7 Productivity Tips for Moms with Young Kids
Time management gets crazier when you have kids.

I’ve read tons of different articles about productivity and time management. While I found massive help and practical guide from all those brilliant pieces, most of them are just not realistic for me. I have a 6-year-old and an 8-month old whom I breastfeed. Planning my day down to the last minute, having the same breakfast every day, and 90 minutes of uninterrupted work in the morning are just elusive.
So, I’ve tasted all the ideas presented before me. But before I swallowed them, I added some flavors that suit my needs and preferences. Then spit out everything that just doesn’t taste right.
Here are some of my flavors for productivity. See if you can chew on them too.
1. Set your life mission and goals.
Setting your life mission and goals will serve as your map and compass. You’ll never know if you’re being productive if you don’t have mission and goals. Your mission won’t end as long as you’re breathing.
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” — Bill Copel
Your life mission will define the purpose of your life. All your activities should revolve around your life mission. If you’re about to do something that negates your life mission, drop it. This will serve as your guide in your entire decision making.
Here are examples three examples of personal life missions of CEO’s from Forbes.
1. Oprah Winfrey( OWN)
To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.
2. Richard Branson (The Virgin Group)
To have fun in (my) journey through life and learn from (my) mistakes.
3. Denise Morrison (Campbell Soup Company)
To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference.
Goals, on the other hand, have deadlines and are more specific.
Jack Canfield suggests having 101 life goals.
According to Canfield, you should have them because:
“When you have a long list of goals you’d like to achieve, you have more to strive for, and more opportunities to check those goals off your list. And the rush you feel every time you check one of those goals off the list will inspire you to accomplish even more of them!”
After writing your 101 goals (Don’t worry if you’re not done with the list yet. You can add some as you remember them. And yes, you can exceed 101) Pick one and divide it into yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily chunks.
For example:
Life goal- Publish a book
Yearly goal- Finish the first draft (75,000 words)
Monthly goal- Write 6, 250 words per month
Weekly goal- Write 1, 563 words per week
Daily goal- Write 223 words per day
Dividing your goal into smaller chunks make it more doable and less overwhelming. If you missed a goal for a day, try your best to jump back as soon as you can. The key to achieving your goal is grit and resiliency. Keep doing it until you crossed out all the items in your list of 101 goals.
Your mission and goals are your big why’s so you don’t easily get distracted or disheartened with the things you need to do.
2. Manage your emotions.
Motherhood is such an emotional journey. Kids have the incredible power to push the right button to make you lose your mind, or make you incredibly joyful.
I have the tendency to stop working when I’m emotional. It’s one of my biggest productivity suckers.
This post by Tim Denning helped me address the issue.
According to Denning:
“We’ve become entitled and overly sensitive to all the wrong things. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Shake it off. Change your state!”
Kids say and do things that may easily make you angry, sad, or even disgusted. That’s not because they’re trying to attack you. They’re just being kids. They’re just being humans.
I’m not saying you need to ignore all of your emotions for you to be productive. Just don’t allow them to control you. Manage them healthily instead. Observe your emotions. Ask yourself why you’re feeling that way and what you can do about it. Then proceed with what you’re doing.
Benjamin Hardy suggested confronting the emotion instead of masking it. Continually ignoring the root cause of your emotions is counterproductive; it will paralyze you.

3. Give yourself deadlines.
You probably know the Parkinson’s Law already:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
But as a mom, you don’t have a boss to set deadlines on the things you need to do. If you don’t give yourself a deadline, it will take you forever to do it.
4. Use sensible multitasking.
I know multitasking is not celebrated because it is counterproductive. However, you’ll end up with piles of chores if you don’t multi task some less mentally and physically demanding tasks.
You can’t stare at the flame for an hour because you need to focus on cooking.
What I do is to combine tasks that don’t require much mental focus; tasks that can be done on the same part of the house. I tidy up the kitchen while cooking. Fold clothes baby-wearing. Read while breastfeeding; as long as I’m not compromising the safety of my kids or the quality of the work.
5. Balance your errands, house chores, and work
It takes me mega horsepower just to get myself and my kids ready. When I need to go out, I list everything I need to do outside and see if I can squeeze them for one day.
I do house chores when my baby is awake and creative tasks when she’s asleep. That way, I won’t be disrupted from deep work once I start writing for our website and for medium.
Non-Negotiable Tasks
I have three non-negotiables; five minutes devotion, fifteen minutes time with my first child (no smart phone), and twenty minutes of exercise. These are the things I need to do every single day unless there’s crisis. I don’t need to write them on my to-do list every time.
For my to do list, I write down 4–7 tasks for the day; tasks that will bring me closer to my goal and are in line with my life mission. I focus on one until I finish before moving on to the next.
6. Use power pauses.
You don’t need to be doing something every single minute to be productive. In fact, resting can be the most productive thing you can do in between your tasks.
Taking a pause to evaluate what you’ve done so far and what to do next will give you clarity to be more efficient and effective on your next task.
When you feel overwhelmed, stop to see the bigger picture instead of mindlessly moving just for the sake of doing something.
Listen to your body, it will tell you if you need to rest.
7. You need sidekicks
They say moms are superheroes. If we really are, then we need sidekicks. Not just one sidekick, as many sidekicks as possible.
As a mom, you’ll need plenty of help. Don’t be afraid to ask for it. Asking for help will not only help you, it’s crucial for your children too. If you’re constantly exhausted because you’re trying to do it all yourself, you can’t be the best mom for them.
Help won’t always be available, that’s when you need to bring out your inner superhero. But when help is handy, go ahead and grab it!
Conclusion
There is no hard equation for productivity. Everyone has different backgrounds, priorities, skills, and energy levels that affect how things are done.
Instead, there are principles. Principles that can guide you to make the most of your day like:
Ø Have compelling life mission and goals.
Ø Manage your emotions.
Ø Set and follow deadlines.
Ø Multitask sensibly.
Ø Rest when you need to.
Ø Ask for help.
You might be wondering why there isn’t any input on time management, as expected for a productivity article. Lack of time is really not the problem since everyone gets equal 24 hours. It’s how you use those hours.
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.
One last thing…
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