How to be a productive mom the right way, in 5 simple steps

You may think that learning how to be a productive Mom is going to be a practice that adds more to our plate. The word ‘productivity’ itself can sound intimidating, or even negative. Making us feel like we need to be doing more.

But, truth be told, being a productive Mom isn’t about doing more. Done right, it will not make us feel more overwhelmed. It is about using our time well. 

So, if you DO want to get more productive as a Mom, let’s dive in and learn how. 

You may have landed here after viewing my post about How to become an organized Mom, or are maybe on my site for the first time. 

I want to walk you through some practical tips for learning how to be a productive mom, because here at PTM we believe that organizing OURSELVES (as a Mom) is the #1 step in learning how to BEcome organized in every way.

PINNABLE IMAGE – flustered Mom

What is productivity? 

So what is the definition of productivity to begin with?

Productivity is the ability to produce more with less. It’s a measure of how much you can get done in a given amount of time, and it’s something that everyone wants to improve on. 

But what does this mean in terms of being a productive Mom?

A productive mom is someone who ‘works smart’ to produce the quantity and quality of whatever is required of us, in the 24 hours a day that we have all been given. 

We all know that everyone has the same amount of hours in a day, but creating your very own productive Mom routine might just be the difference between having your life organized and living a life of chaos. 

And, creating this productive mom routine doesn’t have to be difficult, something we dread doing, or something we feel bad about taking the time to do. 

Step 1. Take an evaluation of your current productivity

So, how do we get started learning how to be a more productive Mom? By first answering these questions, which will help you take an inner look at where you are starting off. 

1. Evaluate your role in the family 

Do you stay home, work part time/full time. Do you perform most of the ‘household’ related tasks independently. Would you like anything to change? What does your current phase of motherhood look like right now?

2. Roughly jot down your typical day to day

What does each day look like for you right now? What do you like/dislike about the flow/structure of each day

3. Current goals + short term plans

Do you have any goals right now you have been wanting to reach, but haven’t been able to?

What are some of your short term plans right now, and how are they influenced/inhibited by your current productivity abilities?

When you are struggling with following through on your goals, you may find yourself starting new goals over and over again. This can be just as harmful to your productivity as not setting goals at all.

4. Get very real with yourself

 Are you happy with your current level of “productivity” now?

Remembering – we all have the same 24hrs in a day and the way we use those 24hrs is greatly influenced by what our role in the family is right now (see Q.1).

Do you think you should be “more”productive than you are right now? 

5. What are some things ‘robbing you’ of time, when you do have a minute to spare in your busy day?

Now…EVERYONE needs mental + physical downtime. Mom’s are no exception. We are not superhuman robots that can have an exploding mind 24/7 (even though we all sorta run that way anyways).

BUT could you spend a little less time on social media and a little more time doing other things that contribute to your personal productivity goals?

Step 2. Create your own personalized productive Mom routine

Now that we have done some self-evaluation, we can use our answers from those questions to create a routine for guiding our general day to day structure. 

It is important to create our own routines that will work for US, which is why some self-evaluation is necessary first. Otherwise, we won’t find these new routines easy to keep up with day after day, and will fall off track again.

• Ideas for nightly routines
• Ideas for daytime routines

Use these ideas to create a routine for yourself or come up with your own. Just pick creating a nightly routine or a daytime routine first. Don’t try to overhaul your entire routine all at once. It will be hard to stick too, and overwhelming. 

Step 3. For how to be a productive Mom – Make a daily plan

Once you have an idea for your daily routine, you can then nail that down further day by day with your ‘daily plan.’ 

You might be thinking, “but we just made a daily plan.” Well we actually didn’t. We made a rough ‘schedule’ to guide our day to day structure. 

A daily plan is something created; at most, a few days before. A daily plan incorporates if we have appointments, commitments, errands to run, large projects to complete etc…

So, to make your daily plan, use this formula.

Productive routine + specific daily goals – commitments = your ‘Daily Plan’

So we take our ‘productive routine’ goals for each day plus any additional goals for that day. Minus any of the commitments we have (or other time bound things), to get a plan for each day.

There may be days when your productive routine has to look different because of appointments, or your kids needing more of your time or energy. 

