch it.
But at least promise me that you will take a moment to think about the time you spend each week watching TV and challenge yourself to cut it back by even 1-2 hours less a week.
Time Management Examples At The Office
This list of time management examples for the office can be applied to any area in life, even as a work at home mom!
Lack of Clarity.
Do you ever have those days where you show up to work and dive right into email?
Then someone swings by your office halfway through the emails, and then you rush off to a meeting.
Oops, its 11am now and you forgot to send that thing off to your boss.
That sounds like a familiar day to a lot of us, and guess what! When we start our day addressing whatever the wind blows at us, it is a waste of time.
“Clarity of vision creates clarity of priorities”
John Maxwell
One of my most effective changes I have implemented is the power of 3.
I suggest that before you leave the office each day, you write out your list of things to do the next day. Then I want you to number each item on the list by priority.
Here comes the fun part: stick to the list.
Distractions.
This is a general area but one that needs to be evaluated so I added it to the list of 15 things killing your productivity as a working mom.
What are your distractions at work?
A while back I had a long day at work and still had that nagging feeling that I didn’t get enough done. What good is working an entire day if you aren’t getting things done?
So, I took out a sticky note and evaluated my day. Did I give 100% to each task? Did I talk too much to co-workers? Did I get out of my meetings on time? Did I follow my list of priorities?
This is a really simple way to evaluate your day and takes less than 3 minutes. Tomorrow before you leave the office, grab a sticky note and evaluate your day!
Feeling Guilty.
I suppose guilt could actually be considered a distraction but as a working mom, I think it is really important to see it stand on its own. How does guilt impact your productivity?
It STEALS your energy.
Guilt is a completely useless feeling most of the time!
My guess is that you don’t have a valid reason to feel guilty.
You aren’t doing anything intentionally wrong; it just simply sucks to be a working mom sometimes and you often feel like you are showing up short in an area of life.
Am I right?
I realized that a lot of my guilt actually came from placing unrealistic expectations on myself. That ruffled up self-doubt, which I didn’t even recognize it as doubt right away!
Let’s agree to help each other stop letting it steal away our energy and joy 😊.
Multitasking.
Same issues with multitasking as I mentioned above for productivity in your home life apply to your work life. Try and limit it!
Check this out if you need more information to convince you to reduce multitasking, learn more here.
Ignoring Inefficiencies.
Being a working mom often means, like I mentioned before, you and I want to get in, get the job done and get home to our family!
But sometimes, you need to invest time to gain time.
I am a huge fan of improving the environment around me and am always looking for ways to do things better.
Look for these opportunities in your current work processes, design a new (and improved) process and reap the reward of more efficient processes.
Trust me, you will find a lot of time back in your day once you start looking for the opportunities.
Perfectionism.
Now, by all means, if you are a heart surgeon please continue to seek perfection!
Otherwise, I encourage you to evaluate where you are letting perfect be the enemy of good.
I’m going to throw this out there, although I’ll save the detail for another post, I’m guessing your need for perfectionism has to do a little bit with fear of failure so if you fall into this category, work on that 😊
Perfectionism doesn’t always pay off so watch this one closely if you have perfectionist tendencies.
Lunch.
This is on my list of 15 things that are killing your productivity as a work mom for 2 reasons:
Firstly, if you have to walk across the building trying to find lunch every day, save the time and start bringing your own lunch.
Secondly, where do you eat lunch? Do you tend to over do it in the chat department? If you are trying to get in, get out and back home this is going to be an area you want to cut back on!
Again, I am not saying go sit at your desk and don’t talk to anyone all day, but I think if you are feeling a bit pressed for time, this is an area that you need to pause and think about how your time is being spent.
Doing too Much.
Learn to delegate (where appropriate).
I used to think delegation, or letting others take on the tasks, meant that I had failed in somehow. Now, I recognize that it has nothing to do with that at all!
Learning to tap into the resources you have is a huge bonus to increase productivity of yourself, and your entire team which is why it is an absolute must when it comes to sharing my time management examples as a working mom!
Self-Care, The Best Time Management Example of All!
And lucky number 15 of the things that are ruining your productivity as a work mom is, drumroll please…
Lack of self care.
You are busy and you deserve to take some time to yourself regularly.
I totally admit it-I super-duper failed at this after my first child.
I was giving 110% of myself to motherhood and work, and I didn’t even realize how badly I needed to pause long enough to take a deep breath.
I’m a people pleaser by nature and it was really easy for me to slip into trying to meet (what I though was) everyone’s expectations of me.
In reality, I just had created that story in my head and I really didn’t need to be so hard on myself about taking me time! Does that sound like anyone you know 😉?
Fast forward to today and I have completely rearranged my thoughts, figured out how to get time back in my day and I now take ‘me time’ weekly by either enjoying a hot bath or spending an hour at my favorite coffee shop reading a new book or prayer journaling. Want to know how it feels?
Freaking amazing.
Rejuvenated, ready to get back to wife-mom-career-housecleaner-cook- etc. and after taking the time, I am so much more present and productive. I can’t even begin to tell you my friend,
TAKE THE TIME TO YOURSELF!
Self-care might not be your typical time management example, but trust me, as a working mom it is the most important time management example you will use!
Ready, Set, Productivity!
Alright, so now it is time to start changing your life.
One productive measure at a time!
Now I want you to take a blank piece of paper out and write 2-3 areas from above that you want to work on.
Write the list of 3 things on the left side of the paper. And draw a line down the middle of the page.
Now, on the right side of the paper I want you to write out new habits that you are going to replace the habit on the left with.
The list on the right will be time management examples specific to your lifestyle and needs that you can begin to start using in your own life.
Create New Habits
Put this list in your purse and look at it everyday.
Assess how you are doing on each one, every day on these new habits.
One by one, these 15 things that are ruining your productivity as a working mom will be eliminated and replaced with better habits!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit”
Aristotle
