As a working mom, I know balancing work and life can be difficult. But in this article, I share some hacks and tips that working moms can use to stay organized and efficient. By implementing these into your routine, you’ll be able to maximize your time and get more done.
For this article, I have some special guests popping in throughout to give more insight into some of these working mom hacks.
Table of Contents
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why do working moms need all the help they can get?
The hardest part about being a working mom is trying to balance everything. Whether you work full time from a home office as I do – or you work outside the home, you can quickly feel like you’re behind or not doing enough.
You feel like you’re constantly juggling work and home life, and you never get a break.
But with a little bit of organization and planning, you can make it work.
And don’t be fooled. I’ve failed this repeatedly and feel like I have a pretty good handle on this right now, so I’m excited to share all these tips with you.
5 working mother hacks for efficiency
2 – Set Boundaries and Prioritize Your Time
3 – Take care of yourself spiritually, mentally, and physically
4 – Meal Plan
5 – Keep a Clean, Organized Home
1. Have a Morning Routine
A morning routine is vital for working moms because it helps them start their day off on the right foot. It allows you to get organized and focused before beginning work or the rest of your family awakes, and it can help reduce stress and anxiety.
Some tips for creating a successful morning routine include:
- Wake up earlier – This may seem like an obvious one, but if you can get up even just 30 minutes earlier than everyone else in your house, you’ll be able to have some time to yourself to get things done.
I work full time from home at 5 am, so I can get two hours of uninterrupted work before the house awakes. This is crucial for the summer months as interruptions are plenty. Once a kid pops up in my office, my creative flow is immediately off balance. Coming from someone who used to sleep in until 7 am, this was an adjustment – but once your body gets used to that time, you won’t even need an alarm clock.
- Take some time for yourself each morning, even if it’s just 15 minutes. Use this time to read your daily devotion, review your to-do list, work out, or just gather your thoughts.
- Drink plenty of water and eat breakfast first thing in the morning. Eat something high in protein, such as eggs or Greek yogurt, and choose complex carbohydrates, such as oatmeal or whole-grain toast to help keep you feeling fuller. Just avoid sugary cereals and processed foods as much as possible.
My go-to breakfast right now is fresh fruit – usually blueberries and raspberries with my oat, honey granola, vanilla bean yogurt from Aldi, and a chocolate protein shake. So yummy and keeps me full until lunch.
As a working mother, if you can stick to a morning routine, it will set your day up for success.
5 Tips For Surviving As A Solopreneur: Based on my 20+ years of experience in this role, you’ll be better equipped to survive and thrive as a solopreneur by following these five tips.
2. Set Boundaries and Prioritize Your Time
- Now some moms will want to create a daily schedule, but while I like to cross things off a list as completed, I get anxious when I have something filled in for each hour of the day.
So I prefer a prioritized task list for work and home. This will help you stay on track and use your time wisely. Include time for working, taking care of your children, household tasks, and relaxing.
But anytime you can plan ahead will help you make the most of your time and avoid last-minute scrambling.
- The other part of this is to delegate tasks to help you free up time or learn how to say no to things that aren’t filling a purpose in your life. But it’s important you ask for help when needed. There are plenty of people who can help pitch in.
Even if it’s relying on the Instacart delivery driver to bring you groceries or your kids to help unload the dishwasher and fold clothes, what are some tasks you can take off your plate?
- Then lastly, keep your personal to-do list for after working hours. Cramming both home and work tasks into your working hours only sets you up for burnout. When you can set boundaries and keep your personal to-do list for after work, you will be surprised at how much more manageable everything feels.
3. Take care of yourself spiritually, mentally, and physically
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and exercise and eating healthy. This will help you have the energy you need to get through the day. Working mothers often forget to take care of themselves. Make sure you schedule in some “me time” each day or week, even if it’s just for a few minutes. You deserve it!
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To discuss the last two working mom hacks, I’m going to bring in some special guests.
4. Meal Plan
Next, I want to introduce Jamie Clark, who is the founder of BetterBalancewithJamie.com She helps exhausted moms go from feeling self-conscious and inadequate to being in control and more connected to their health inside her Better Better Balance Support Line – Individual and Group Coaching Program.
As a mom who works full-time from home, I know that the thought of planning dinner at 5pm after being up for 12 hours is something most nights I don’t give any thought to most nights. Which leaves our family scrambling to find something to toss together to call it a meal. More or less fend for yourself – check the fridge, and you’ll find something.
So Jamie, what are some ways meal planning can help me out when it comes to saving time and money or maybe choosing healthier options for dinners?
This is common for most of my clients.
- The first thing to do is to meal plan. People get overwhelmed thinking they need to cook like 17 meals but when you look at your calendar, see the nights you need to cook dinner for the upcoming week. Because some nights you will be going out to eat or with family so you won’t be planning that night for meals.
- Step two is to find 5-10 meals your family will always eat and keep them in constant rotation. Tacos are a big win in our house. We can premake the taco meat, pre-chop the veggies and event make it into a bowl.
