Mom life is hard, working mom life can feel nearly impossible! Learning how to easily build a working mom schedule that is realistic and sustainable is the best way to bring calm to the chaos! Keep reading to learn how to tame your time and bring more work life balance to your days.
Ever feel like you’re running on empty? Does it feel like your days are a blur of working, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. At some point it feels like something has to give. On top of all of that, creating a working mom schedule can feel like the most impossible thing to do. It’s already hard enough to find time for yourself in between all the responsibilities that come with being a mom, add a career to that, and you’re basically burning your candle at both ends.
You are in luck though because I’m here to tell you that finding time for yourself doesn’t have to be difficult! A daily routine can help immensely by giving you some structure and clarity when determining what needs to get done each day.
This blog post will provide a complete guide on how to create a daily routine as a working mom. Whether it’s finding the perfect balance of work and family life or just getting your sanity back, this blog is for you! Let’s get started!
This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. You can read our entire affiliate disclosure here.
Why is a working mom schedule important?
Many full-time working moms are winging it if they are honest. They are taking each day as it comes and doing what needs to be done. The problem with that is it can lead to burnout and a feeling of always being behind. A daily routine allows you to have structure and control over your day, instead of letting the day control you.
Living on coffee and prayer is perfect when you are only responsible for yourself, maybe you thrive on that drama, but as a working mom with young children, we all quickly realize that staying on top of the myriad of things you manage becomes so much harder! There are so many mental tasks that we manage as working moms, from getting through our work day to grocery shopping, appointment management and extra-curricular activities, it can be difficult to keep track of everything.
Creating a working mom schedule will help you manage your time more efficiently and reduce the stress of trying to remember everything. It also allows for better work-life balance, as you can set aside specific times for both work and family responsibilities as well as quality time with family members and quiet time for yourself.
Daily schedules are not just crucial, but essential for working moms. They bring order to what could potentially be chaotic days, allowing moms to manage their time effectively and prioritize their responsibilities. Routines offer structure, direction, and a sense of control, which can greatly enhance efficiency and productivity. When juggling the demands of children, work, and home responsibilities, having a well-organized schedule becomes even more vital. It not only helps in managing daily tasks but also contributes to the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of working moms.
By providing a clear roadmap for the day, a thoughtfully planned schedule allows moms to allocate time for self-care, family time, and personal pursuits, ensuring a healthy work-life balance. Ultimately, having some organization in their lives enables working moms to navigate the challenges with grace and find fulfillment in both their personal and professional roles.
4 Simple Steps for Creating a Realistic Working Mom Schedule
Creating a sustainable working mom schedule requires a thoughtful approach. It begins with a firm commitment to simplifying life and finding balance. By establishing routines and schedules, you can effectively streamline the mental load of motherhood. Once these routines are in place, you can start delegating tasks and responsibilities to your loved ones and other members of the household, lightening your load and fostering a sense of shared ownership. Embracing this collaborative approach can lead to a more harmonious and sustainable working mom schedule.
Now, let’s dive into my simple 4-step process of creating a sustainable daily routine that will help you achieve your goals and lead a more balanced life. By following these steps, you can establish healthy habits and make the most out of each day.
Define your Priorities
Before creating your schedule, it’s important to define your priorities and create a non-negotiable list. This list consists of tasks that you would ideally include in your day. In my book “Finding Time,” I delve deeper into the concept of your ideal day. Essentially, it’s about finding a balance between doing the things you want to do and the things you need to do in a realistic way.
These priorities should be based on what is important to you and your family! They should align with your values and help you achieve your goals. For example, spending quality time with family, self-care activities, and work commitments could all be part of your priorities list.
Here are a few additional examples of non-negotiable priorities:
- prayer
- fitness
- spending time with children/family
- Simple evening routine
- passion projects
- etc
Essentially, these non-negotiable tasks help you steward your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health well. They are also often the first things that we remove from our to-do list when life gets busy! Listing these items as priority when create a schedule is key to ensuring your daily schedule is sustainable.
Also Read: Prioritize your Life: 11 Tips for Finding Time for What Matters
Minimize tasks that you need to manage
The next important step is to thoroughly evaluate your schedule and identify areas where you can streamline your tasks and responsibilities. This involves strategically eliminating any distractions or unnecessary commitments that can be delegated, automated, or outsourced. By doing so, you are essentially removing the excess “fat” from your schedule, allowing you to focus on what truly matters and optimize your productivity. Embracing this practice will not only enhance your efficiency but also create more room for personal growth and fulfillment.
