Time Management Skills Are Vital For Working Moms
If I could sum up what makes or breaks working moms, it is your time management skills.
Learning about time management for busy moms is important for working moms, especially if you homeschool, because the ability to manage your time is vital.
Working moms everywhere will agree on one thing: there feels like you never have enough time in the day, and it is easy to get sucked into doing too much.
Even if you are super organized, you will have days when the time runs away. If you work from home, you know how easy it is to get distracted running around putting fires out and accomplishing nothing!
Anytime the subject of time management comes up, the first answer you’ll get is to get a planner.
While a planner is a useful time management tool, what you need are time management skills.
Let’s talk about what time management is, why we need time management, and why are time management skills important for working moms.
What Is Time Management?
How do some working moms seem to get it all done without breaking a sweat while you are sitting there spinning your wheels?
Well, (spoiler alert!) they don’t get everything done. It might look that way from the outside, but chances are most of them could give you a list a mile long of things they didn’t get done that day.
They have time management skills!
Time management is the ability to manage your time effectively. It’s the process of organizing your tasks, dividing your time, and planning in order to complete your tasks before they are due.
In my experience, time management is more than having a planner and using it. It is figuring out what your priorities are and making sure those get done first.
Is Time Management A Skill?
Yes, time management is a skill because it is something you can learn, practice and improve.
Time management skills include the ability to set goals, learn to focus, avoid distractions, set priorities, and delegate tasks.
One time management skill that is very helpful for working moms and to teach in our homeschool is the ability to take a list of tasks, break it down into smaller parts and figure out what task must be done before the rest.
Some may think that working from a checklist and checking everything off working from top to bottom is good time management skills.
That is not an example of good time management skills. It is a great example of someone who can follow directions, and there is a difference.
Why Working Moms Need Time Management Skills
Working moms need time management skills because there are so many moving parts of our life to juggle, especially if you are a homeschool mom.
You have your career and all the responsibilities that come with it, such as a boss, clients, projects, deadlines, etc.
You are a mom, and you want to take good care of your family. As a mom, you have the responsibility of caring for your children and all the fears, hopes, and dreams that come from being a parent.
Then you have to run your house. You want a clean and semi-organized house that doesn’t look like it was just robbed. You have meals to plan and cook because the kids are always hungry and all the financial fun of bills to pay, etc.
If you are homeschooling your children or planning to in the future, you have the added responsibility of educating your children. While you can work and homeschool, it does take some organization and hard work.
And for fun, let’s throw in keeping appointments, running errands, taking care of your own parents, and being a friend.
Oh, and somewhere in there, you should have downtime, self-care, and a hobby or two.
All of this can be overwhelming at the best of times. When you have the right time management skills and systems in place, this chaotic list becomes manageable.
Why Time Management Skills Are Tough
Time management skills are vital but not easy. That is because it is not “one thing.”
You can’t drive up to the take-out window and order “One stack of time management skills and one extra large coffee to go, please.” Trust me, if this was possible, I would have done it ages ago and saved myself so much trouble.
Time management skills are a group of systems that work together. It is made up of routines and schedules that help take you from a chaotic hot mess mom that never knows what is going on to a peaceful, mostly calm mom that uses her time intentionally.
Learning to manage your time is tough because it isn’t one-size-fits-all. You can read all the time management tips in the world, but not all of them will work for you. You need to sort through them and try them out. It takes a lot of trial, and error and switching things up to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
You might excel at making a plan but struggle to follow through, while another mom might rock at following a plan but have no idea how to create one.
The last reason time management is so tough is that it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work, practice, and constant adjustments as life changes.
What Do Time Management Skills Include?
What does time management skill look like for working homeschool moms?
It looks different for every working mom, but here are a few different skills and routines that can make the biggest impact in your daily life.
- Creating a simple schedule, one that fits your lifestyle
- Writing daily to-do lists to keep track of what needs to be done
- Completing a time audit
- Learning how to stop wasting time
- Having a homeschool plan
- Learning to meal plan
- Having a self-care routine
- Creating a cleaning schedule
- Learning to outsource
- Learning and implementing time management tips
- Using time management tools
- Teaching and training children how to do chores and cook
After looking at that list, you might feel overwhelmed. But a wise mom knows you can’t try to add all of these to your learning to-do list at once, right?
Where To Start With Managing Your Time Wisely?
My advice is to start with what you need the most in your life right now.
As you go about your day, take notice of patterns. What systems are breaking down? When do you feel most exhausted? What is distracting you? What is working? What isn’t working?
It really doesn’t get any simpler than that. Start with what time management skill YOU need.
You get to decide what you work on next, and as a result of those efforts, you get to decide what your life looks like.
Time Management Skills You Need:
- Homeschool Time Management
- How To Be More Productive
- Productivity Tips For Working Moms
- Holiday Time Management
- Holiday Time Management Tips
Time Management Is A Vital Skill For Working Moms
Is it even worth the time and effort to learn time management skills?
Yes! Learning to manage your time wisely allows you to get more done in a shorter amount of time, figure out what to focus on and when, and lowers your stress level.
As a control freak, using my time wisely makes me feel like a superstar! Just sayin’.
So, while you can not truly do it all, you can do what needs to be done with a little time left over to indulge in that favorite book, a fun game with your kids, or a much-needed coffee break.
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Hi, I’m Jen. I help working moms juggle their career and homeschool their kids by providing support, systems and tools. You are warmly invited to Join the Online Community Here!
