21 Time-Saving Tips for Working Moms

Stress

If there is one thing that impacts your mental health more than anything else it is too much stress. Now if there are one group of people who suffer from stress more than anyone else it is moms. This is why we thought it might be useful to talk about some time-saving tips for working moms.

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How to Make Life Easier as a Working Mom

Being a mom is difficult enough but if you are working as well it means that you only have a finite time to get things done for the rest of the family. You are constantly juggling your time at work with organising your home, cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. If you don’t get this balance right you can end up feeling burnt out and fed up!

Our time-saving tips for working moms list is designed to help you think about things you can do to help you to do things more quickly and easily. It is also going to make you think about how you run your life. This is because whilst some of our stress is down to our busy schedules other parts of it can be caused by us simply not being prepared. Setting yourself up for an easier life is always the best way to go so that you feel happier and more in control.

So what you can do to help yourself have a more streamlined life? Here are 21 tips for busy moms that can help you to claw back time and stop the overwhelm. Don’t forget that our stress reduction download is also a great way of teaching you to relax. Use it daily to help you feel calmer.

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Tips for Busy Moms – Get Up Earlier

The first of our tips for working moms is to get up earlier however only do this if you are not going to exhaust yourself in the process!

That extra hour or half-hour at the start of the day before anyone else is around or up can be the most productive. There is nobody else to bother you which allows you time to get some tasks and chores done without trying to multi-task or having distractions.

You don’t even have to get up earlier every day. For some of you doing this once or twice a week will give you the edge you need to sail through your tasks with ease.

For Moms on the Go – Get Organised and Create a Schedule

When we start doing tasks without having a schedule we don’t necessarily get things done most efficiently. Creating a schedule or plan for the week can make all the difference.

There are some amazing planners out there for busy moms to use that can help you to get organised and make your life easier. They can help with every from cleaning routines to budgeting and finance.

The Clever Fox Premium Planner is a great tool that you can use to help you start planning. It has been cleverly designed to help you stay focused and increase your productivity so that you can run your life more effectively.

Working Moms Shortcuts – Batch Cooking

Cooking every night to feed a family isn’t easy and it is especially difficult if something comes up that throws your routine off such as running late or forgetting a crucial ingredient. Yet if you start to batch cook and freeze the excess you will always have food to fall back on.

Batch cooking is a great time-saving idea as if you are cooking anyway it takes very little extra effort to just cook larger quantities of the same thing. This means that the meal you are cooking now can potentially last for another two or three evenings if it is frozen. Think about the time you can recoup if you did this regularly.

We love this set of 50 Meal Prep Containers that are reusable and are perfect for freezing your food for a later date.

Time-Saving Hacks for Mums – Online Shopping

If there is one area that has come on in leaps and bounds over the past decade it is online shopping. You can buy just about anything online saving you the time it takes to go to the shops, park, browse and buy.

Our number one favourite online shopping activity is food shopping. Getting a weekly delivery of groceries can make a huge difference and stop you from spending endless hours in a supermarket each week.

Of course, online shopping can be used for everything from birthday gifts to clothes shopping. Whilst it won’t stop you from heading to the store completely it can make a big difference.

Time Savers for Working Moms – Buy in Bulk

Time savings tips for working moms need to make things easier and this idea certainly can make a difference. Instead of buying things as and when you need them think about buying in bulk instead.

So why does this help? Well imagine you have had a busy day at work, you come home and are rushing around cleaning and tidying and find that you have run out of toilet roll. As this is an emergency you now need to make a special late-night trip to the store to get some costing you valuable time you could have spent doing something else.

Buying products in bulk and keeping an eye on your stocks means that you will never be caught short again. Plus you are likely to save a ton of money over the year as bulk buying often means bigger discounts.

Time Management for Working Ladies – Create Lists

Writing lists of things that you need to do helps. Lists can remind you of what you need to do in a week, what you need to buy, bills you need to pay and so much more. There is nothing so satisfying as ticking off your items and seeing the to-do list get shorter.