To improve your schedule, start by evaluating your current routine over a week. Make a list of all the tasks you do from waking up to going to bed. Alternatively, if you’re eager to make an immediate change, simply list out everything you did today.
Once you have compiled a comprehensive list of items, it is time to streamline and minimize the tasks at hand. This can be achieved through outsourcing, automation, or delegation. It is important to remember that you are not obligated to take on every responsibility. Seeking convenient solutions and additional help to reduce your workload is not a sign of laziness. Embrace the concept of efficiency and prioritize tasks accordingly.
As you streamline your responsibilities, its a good idea to take a moment to reflect on these questions: Are there areas where your time is being unproductively spent? Do you find yourself compelled to finish tasks at certain points throughout the day? Do you have a hard time setting boundaries around your time?
Reflecting on these questions and comparing your day to the ideal day we discussed earlier can be a revealing experience!
Also Read:
Learn God’s intention for Time Stewardship
Embrace a rhythm of working and resting and get more done! Take our Purposeful Productivity Challenge and find more time for the daily tasks that matter and quickly begin creating routines that prioritize rest.
Create a structured routine
Design a daily routine that incorporates your goals and priorities. Allocate dedicated time slots for different activities, such as work, exercise, personal development, and relaxation. This will help you stay organized and make the most of each day.
Some moms enjoy daily routines that differ, while others like planning by the week to get an overview. Regardless of the approach, it is important to set realistic goals and stick to a consistent schedule. Remember that flexibility is key, and unexpected events may arise. Be open to rescheduling your day if necessary.
Also, take into account your most productive hours and align them with tasks that require high levels of focus and concentration. For example, if you are an early bird, designate morning hours for work tasks when your energy levels are high, and reserve afternoon or evening hours for family time or relaxation.
It is also helpful to batch similar activities together. For instance, you can dedicate a specific day of the week to grocery shopping, meal prepping, and running errands. This way, you reduce the number of trips outside the house and save time for other important tasks.
This organized working mom schedule will look different to different moms. The mom with young kids and a full-time job in office will have a routine much different than a stay-at-home mom who works in a home office.
RELATED: 10 Tips for Planning your Day + Free Daily Planner Printables
Test and Adjust your working mom schedule
Trying out a daily routine and making adjustments as necessary is super important. It helps you spot any lingering tension and gives you a chance to tweak your schedule. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to sharpen your time management skills! K
During the process of creating a working mom schedule, you may encounter a few instances where it becomes challenging to complete all your tasks. If these occurrences are infrequent, they are unlikely to pose a problem. However, if you find yourself struggling daily with a particular task, it’s important to evaluate how much time it truly deserves in your day. Our goal is to create realistic and sustainable schedules, which means being honest about the time required to complete tasks and their priority level.
Let’s consider cooking as an example. Personally, I have a passion for more elaborate meals and providing healthy options for my family. However, I also have a picky 9-year-old who only eats a handful of foods. I could spend time preparing intricate meals, only to end up feeding my child cereal because he refuses anything other than his staples. Alternatively, I can opt to meal prep simple, balanced meals that he enjoys and move on. I’ve chosen the latter approach, reserving Saturdays for experimenting with new recipes when there is more than enough time available. While cooking is a necessity, preparing elaborate meals remains an option. By minimizing this task, I create space for other tasks that truly matter.
By refining your routine and making necessary adjustments, you can ensure productivity, efficiency, and a balanced lifestyle.
Tips for maintaining a realistic Schedule
After you have created and reassessed your daily routine life’s grand right? Well, its not quite that easy. One of the questions I get most often when helping working moms create realistic schedules is, “How do I maintain this schedule?”
And honestly, this question is the most honest, because that’s motherhood right? You try your hardest to keep everything straight, and then here comes a curveball (read: sick child, volunteering requirement, school projects). Life gets messy, but I do have a few tricks that can help you maintain your routine.
Create Schedules that Prioritize Rest
The first thing tip for maintaining your working mom schedule is in my opinion the most important thing for cultivating calm as a working mom, and that is to make sure that your new routine ultimately prioritizes rest. When your schedule prioritizes rest, you are less likely to overbook your plans or overcommit yourself.
