7 Effective Time Management Tips for Working Mums

To all working mothers out there,

I feel you.

As a working mother, I know deeply how challenging it can be to balance life and work.

It often feels like you’re a juggler who’s about to drop balls at any time.

It’s challenging, exhausting, and overwhelming.

Yet, it’s also fulfilling at the same time.

I love to think of motherhood as a privilege.

But it’s also a big role to fill. And if you’re not careful, you could easily lose yourself and forget about yourself altogether.

I honestly think, this should be enough motivation for every mother to improve time management skill.

So, here are 7 time management tips to make the “juggling” act a little bit easier.

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1. Prioritize

Master your prioritisation skills. It’s a critical skill in both personal and professional contexts. 

A valuable skill that’s not only applicable to personal productivity, but also in other areas of your daily life.  

Honing this skill will not only help you focus on what truly matters but it’ll also help you reduce stress. 

Learning how to prioritise makes you in control with your life and enables you to use your time wisely.

Prioritisation makes you good at decision making too. 

If you’re one of those busy mums who have children, a day job and a side hustle, prioritisation is an essential skill you need to have a grip on.

Learning how to prioritise makes it easier to balance urgent tasks while also making sure that your immediate needs do not overshadow long-term goals. 

As a working mother, I find awareness as one of the best ways to practise this skill. 

Awareness of why you do what you do makes a difference when it comes to making better decisions.

What would you like to do first? 

Do phone calls or send emails? 

Watch a movie with your kids or cook healthy food? 

Do laundry or declutter? 

And your answer will depend on your purpose in that moment.

One habit that I learned to do over the years is planning the 3 most important to do. Then I try to keep my “awareness button’ as long as I can during the week. This way, I can make strategic decisions on what needs to be done first, and what can be set aside. 

At any given moment, there’s only one priority. Because if everything is a priority, then nothing is, right? 

But of course, there are times when multitasking makes more sense. For example, if you’re doing household chores, multi-tasking is ok. But if you’re working on something that requires deep thinking, then single-tasking is the way to go. 

Master your prioritisation skills by planning your day intentionally.

When it comes to tasks, I like to focus on the impact of a task on the goal that I’m working on. 

For simplicity’s sake, I class a task as high impact or low impact. Because if a task makes it to my daily to-do list, then it’s important. So, it’s just a matter of knowing whether it’s high impact or low impact. Then I make a decision from there. 

And this is why being intentional matters. 

2. Plan and Organise

If you want something done in less time, have a plan. And if you want to do things efficiently, be organised. 

My best tip for for prioritisation is planning your week. This way, you’ll know what matters in that week. In when you know what truly matters at a given time then the decision making is easier.  

Planning and organising your week is so important when maximising productivity.

You can approach this in different ways. Some of the strategies you can try are:

• Having a daily routine
• Setting daily intentions or daily goals 
• Doing your top 3 most important tasks first before doing something else
• Using a time block
• Batching your work 

Consider creating a weekly planning routine. And when you plan your weekly schedule, make sure you allocate enough hours to complete your tasks without feeling rushed. 

But before you do that, it’s a good idea to decide your work hours first. 

It’s important because if you’re a mum who works a full-time job, it means that a big chunk of your days is already taken. 

This means you now have to be strategic on how to stretch the time you have left, so you can spend quality time with your family members, or do household responsibilities. 

There are tools that can help you do this. 

Choose the best productivity apps that suit your style. I use a combination of Notion and Bullet Journal. If I wasn’t using Notion or Bullet Journal already, Sunsama would be my number one choice. I used it for a while and I loved it. And I’ll keep recommending it. It’s like a digital version of a daily log-in Bullet Journal with lots of nice extras. 

When you’re planning and organising your day (or week and month), always make sure there’s room for flexibility when something pops up. 

Unexpected events can happen at the next minute, but when you have a plan, it’s much easier to handle those unexpected events.

3. Delegate and outsource 

Delegate tasks. 

I know I should do this in my business, but I don’t for a lot of reasons. 

I’m a solo blogger and I still enjoy doing things myself. Because I learn more by doing. So the idea of having a VA (virtual assistant) isn’t on the list yet. 

With family life, however, I think I’m slowly getting good at delegation. 

I have a husband and 2 kids, 14 years old and 8 years old. 

Before blogging and when the kids were still babies, I loved doing things myself. 

But now that I’m deep in blogging and turned this beautiful thing into a side gig, I learned to delegate more. 

My kids are good at cleaning and they love doing household chores. 

The husband has always been supportive since day one so when he’s not working, I let him run the household. 

We operate as a team so even the kids have their own assigned tasks. It doesn’t only help me, it helps them too. The kids feel empowered and it boosts their confidence.

And for all of these. I’m grateful forever. 

4. Create Routines

Every household and every mumma has unique challenges.

