As a mom of four I can easily find my self drowning in the beautiful chaos of life… and by drowning I mean struggling to tackle and keep control of all the things that help me stay sane. Everything can run pretty fast paced here and is always busy. So to keep things under control and keep my motherhood from spiraling I’ve had to get pretty serious about my time management. But no so serious to where we follow a strict schedule. And honestly it’s a pretty flexible schedule and allows for lots of free time and free play.
This was definitely not something I learned in the beginning as a mom. Actually after our first kid I had my husband come home from work and look around our house and asked me “what happened, you used to be on top of everything”? And my only answer was “I don’t know”. I didn’t know what had happened. Where the time had gone and how to fix it to get our home back. It was some super disaster but it definitely wasn’t what we expected and definitely not from one kid. My time management woke up right then and I knew I had to tweak some things to keep from having that situation ever happen again.
Below I’m sharing 5 tips to help you bring back the sanity and take back your time. These tips are what for me and are very flexible. So tweak and adjust them to fit your life and your family. My families needs are going to be way different than yours.
Have less on your calendar
If you want to take back your days and have time to get all the things done that you need to. Not everything you necessarily want to. But the things to creat calm and peace in your life. Then you need to first clear your calendar. Stop filling it up with things to do or you’ll never have time for anything. You need slow and steady days to help you stay on track. Constant go.. go.. go.. go is only going to make things worse. And no one wants that.
Clear your mind
After you clean up your calendar you need to clear your mind. You need to be able to breathe and think to conquer the things below that will be your saving grace to taking back control of your time. I love to brain dump. Its pretty much just taking a notebook or piece of paper or old mail. Or whatever you have handy. And jotting down every single thing in your head that you need to do, look up, call, wash, etc. whatever it is. Get it out of your head and on paper. Keep that list so you can place things where they need to go and tackle them. But you don’t need to stay up late at night thinking about it.
Create routines
Ok the first actual step to owning your time is to create routines. You need to get in the habit of doing things at certain times or certain ways to be productive. If your making it up daily then your going to find yourself in a major whirlwind of lost time and nothing being done.
Routines are simple things like… rinsing all dishes off as they are placed into the sink (so you don’t have to scrub when loading your dishwasher)
After every meal you vacuum the floor (we do because I have messy eaters)
Every morning after breakfast you toss a load into the washer, then after lunch you toss it into the dryer. And then after dinner you fold and put it away.
When my younger kids take a bath that requires me to supervise them 100% of the time (safety reasons… my youngest is 1) I use that time to clean my bathroom. Simple tasks like wiping things down or cleaning the toilet.
Routines can be as complicated or as simple as you like. I like them more simple but that’s just me. Do what works best for you.
Have a cleaning schedule
This one I have slacked on since corona. But I’m slowly getting things back into order. I do best with my cleaning if I “zone clean”. So on my cleaning routine I tackle a different space each day. And now this isn’t a deep clean it’s just more of a tidy up, clean the floors, wipe hand prints off the walls type of deal. This helps me stay on top of all the areas in my home without being overloaded or forgetting. I know that on certain days I have certain tasks to do. And then I also know when it was cleaned last. So weeks don’t go by before I you know… scrub a toilet or something.
Get rid of what no longer serves you
As you get your time back you’ll start to did things that are kinda just there and don’t really serve your family anymore. It’s just taking up space and taking up time. Which as you start taking back your time you want to eliminate unnecessary things that take up time and get in the way of you enjoying in life. So declutter and donate your heart out. I don’t think you can ever come to an end with purging things that don’t serve you. You’ll always find something you mo longer use. Or a toy that is no longer enjoyed. So time to pass them on to another family that will love it.
I hope this list helps you find your time and take it back. Just make sure to give yourself grace as things take time. Routines take time. Nothing is going to happen over night and it’s not suppose to. So enjoy the process and tweak things as they come up. Only you know what serves your family the best.
Until next time. Live a life you love.
Xo Jessica!