{Post by Heather Hice-McCray}

I don’t think anyone goes into their day thinking of ways they can be less productive. It can happen despite our best efforts. Being as productive as possible can be such a struggle when there are multiple things pulling at our attention. To be more productive moms can seem daunting.

Let’s be real, the amount of things that are trying to get our attention quickly out-number the hours in a day.

Unless of course you’ve found some fantastic secret to adding more hours to your day. In that case, you should be sharing with us!

Do you struggle with getting things on your to-do list done?

As women we juggle a lot every single day. We juggle kids schedules, with household duties, and work both inside and/or outside the home, friends, family and basically everything under the sun.

Sometimes we could use a little help to stay organized and productive. I know I need help from time to time.

These are the 4 ways I’m staying more productive everyday. They can help you be more productive as a mom.

4 Ways to be More Productive Moms

POD

First you should know that I’m not tech savvy. Until very recently (as in the last couple of years) I didn’t even have a smartphone.

You should also know I love the old school paper and pen planners. For a long time I wouldn’t even enter anything into my smartphone calendar.

That all changed the minute I found the app POD.

It’s a super smart calendar that allows me to organize and color code all the different things in my life.

I have created different calendar colors for my work outside of the home part of the week, my kid’s schedules, and my online work. It shows different views, a to-do list underneath your calendar, and a view of all the tasks you’ve entered into your calendar.

It’s fabulous, and I no longer have to use my paper planner.

I’m not going to lie it was hard to give that one up, but this is able to keep me more organized which means it’s easier for me to be more productive and get more things accomplished.

TIME BLOCKING

I now block out specific time periods where I work on certain tasks, and I stick to this schedule.

I know that if I have one hour to clean the house then I have one hour. Once that hour is over it’s time to move on to something else. Not only does this keep me from taking my sweet time, it’s kind of fun to have a goal to shoot for in terms of beating the clock.

I organize my time blocking in the POD app, and I can see exactly what my tasks and time on those tasks is.

It motivates me to go faster and work harder because I know I only have to do each task for a certain amount of time.

The best part is that I always make some sort of headway into my tasks. I tend to get overwhelmed if I procrastinate. If I’m able to start on a task and get a lot of it done (if not completed) it helps me to not only feel more productive, but be more productive as I move on to my next task.

WORK HARD

I’m not sure if you feel the same way, but there are moments where I start to get distracted. TV, Pinterest or some other form of procrastination pulls me off track. It’s in these moments that I can be tempted to choose to not work hard. If I give in, this ends up drawing my tasks and to-do list out longer than they need to be.

I’ve found that if I use time blocking and work as hard as I can on the task at hand for the set amount of time, I am able to focus and get it done faster and without getting distracted.

I know if I work hard for just this hour or that twenty minutes I can then take a break. This is helpful because I was able to be completely focused on the task, didn’t procrastinate, and was able to still get my Pinterest fix in at the end.

MAKING A GIANT LIST

I used to organize my lists of things to do by the date in my planner which ultimately led to me flipping back and forth between dates searching for the notes I wrote.

What I found to be the most helpful is to have a running list of all the tasks I have to accomplish.

It’s not organized in any fashion, but it helps me to know that everything is out of my brain and on paper. Sometimes the most anxiety-inducing part of being more productive is trying to store it all in my head!

Getting it all down on paper allows me to have more space in my head for other things.

It also helps me so I don’t forget anything because my memory just isn’t what it used to be. I can keep adding to the list, and I mark completed tasks off by highlighting them.

This is important to me because I can still read them, but I know I’ve finished those tasks.

So there you have it! My 4 easy ways to be more productive moms everyday.

I know you’ve got a lot to accomplish every single day. Try one or all of these and let me know how they worked.

What are some tips, tricks or hacks you use to be more productive moms? Share them in the comments below.

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Heather lives in Florida with her husband, two girls and two pups. She is a lover of most things in life, too many to name here without scaring you, but a few include working out, learning new recipes, Pinterest, organizing (yes, it’s true!), home decor and learning to lead a more minimal and purposeful life.

She started Just Becoming Me as a venture to better understand herself and what will lead her towards a more fulfilling life. Her motto is: “We only have one life, and I want to learn to live mine in a way that gets me excited to jump out of bed.”