You want to create a schedule that gives you permission to rest. This means scheduling in breaks (and actually taking them, no more missed lunch break), having a dedicated stopping point for your work hours, and incorporating cushion in your plans. This way you can recharge and stay present.
This is why I encourage moms to schedule in non-negotiables. It enables us to be more intentional about breaks in the day and know these tasks MUST be completed before anything else! Building a restful mom morning routine and bedtime routine for the entire family is a simple way to ensure you are prioritizing rest!
Looking for more tips on time management? Check out all of our productivity resources
Maintain Margins in your day
It is impossible to stay consistent with a realistic schedule if you are constantly filling every spare moment in your day with tasks. There are a lot of things that will want to compete with your new schedule. Society tells us that if we just add one more check mark to our to-do list we’ll finally feel more productive!
You want to resist the urge to always be doing something. Society has made us believe that if we are not doing a task then we can not be productive, but this is so far from the actual truth! Your free time is your free time, and when you plan free time, that does not mean the same as having nothing to do!
Work demands will always be there, forcing yourself to be a night owl or forgoing family dinner to get more done will never truly help you to feel accomplished. Breaks are important!
The truth is, when you are working on a task, your brain is focusing on that so very intensely. Taking a break gives your brain the rest it needs to come back fresh and ready for more!
Try using a time block schedule
Another way to maintain your daily routine is to create it using time blocking. That is dedicating a specific block of time to doing a single task. This allows you to focus on that particular task or sets of tasks, but also keeps you from overworking on any one task or part of your daily routine.
Time blocking keeps your day moving along. It gives you dedicated space for a particular task and then gives you the freedom to move on to others. It also keeps you from being distracted by time sucking tasks like emails.
RELATED: Successful Time Block Scheduling: 6 Steps you Need to Take Today!
Learn to say no
Setting healthy boundaries is a skill that every busy mom should have for life, but it is particularly important when it comes to maintaining your schedules and routines. It requires that you assess the situation from all angles and determine its importance for your day or life.
Is it going to help me through my day? Is this a task I need to complete? Is this a responsibility I can pass on, or is it important for me to do this.
Once you have determined the items importance for your daily routine figure out how they can fit into your schedule.
Also Read: Boundaries in the Bible: 5 Bible Verses on the Importance of Setting Boundaries
Simplify your life
One of our steps for creating a working mom schedule was to minimize the things that we have to manage. This is something we want to do in every aspect of our lives. If you have less items in your home, there are less things to clean.
Less afterschool activities, means more time for free meaningful activities together as a family. In truth, less is more when it comes to time management. The less you have to do, the more time you have to do it!
Use a Planner
One of the biggest mistakes moms make with their schedules is not writing it down. Now, while the world may consider us superwomen, we know that we are all just trying our best. With that said, when we try our best but forget to actually write things down, we have at least a 50/50 chance that we will forget the task, schedule, or routine. Do yourself a favor and just write it down.
This is not a slight to us, in fact it shows our humanity to our children and allows them to also pick up great habits like using a planner.
Also Read: The Ultimate FREE Printable ADHD Daily Planner Template
Cultivate Consistency and Flexibility –
Stick to your routine as much as possible, but also be open to adjustments when needed. Life is unpredictable, and circumstances may change. By cultivating consistency and flexibility, you can adapt to new situations while maintaining a sense of structure and balance.
Realistic Working Mom Daily Schedules
Creating a sustainable schedule as a working mom is not easy, but it can be done with some planning and consistency. The first step to creating an effective time management plan for the work-at-home parent requires defining your priorities. What are you committed to? Your family? Your career? Both? Once you know what matters most, you should minimize those tasks that don’t have high priority by delegating them or outsourcing them altogether.
Next, create a realistic weekly schedule based on days of the week instead of just relying on monthly calendars which often leave too many open spaces in each day’s timeline. Finally, reassess your daily routine consistently – even if it means putting down your phone for 15 minutes every hour so that you can reset.
If these tips resonated with you, we recommend you purchase our book Finding Time which has been designed specifically with working moms in mind! We hope these strategies help make managing your days easier so that both yourself and those around you benefit from a happier home environment.
Thank you a million times! You simplified the process for many moms out there! It is indeed very important to schedule everything, especially as a mom.