Finding Time When You Don’t Have Enough

Welcome to Mom Motivation Mondays where weekly contributing writers share their motherhood experiences to encourage you to find the joy in being a mom.

{This week: Post by Heather}

Do you do it all?

Are you feeling stretched for time?

Are you constantly doing and doing but yet it feels like you’re not getting anything done?

You’re most definitely not alone. One of the biggest complaints I hear from mom friends is how hard it is to find time to do everything. When one friend talks about not having enough time in the day we all nod our heads in agreement.

Our days are filled to the brim. I know I feel the pressure to do more and more, but even if I took out all the optional stuff I add to my plate there would be an obscene amount of things that have to be done.

Learning how to streamline our routines to-do lists can go a long way towards helping us become more organized, get more done and feel more accomplished.

Here are my tips for what’s currently keeping me on track.

Finding Time When You Don’t Have the Time

GET AN ORGANIZER

I am admittedly kind of obsessed with planners and organizers. Okay, if I’m telling the truth I am most definitely and ridiculously in love with all things planner and organizer related. As a matter of fact, I love them!

I anxiously anticipate my new planner every December. I patiently find a planner that does exactly what I need it to do. I love the crisp pages just waiting to be filled with plans, to-do’s and lists. I wish I could say I was not being melodramatic but I’m not. I really do love a new planner.

Don’t feel this way about planners?

Not to worry! You don’t have to feel this way about planners to find one that works for you.

I have used so many different planners through the years, but I have always had one that has the month and the weeks in it. It’s just the way my brain works.  I know some ladies work better with the monthly planners.

I am currently using an Erin Condren organizer. Her organizers are costly. I was so hesitant to spend the money I waited 3 years to get one! When my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told them this was the one thing I wanted. This and nothing else.

Her organizers are pure genius and have helped me stay organized in one of the most hectic years of my life. It comes with so many extras that I love. She gives you stickers to use for project deadlines and important appointments. I use the pocket in the back for important papers and it has a zipper pouch so nothing falls out.

I love that it is spiral bound, and I can easily write in every nook and cranny. The best part was I could make a collage of my family’s pictures to use as the cover.

This organizer is awesome and helps me keep track of everything in my life-daily, weekly and monthly. I can plan to my heart’s content and keep myself and my family organized.

FIND A CLEAN UP SYSTEM

There are so many great ways you can get better organized and streamline your daily routine. One of the things that keeps women from getting organized is feeling overwhelmed by all the systems out there. There are so many opinions out there, especially if you look at the great ideas on Pinterest, about what makes a good system.

My advice is to have a cleanup system that works for YOU!

You know yourself better than anyone else. If you know that the system your best friend uses wouldn’t work in your life don’t try to mimic it. If it would work, then give it a try.

I learned a long time ago to trust myself when it came to developing my system. I know what I like and what works for ME and MY family. It isn’t going to work for everyone.

For instance, I’ve created a system of handling all the junk in my house.

First, I don’t wait for all the random junk to accumulate and then get anxious,… because I will get anxious. Then the more anxious I get the more upset I get. I know now if I’m not going to use it then it doesn’t have a place in my life.

Second, I go through each room daily picking up and cleaning. Yep, you heard that right-daily. It keeps me from having to do it all at once. (If it’s too overwhelming I just freak out.) If there’s trash or stuff we just don’t use then I get rid of it right then. It keeps me from watching random stuff build up month after month.

Some people are better at waiting and doing housework and cleaning all at once. Your system should be whatever you can use to help you stress less and find more time in your life.

My advice is to take the time to outline, maybe in your new planner perhaps, what your priorities are and how you want your daily routine to look. Then make an action plan you can follow over a set amount of time. For some taking it slow is better and then for others diving in and getting it over and done with is best.

As you work towards your own clean up system you’ll start to see that you are losing less and less time.

 

LIMIT SOCIAL MEDIA

Are you able to check into Facebook for 5 minutes and be done?

Are you able to watch just one episode of your favorite show on Netflix and be done for the night?

Do you go on Pinterest, get that recipe you were looking for, and jump right back off?

If you are able to do all of the above, then you’re probably good to skip this section.

Social media is one of the biggest time sucks in our lives and at the same time we use it for so much more than socializing. I use it for my jobs. It’s important in my field to connect with people and share my blogs through social media. It can be hard for me at times to separate the two.

I could spend countless hours on Pinterest after the kids go to bed. As long as my laundry was done, the house was clean and all my to-do’s were done I would let myself loose with reckless abandon. It was my “me time” especially when my husband was deployed.

Even though I work mornings, I am still pretty OCD about the house being clean. (I have more problems than just lusting after planners.) I have to clean up more at night than I used to because I’m not home to do it throughout the day. Because of this I find my “me time” is much less than it used to be.

If I want to do all the things I envision then I have to stay off social media or have a time limit. It’s just too easy for me to get sucked into a show on Netflix or start scrolling through Pinterest and realize it’s been an hour.

It was difficult at first to limit my social media at night, but I’ve found if I simply don’t get on it in the first place it is much easier to avoid. If I have to write or I want to read or journal I make sure I do it first before anything else. If I have time left over I may look at Pinterest for a bit or message a friend on Facebook. The majority of the time I’ve just stopped logging in because it’s too easy for me to get lost in it.

MEAL PREPPING

I recently started meal prepping our lunches and dinners for my husband and myself. This has been one of the biggest things that helps me stay on track during the week.

When I was a stay-at-home mom I would just make my lunch and my husband took the leftovers from dinner for his lunch. Now, I work the mornings and am home by 2. My husband leaves and works the evening shift. Our kids eat way more than they did when they were younger so we rarely have leftovers anymore.

All of the sudden I found myself needing lunch, and my husband needing dinner. I was getting tired of throwing things together in the morning. One Sunday I pulled out everything to make one meal I could eat all week for lunch. Then I did the same thing for my husband’s lunches.

I ordered these awesome meal prepping food containers, and I have to say they were worth every penny. They are durable and I can fit them all in the fridge so they are easy to grab and go.

What exactly do I do to plan out our meals?

My husband is loving the chicken burrito bowls I’ve been making so I’ll start there. I cook a lot of chicken and rice. I then put the rice and chicken in each container. I add in black beans, sour cream, guacamole and corn. I make sure to put in enough and he has 5 or even 6 dinners for the week.

It has been a huge time saver. I take an hour and make 6 meals for him and 5 lunches for me. I think it has been one of the biggest game changers for me. I save so much more time.

Pick one recipe you like and buy enough to make it for the entire work week. Initially I tried to make a different meal every day, but that failed. It’s just too much of a pain. Since we eat the same thing for lunch everyday it was easier and more realistic to pick one meal and make a mass quantity to last all week.

Start simple.

I started with baked chicken, a side of brown rice, steamed broccoli and sweet potato for my husband. It was simple and he loved it.

I promise if you incorporate a couple of these into your life you will find you have more time in your day.

What tips do you have for staying on track and finding more time in your life?

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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.”

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Enjoy your time at home!