I like to read up on female entrepreneurs who are also moms, because it’s really inspiring to hear and learn how they do all the things.
Recently I was reading about Sara Blakely, the founder of the brand we all know and love oh so much, Spanx. Sara has 4 children under 10 and is running her multi-million dollar empire among lots of other business ventures. Now granite, she obviously has a heck of a lot of help, but she STILL has 4 (young) kids that she’s just mom to. And that’s pretty impressive if I say so myself.
I read an interview she recently did called, How I Get It Done. (Go check it out here, after you read this post of course). The common theme I found throughout this interview was that she’s very strict about sticking to her habits. She eats the same breakfast every morning, wears the same types of clothes every day, knows where she does her best thinking and doesn’t veer away from this, and she has set traditions with her kids that are non-negotiables.
Now why am I telling you this? Here’s why.
Because you my friend, have the same amount of time in a day as Sara Blakely.
One of the fairest things in life is that every single one of us get the same amount of hours in a day.
Mom Made Simple Co.
But as William Penn says, “Time is what we want the most, and what we use the worst.”
It’s time to start changing this.
I’m going to teach you how to maximize your time as a busy mom, so you can get the most out of your day.
Just like you think about your money as profit and debt, I want you to start thinking about your time the same way.
What things are you in debt to that need to be cut out? We waste SO much time every single day, without even realizing it.
Listen to these statistics as of 2019. The average person spends:
- 2 hrs 24 minutes on social media per day
- 4 hours watching tv
- 90 minutes in daily interruptions
- 16 minutes deciding what to wear
- 35 minutes deciding what to eat
- 10 hours and 50 minutes in the car per week
That’s a lot of time! So how do you start maximizing your time and cutting out the waste? Let’s get right into it.
Here are 4 ways you can start to maximize your time, and stop living in debt to it.
1. Cut Out Decision Fatigue
You can waste so many minutes every day, just trying to make a decision. And a lot of times these decisions aren’t hard or life altering things. But they are stealing your time away from you because you’re spending too much time pondering them. Let me give you a few ways you can eliminate decision fatigue.
DINNER
Instead of sitting there for 20 minutes trying to decide what you’re going to cook up for dinner, make a list of 15 to 20 dinners that are family favorites. Then keep this list somewhere accessible. When you hit a wall and aren’t sure what to make, pull out your list and pick something.
To take this one step further, I’d really like you to get into the habit of sitting down and making a meal plan for the entire week. This will eliminate a lot of unnecessary decision fatigue.
WARDROBE
Keep it simple! If you’re home, yoga pants and an oversize shirt are a girl’s best friend. I’m a huge fan of all things neutral because they’re easy to style, classic, and they make it really easy to put outfits together. Find your style niche and stick with it.
AUTOMATION
We are living in 2020 and there are SO many things you can automate. Take full advantage of this whenever you can. Set up automatic bill pay so you don’t have to think about when you’re going to sit down and pay your bills. Have your beauty products, vitamins, meal services, (yes, even printer ink) set up on automation. It’s really amazing what all you can automate these days.
2. Batch Your Time
If you aren’t familiar with time batching, it basically means you batch similar tasks together and set aside a time to complete all of them. This way you’re touching all of these tasks once instead of multiple times. This is really popular in the business world, but I think it should be equally popular at home, because it’s really helpful! Here’s a few examples of how you can batch your time at home.
FOOD PREP
If you’ve been around here for a minute, you know food prep is a non-negotiable in our home and it should be in yours too. You can check out this blog post where I go into a lot more detail about my food prep routine.
When you food prep, you wash and cut ALL of your fruits and veggies at the same time and then store them in your refrigerator for the week. This will save you so much time all week long. Instead of washing and cutting produce, and cleaning up the mess 7 times throughout the week, you just do it once. And it will make it a lot quicker to throw meals together when you have everything prepped and ready to go.
RUNNING ERRANDS
Remember the fact I shared with you at the beginning of this post? The average person spends 10 hours and 50 minutes in the car PER WEEK! Instead of running out for every little errand, get better about planning your days. Make all of your appointments on the same day if possible. Dedicate one day a week where you just run errands. Sit down, plan out all of the places you need to go, and get it all done in one day.
3. Have Non-Negotiable Routines
Daily and weekly routines eliminate a lot of unnecessary decision-fatigue. When you have a set routine in place, you no longer waste time trying to figure out when you’re going to get the laundry done or clean your home, because you have a set day/time when you do it.
I want you to think about what those things are that tap your time every week.
Is there a way you could make those things part of a routine?
For example, if laundry seems to pile up every day, and you don’t have hours to get it done, then you need a laundry routine. You can read about mine here.
Does cleaning your home take you way too much time but you aren’t sure how to change it? Then you need a cleaning routine. You can read about mine here.
Every part of your life can become a routine, you just have to put a little strategy in place and then stick to that routine consistently until it becomes a habit for you.
4. Make a Plan
This is last but definitely not least. Planning your week is EVERYTHING! Let me say that again for those in the back – making a plan for your week will save your life all week long.
Have you ever realized on a Thursday afternoon that both of your kids need to be to their practices at opposite ends of town, at the exact same time? And now you’re stuck trying to figure out how you’re going to get both of them there.
This is why you need to plan.
There is SO much that goes into a week, and taking just 30 minutes or so to put it all down on paper or in a google calendar, will save you all week.
If you’re married, I’d encourage you to sit down and do this with your spouse. Joe and I try to make a point to do this every week. It’s not always super formal with our calendar in front of us. Sometimes we talk about the week while were on a walk with the kids, or it’s on the phone during his commute to work. But just taking some time to go through the week together, helps you feel like you’re truly working together as a team. It also makes it easier to fill in the gap for each other (in advance) when it’s needed.
Okay, I know that was a lot! But I hope these four things have you starting to think about how you can begin to get some minutes (maybe even hours) back in your day . I want you to start feeling empowered by the time you have, not in debt to it.
What could you do this week to maximize your time?
- Have you never sat down on a Sunday afternoon and made a plan for your week? Do it this week, and commit to sticking to it.
- Do you keep saying you need to plan out your meals but then get busy and forget? This is your week to do it.
- Does the laundry keep piling up and you end up spending an entire night in your laundry room? Go read this blog post and make a laundry routine that’s sustainable.
Now it’s time to take action and start. You’ve got this!
Pssst. I’ve got something for you. If you need some tips to plan out your meals for the week I’ve got you covered! Download my FREE weekly meal planning guide here, with 5 meal planning tips and a printable meal plan template to use.