Bloom daily planners do some great to-do lists that have tear-off sheets. Write down what needs to get done and when you have finished you can bin the sheet and pick a fresh one to use.

Full-Time Working Mom Life Hacks – Set a Timer

Have you ever thought about using a timer when you are doing a task to help you stay focused and get as much done as you can in your allotted time? Our time-saving tips for working moms are designed to help you not hinder you and a timer is a great way of saving you from the dreaded procrastination bug.

If you allow yourself all the time in the world to get something done then a simple task could take hours if not days. By setting a timer you are making yourself finish the project or task allowing you to move on quickly and easily.

This Voocoo Digital Kitchen Timer is great because it is visible and gives a count down so that you can see how long you have left to get something done.

Time-Saving Devices for Moms – Pay Your Bills on Autopilot

If you are currently paying your bills as and when they arrive then you are missing a trick. Paying bills and dealing with admin tasks can eat into your day. It is so much easier to automate your bill-paying so all you have to do is keep track of your finances.

Automated bill payments can easily be set up to be paid at regular intervals from your bank account. You just need to keep an eye on the amounts going out to make sure that they meet your expectations. Just be wary of using this method if you are always juggling your finances as the last thing you would want to be is overdrawn.

Time-Saving Ideas for Working Moms – Delegate

Who says that our time-savings tips for working moms have to be carried out by you. If you have a family and they are of the age where they can help out then get them doing some tasks for you to help save time.

So you might ask your kids to empty the dishwasher, dust an area or at the very least tidy their rooms. Also don’t think that your partner doesn’t get to chip in because they should be involved as well. In some families, the mother still takes the bulk of the housework and frankly if you are working that is no fair! Start to redress the balance and get everyone involved to make running the household smoother.

Streamline Tasks – Clean As You Go

One of the biggest time-savings tips for moms is cleaning as you go. That means if you are getting out of the shower give it a quick clean as you get out. If you have finished making dinner don’t leave the pots and pans hanging around and place them into your dishwasher straight away and clean the worksurfaces.

Leaving one thing only leads to another and before you know it your entire house will need blitzing which could take hours. Staying on top of your cleaning means that you will save yourself tons of time in the long term.

Simply Clean by Beth Rapinchuck aims to help you to keep your house clean and tidy in ten minutes a day. Have a read and see what cleaning tips you can use to help you save time.

Work Smarter Not Harder – Prioritize

Our time-saving tips for working moms help you to work smarter and not harder which is why prioritising your tasks makes much more sense than panicking over a long to-do list. There are only so many hours in a day so you need to decide which things are the most important and focus on those.

When we ask our clients to put in place a list of priorities it is amazing what items from their lists are suddenly non-essential or certainly not that important. Work your way through the things that matter and leave the others until later.

Save Time by Saying No

The greatest time-saving lesson you can learn as a working mom is to say no. There are always 100 different things that can compete for your attention and if you say yes all the time you are going to run yourself into the ground.

When our clients have sessions for stress one of the first thing we teach them is to use the word no more and put in place boundaries to stop other people from sapping your time. You are under no obligation to be at the parent/teacher committee or to be running the latest charity drive if you also feel like you are drowning under the pressure.

Look after yourself first before you look after others and only get involved when you really know that you have the time.

Working Mom Hacks – Set Reminders

Have you noticed how many websites have reminder set-ups now? If you haven’t start paying attention and use them to your advantage.

Perhaps you use online birthday card websites. If you do set reminders for them to let you know when your friends and families birthdays are over the coming year and buy your cards through them. Many websites allow you to do this for presents as well.

You can also use apps or even Google Calendar to remind yourself of what is coming up. Set it up once and it can repeat time and time again without you needing to do anything.

Time-Saving Lesson – Stay off Social Media

Time-saving tips for working moms aren’t just about things that you proactively do but also things that you need to stop doing. Social media is one of the biggest time wasters on the planet if you have things to do. Yes, it might be lovely to see how Kim Kardashian has decorated her house or viewing the latest Tik Tok dance but what about the mess around your house?