You can simplify your shopping list by looking at your calendar and having meals. You don’t throw away any money on food not eaten. We don’t have any food waste in our home using this plan.
Tips are to buy fruit and meat in bulk.
If you can, buy as much stuff that’s frozen. Be sure to look for organic and wild-caught fish – otherwise, it’s finding things that our family will eat. We don’t buy things that our kids won’t eat. If my husband and I want to eat something, we will go out for dinner for that food type.
Can you give us some ideas for quick and simple dinners to make in, let’s say, 30 minutes?
Going back to what your family will eat. We cook all our protein in bulk, look at your upcoming dinners, and make meat 2-3 days in advance.
We are firm believers in cooking once and eating twice. For example, we do chicken thighs in the instant pot – we can also make them into chicken salad, etc.
Working Mom Hacks to Make Meal Planning Easy and Simple
- Look at your meal plan calendar to plan dinners needed
- Buy in bulk (fruits, meats) as much as possible
- Cook protein in bulk
- Precook, prep ingredients for the week
- Have fun with sauces (try Primal Kitchen Sauces)
Using these meal planning tips, you can enjoy meals and not worry about recipes. Your food won’t go bad, and you’ll save a ton of money at the grocery store.
5. Keep a Clean, Organized Home
For this hack, I’m excited to bring back Daniele Mineck as she is the founder of Simplified Spaces at danielemineck.com She helps working moms who want to get their home in order go from feeling stressed, embarrassed, and lost for time to getting their house back under control and relaxing in their spaces again.
One of the quickest ways for a mom to be put in a bad mood is to walk into the house after a long day at work and see dirty dishes in the sink from the night before and wet laundry still in the washer that she forgot to toss in the dryer before going to bed.
Or even if you work from home as I do – I like my spaces to feel clean and organized, so I have a fresh space for my mind to create in.
Daniele, What tips can you share with us about different routines that a mom can get into to keep a tidy and organized home?
Routines aren’t sexy, but there are small things you can do to keep a clean and organized home.
Some tips to make your chore list mindless instead of mind-numbing. People think a good routine starts in the morning, but I believe a good routine starts at night.
Things to do at night set up you for a successful morning.
- Give your house a reset before you go to bed. The dishwasher is loaded, the counters are wiped down, and the floors have a quick sweep. So when you are coming home, you don’t have to clean up the previous day’s dinner, nor do you have to awake to a messy kitchen.
- Go through a 10-minute tidy around your living areas by resetting your house back to factory settings. It will be worth every second in the morning.
- Also, in the evening, prepare the kids’ things that need to be ready and gathered up. The fewer things you need to chase down in the morning, the better.
Working Mom Hacks for a Morning Tidy Up Routine
- Make your bed every morning – even your kids. If your bed is a mess, it creates a spiral for the rest of your spaces. Scientifically it sets you on a path to success. It’s called the Keystone habit – they lead to the development of other good habits and positive outcomes.
- When it comes to laundry – instead of your laundry owning you, you need to own your laundry. My trick to making laundry easy daily is to preset a laundry load before leaving the house. Using the delayed wash function, it will run right before I get home from work. So when I get home from work, I do the quick switch from the washer to the dryer. Then by the time dinner is over, we can unload the dryer and even the kids up their clothes away.
When you space out the laundry doesn’t make laundry feel as heavy or feel. But I don’t believe in the one laundry day a week – we tackle it daily.
Tips on storage solutions for pantries and snack stations
Everyone is looking for the Pinterest-perfect pantry. But if you have it set up right, the size of your pantry doesn’t matter.
Get Access to Daniele’s Simple Kitchen Organization Plan here!
- Yes, acrylic bins are nice to use – but I suggest you decant and unbox all your products (granola bars, apple sauce pouches, goldfish, etc). Those boxes are designed for shipping, not storing, and take up a lot of space. By unboxing, you can keep an eye out for things running low and allow you to use your space wisely.
- For your bulk snacks, this works the same way. Dump into a larger, clear container like you use for your cereals.
- Snack stations – This organizational method allows your kids to grab and go while keeping a great eye on what you need to buy. This tip works for cold fridge items also.
Grab a free copy of Daniele’s Simply Your Spaces Guide. You will learn how to avoid top organizational failures, so you can finally eliminate the clutter in your life once and for all! This guide will show you how easy it is to make small changes that significantly simplify your space.
Bonus 6. Give Yourself Grace
You won’t be able to do everything on your to-do list daily. That’s okay! Just focus on the most important tasks and let the rest go. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t get everything done.
Give yourself grace and move on. Stay positive, and remember that you are doing an amazing job! Being a working mother is not easy, but it is definitely worth it, and both parts are fulfilling.
Recap: how to make your life easier as a working mom
You can become more organized and efficient by following these working mom hacks. These tips can help you make the most of your time, focusing on work (during work hours! ( and spending more time with your family in the evening.
What working mom hacks do you use to stay organized and efficient? Share your productivity tips in the comments below!
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