It’s no secret that balancing career and family life is one of the biggest challenges working mothers face. 

That’s why it’s important to establish predictability and structure. 

This helps with maintaining work-life boundaries. 

I’d like to highlight though, that there’s no perfect balance between life and work. 

When it comes to “balancing life and work” I always think of a seesaw and me. Some days life is up while work is down and some days it’s the other way around. But there are also days where I’d be in the middle. 

Now going back to routine.

The human brain prefers order over chaos. 

If task doesn’t need a lot of thinking or “figuring out”, the task becomes easy. because you’ll do it without thinking. 

This is where routine comes in handy. 

My family thrives on routines. Routines seem restrictive and boring but for my family, it’s actually the opposite. Because routines streamline the daily tasks and reduce stress and decision fatigue. 

Try it if you haven’t already. 

And if you already have routines, why not try ritualising your routines. It’s simply injecting mindfulness into your routines. 

For example. my weekly reflection (or weekly review) is a weekend routine I’ve been practising for more than 8 years now. Now that I’m a truly intentional person, I’ve ritualised this routine and has now become more meaningful and effective.

Here’s a list of routine ideas for you

• morning routine
• afternoon routine 
• evening routine 
• start of work routine 
• end of work routine 
• weekend routine

Pick one or two and keep it. In the long run it’ll be a part of your personal flow and systems within your intentional home. Which is another topic for another blog. 

5. Practise Productivity Techniques

Ok, I’m going to start this with a gentle warning. 

There’s a lot of productivity techniques out there. 

So, here’s my suggestion. 

If you’re not using any productivity techniques yet, perfect. 

It means you can start with more intention and purpose.

Check out these Time Management and Prioritisation Techniques for Easy Planning 

I used to use the Pomodoro technique but I’m happier now using time blocks and using a timer. 

Have you tried time blocking? 

It’s a method where you do similar tasks or sets of tasks in a block of time. 

Try it, and enjoy the time you’ll save. 

When I do time block, I do the most important thing first and then either let go or set aside the other less important tasks. 

Another thing I like to do is task batching.

Batching blog tasks, email and product tasks, has been good with my productivity. but I only limit a maximum of 3 in one batch. 

When it comes to home life, I follow themed day plans. 

Here’s how it looks. 

• Monday is grocery shopping day
• Tue, Wed and Thu are days for regular household tasks
• Fri is a weekly reflection for me, mainly for mental health reasons and intentional productivity
• Sat is meal planning day and blog tasks
• Sun is personal time. My son plays soccer so this is kind of a lose day for me. 

I tried so many productivity methods in the past and while they kept me excited at the beginning, I always came back with my powerful duo.

I use a combination of Bullet Journal and Notion. They help me stay productive and mindful at the same time. 

Use the pockets of times which only become obvious when you’re conscious.

6. Manage distractions

Managing distractions can be really hard.

Distractions can’t be totally avoided, but managing them can significantly impact your work performance and the best use of your time. 

A great way to tackle distractions is by using time management tools and productivity apps such as Sunsama to help you stay focused. 

Set reminders and use a block schedule to allocate specific times for tasks and work calls. It’s also useful to create a daily schedule that prioritises your most critical tasks, allowing you to address them during your peak productivity hours.

Set boundaries. Work hard as you like when it’s work time and rest without guilt when it’s rest time.

Weekly Reflection

One thing I love doing on a Friday afternoon (sometimes on a Saturday morning) is Weekly Review.

I didn’t like it at first because it forced me to stay still and think. I love thinking but I don’t like staying still. 

Over the years, I learned to embrace this activity and has now become one of my favourite things to do on weekends. It doesn’t take much time.

Try it. 

Here’s how to make things happen using GTD weekly review.

You’re not only going to be in control of your schedule but you’ll also improve your mental health. 

I do this on Fridays but you can do it any day you like.

Set aside a day and time. Take a moment to review your accomplishments and plan for the next week. Then, plan your next 2 weeks. 

Plan your tasks and work projects. Start with the big tasks, break them down and spread them across the week. 

You can use analog or digital planners. Use what works for you. 

Taking time to review your week helps you make better decisions on how to structure your time in the coming week. 

Here’s a few things you need to include when you’re reviewing your week

• incorporate healthy habits into your weekly routine to support your productivity
• make sure you get enough sleep 
• consider how you can manage distractions and make the most of your free time 

Your next step

Implementing these management tips can help you take control of your busy schedule and find more harmony in different areas in your life. Start by incorporating one or two strategies that resonate with you the most, and gradually build from there. 

Keep refining your approach,

Plan your week. Do a weekly review.

Continue to assess, keep what’s working.

And when you’re ready you can even try the 12-Week Plan. It will help you achieve goals in `12 weeks instead of 12 months.