Limiting your social media usage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tik Tok is not only good for your time management skills it is also great for your mental health. Social media can be a toxic environment and lead you to judge yourself unfairly against others. You will feel so much happier doing a digital detox and get much more done.

Catherine Price can help you to Learn How to Break Up With Your Phone and get more out of life.

Automate Your Life – Get Medication Delivered

If you need regular medication on prescription it can be a pain to visit your doctor’s surgery to request more meds. It takes up valuable time that is completely unnecessary unless you need your medication reviewed.

Most pharmacies now have a process where they can renew your prescription regularly and even deliver it to your door so that you don’t have to do anything at all.

Manage Your Time – Chunk it Down

If you think about time in smaller increments it makes it easier for you to manage your tasks rather than having a vague time limit by which to get things done.

This Sunnyside Hourly planner allows you to break down your day into hours so that you can allocate your tasks to a particular time slot. Just make sure that you resolve to stick to the time you have allocated instead of consistently overrunning so that you ruin your schedule.

Organisation Cheats for Moms – Don’t Do It Yourself

Mom guilt is real but there is never any need for you to be a martyr. Our time-saving tips for working moms don’t say you have to do everything by yourself!

There are plenty of people out there who will do things for you in exchange for money. Want your garden lawn mowed? Then someone will offer that service? Need your house cleaning? Then there are teams of cleaners just waiting to come in and blitz your house.

Now unless you are super rich you might not be able to afford full-time staff but you can certainly pay other people to do some of your most hated tasks (oven cleaning anyone?). This not only saves your time but your sanity as well.

Moms Need to Stop – Multi-Tasking

Multi-tasking sounds like a great idea until you try doing it. If you have been stuck homeschooling during the coronavirus pandemic whilst trying to do your own job and running the house you will know it doesn’t work well. Your work suffers, your child doesn’t get the attention they deserve and end up feeling frazzled and ready to blow.

Where possible try and do one task at a time and pay attention to that one thing. When you choose to put all your focus into that one item you are going to find that you do it better and you do it faster. This lowers your levels of frustration and helps you to get a sense of accomplishment for a job well done.

Ways to Make Life Easier – Buy Things As You See Them

Have you ever been out shopping and spotted the perfect gift for a friend and then thought you will come back later to get it and never do? Are there certain things on your radar in shops but you get distracted and come home without them?

Our time-savings tips for working moms are designed to help you think ahead. There is no point in waiting to buy that perfect present the day before a friends birthday because it is almost guaranteed that the thing you spotted is now out of stock or unavailable. This is going to leave you tearing your hair out as you think what the hell you are going to buy.

If you see a great gift then just buy it and stash it away until it is needed. Even better buy a few of the same things if you think that more than one friend or family member would like it. There is nothing to say you can’t use the same idea twice. Plus don’t forget to keep gift wrap around the house so you can wrap the present as soon as you buy it. Life will be so much simpler.

We love this Gift Wrap Organiser than allows you to keep all your wrapping paper, present bags and bows in one place.

Making a Moms Life Simple – One Trip Multiple Tasks

If you have a long to-do list start to see if there is a way in which you can combine some of the tasks into one morning or afternoon to make things easier for yourself.

For example, you might need to take your child to the nursery, pick up some groceries, visit the dentist and get your nails done. See if you can find a way to book your appointments so that you only need to make one trip out to save yourself some time.

When you start to notice synergies between tasks it can become easier to find ways to simplify things and cut out unnecessary trips. Time-saving tips for working moms are sometimes just a matter of doing a little pre-planning.

Practical Time-Saving – Get Takeout

Finally the last of our time-saving tips for working moms is that it is ok to get takeout a few times a week if it helps make things easier for you.

Yes of course it would be lovely for your children to eat all organic food cooked from scratch and served fresh three times a day but how the hell are you going to do that day after day? Unless you are one of the super-rich who has their own in house chef it will break you trying.

Cheating is ok. Not everything has to be perfect every single day. Follow the 80/20 principle where your kids eat really well 80% of the time and have a few naughtier treats every now and again. Life is all about balance!