That is why our daily plan ends up being a flexible guideline to refer back to, that sets us up for as much ‘productivity’ as possible in the time available to us that day. 

If we put these steps into practice consistently we will be able to learn how to be a productive Mom in no time at all.

Step 4. Incorporate these ‘tips’ for ultimate productivity within each daily plan

Once we have a daily plan, we can then conquer our time each day, to the best of our ability by using these productivity tips

• Write things down: There really is power in writing things down and letting our mind do a good ‘brain dump’
• Do something every day that makes you feel happy + motivated: this may be exercise, doing your hobby for a few minutes, having a special coffee, talking to friends, playing with your kids etc
• Celebrate EVERY single little accomplishment in the day. We all know; that as busy Mom’s, something/someone ALWAYS is going to need our attention. Some days there literally won’t be any time for our personal ‘to-do’ lists. Celebrate anything you can to keep your motivation/happiness up.
• Don’t listen to that advice of “wake up before your kids, do your hair and do your makeup every day” UNLESS that is actually something that is important to you and resonates with you. Personally, I rarely can wake up before my kids and rarely enjoy wearing makeup when I am spending an entire day at home. So you do you. 
• Choose your battles with your kids, spouses, life commitments etc. YOU get to choose what is your highest priority to maintain order over.
• Schedule the things in your productive mom routine to occur during the time of day that it makes the most sense. I can be 10X faster with certain chores, if I schedule them for a time of day when my kids naturally engage in free play nicely with each – other. 
• Be boring: repeat meal plans, buy the same snacks, simplify your kids clothes/toys/etc. Sometimes ‘boring’ takes WAY less time + mental energy.
• ‘Automation’ – this can look like subscribe & saving household things, ordering grocery pickups, auto-refills, auto-renew (everything from memberships to vehicle registration)
• Respect – treat your ‘motherhood’ like the job it is. Regardless of if you work outside the home or not, being a Mom is also real work. Work with which there are consequences to not doing what needs to be done. YOU are your own ‘motherhood’ boss (branch off into another post here). 
• Take your ‘productivity’, routines, and goals step by step. DO NOT try to change everything all at once. That is never a good idea. Build up each productivity step like your building habits. 

Step 5. Remind yourself why should we care about creating a productive mom routine for ourselves anyways.

Still not super convinced that you’re capable of becoming more productive, or that it is worth the effort? Why should we care about creating a productive mom routine for ourselves, and learning how to be a productive Mom?

• Because it is step 1 towards achieving some #Momlife organization (we can’t get ahead at all, if we spend every single day moving backwards because we don’t know how to use our 24 hrs the best we can)
• It will help us to feel empowered to keep moving forwards towards whatever our goals are
• We can achieve more inner/emotional calm and control by knowing that we made the most we could of each day, recognizing the need to be flexible and celebrate small wins
• Gives our mind a bit of a break from thinking so much because we naturally know what step comes next in each part of our day (routines/schedules/predictability)
• Can help us to achieve more mental/emotional growth than we realize because we are trying to be intentional and present in the routines of each day. Rather than going through the motions, stuck in ‘survival of the fittest’ mode. 

The best way to take control of your daily productivity is by planning your day out. Stay focused, on track, and empty your mind

A productive stay at home mom; done the right way, starts in 5 simple steps

Becoming a productive Mom is easier than we think. All we need to do is…

1. Evaluate where we are starting off and our unique situations
2. Create a productive Mom routine that will be easy to stick to. Pick creating a nightly routine, or a daytime routine. Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to do both at once.
3. Create a daily plan: We do this by taking our ideal productive mom routine – (minus) specific appointments/commitments = to equal our daily plan
4. Don’t forget to incorporate your productivity tips to make the most of your time each day
5. Remind yourself WHY it is so important to improve on our productivity when we are a busy Mom that is struggling to get things organized and on track. 

Lastly, let’s not forget. Being productive doesn’t mean working harder + more. Mom’s are already busy enough. Let’s just work smarter!

Continue the learning journey…

Head back to – how to become an organized Mom to learn more about how our framework for organizing your #Momlife can help you in your unique needs right now