Let's be honest, fitting it all in isn’t easy. If you’re a working mom, or a stay at home mom, both jobs are equally as difficult in managing your time. This is the BIGGEST reason I've found that planning out my week is so incredibly important.
Trust me, I used to be ALL over the place. In fact, just last year I would have considered myself quite frazzled and disorganized. I am naturally NOT a planner. I'm more of a go with flow, live life as it happens type of girl. But, In 2017 I realized how much I could take off my brain and my plate as a wife, mom and business owner (and honestly get MORE done in less time) if I finally got serious about being productive. Plus, I'm about to have my 2nd baby (currently 39 weeks) and I knew that before this baby came I had to get down to business and really get my act together!
I was that mom that NEVER knew what our next meal was, I had no idea what I was getting accomplished or when I would accomplish anything and I had literally NO structure to my day. Not a good move because it left me feeling drained and unsatisfied at the end of each day.
So I decided my goal this year was to become a more productive, more organized person. And I have to say after working on these skills over the past 3 months I am SO much more at peace and honestly getting so much more accomplished in my life.
By no means am I perfect, I'm learning new things every day but from what I can tell its working! Everyone keeps asking me, "how do you do it?" And I actually have some real solid tips for you guys now. I've been training my team on productivity as well and they've found many of my solutions to truly help them in their lives as well.
Here's what I've found works...
The biggest solution for me has been the “brain dump” and creating a schedule each week.
Every single week I sit down (usually on Sunday nights) and I just dump EVERYTHING in my brain out onto a sheet of paper or a whiteboard. You know all those things in your brain that you sit in bed at night and have to write down or you can’t sleep?! It’s time to get them ALL out of your brain at one time! I categorize everything I need to do in the upcoming week and put them into 4 categories: “No matter what,” Personal, Business, and Projects.
My “no matter what’s” are things I HAVE to get done every single day in order to see success in all areas of my life. Some of these include my workout, my quiet time and Bible Study, personal development, spending time with my husband, checking my inbox and following up with clients.
In the personal category is everything else related to my home and personal life. So, for example, if my daughter has an event at school that I need to help with, that goes on my personal list along with things like doctor’s appointments, errands, meal prepping, grocery shopping, laundry, sweeping the floors, etc.
Business is of course anything I need to get done this week for my business and projects are long term; anything personal or business related that I know will take more than just one sitting to get done. It could be anything from organizing my closet to planning a party to creating a new system for my team. The projects usually sit on my list for longer than one week but I try to pick at least 1 project to tackle per week.
Once I have my list together I write out my schedule for the next day and re-write my schedule every night for the following day. Just a side note: I do not use a planner at all! I simply write out my hourly schedule in a notebook, the same notebook I use to take all my business notes each day. The only other thing I use for planning is my iCalendar to book appointments because I like how it gives me a notification and my husband can also see which times I have appointments scheduled as well since our accounts are synced.
My “no matter what’s” get done FIRST thing! Those would include my Bible Study, personal/professional development, my workout and one or two main tasks that I know are going to help me move my business forward. That way I know if NOTHING else gets done, my top priorities are at least getting done at the start of my day.
Only you can decide what your top priorities are but for me my #1 is Jesus - my time with him gets done FIRST. I am not nearly the wife, mother and mentor I need to be until after I've had my time with him so for me its a non-negotiable! After that it’s time with my daughter/husband and then my health so a workout is non negotiable. I either make time to wake up early (in which case it means my day MUST end by 10pm so I can get myself out of bed) or I do it with my daughter which is always fun, too. Everything else gets scheduled around those top priorities.
Now you might say, “I’m not a morning person.” I promise you neither am I! I’ve always been a night owl but I have MADE myself become a morning person because I know that’s how I am more productive and get things accomplished that I want to accomplish.
I delegate hour by hour what I’m going to do and take things from my brain dump and plug them into my schedule. I do my best to make Monday-Friday my heavy days (get as much done in these 3 days), then by Thursday it’s the simpler tasks that need to get done and by Friday almost everything is checked off my brain dump and it feels MIGHTY good! I suggest putting your brain dump on a white board because that feeling of erasing off each task throughout the week is just AMAZING!!!
I hope this helps you get more productive too mama! And if you're looking for more tips on health and productivity be sure to follow me on social media.
Need some more tips on achieving a healthy and productive pregnancy? Download my free guide: My Top Secrets to a Fit Pregnancy and Fitting it All in.
xoxo
Jackie
I really loved reading your thoughts on productivity tips, obviously you know what are you talking about! Your site is so easy to use too, I’ve bookmark it in my folder.
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