Need more balance? Trying to figure out how to juggle all the things? Want more time in your day? Unsure how to divide your time between your kids and your home and your work and your husband?  Do you feel like you don’t have enough time? Time management is the answer. This can be super simple and today, I am breaking it all down. Grab your notepad, momma, and have fun! 

Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast

Time Management Struggles? You are NOT Alone!

The question I ask every single person that comes into my Facebook group is, “What are you currently struggling with?” The number one answer is time management or some variation of not having enough time. It all revolves around the word time. So today’s podcast episode is a really quick one of all I think you need to know when it comes to managing your time successfully.

Does Time Management Seem Complicated?

There are a lot of reasons we overcomplicate time management, but it does not need to be complicated at all. Sometimes it is easier to think of time management as a big bear or a can of worms because then it makes it easier to make excuses for not managing our time well. We do this because managing our time seems hard. It seems easier to let life dictate our time and then being subject to whatever it throws our way. Time management seems harder because having to manage your time also means you are going to have to manage your children’s time. You will also have to be more disciplined and organized.

This can all be daunting. But truly, it doesn’t have to be. It can be fun. Believe it or not, it can also be EASY. It can be really easy!

Is it going to take you some time to figure out? Of course! Just like anything new that we do, it’s going to take some time. Is it going to be perfect? No, it’s not, it’s life and life isn’t perfect. But that’s ok!

You want to know how to have fun managing your time? You come over and party with us inside the Systemize Your Life Facebook group. We love to jam on time blocks and productivity together.

The Number One Thing to Know About Time Management

The number one thing to know in order to have successful time management skills is that you need to start categorizing your time. I will talk about time blocking until I’m blue in the face, but it is not because time blocking is trendy. You can can type “work from home mom schedule” or “stay at home mom schedule” into Pinterest to help you, but all you get is someone else’s idea of what your schedule should look like. I believe you need to learn how to build yourself a framework.

This framework is something I built for my family at a time when we were all over the place. I was struggling and something needed to change.

Is it perfect? No.

I still have to figure out how to make that framework work for us when things change. Bailey starting kindergarten, unexpected homeschooling, and Blaine’s work schedule all bring changes to our time management needs. There’s a lot going on in my life, just like there is in your life.

Managing time for cleaning, time for personal recreation, time for family, time for reading; all of it comes down to time management and we moms are the ones dealing with it. We are the ones handling it.

“Time management can be daunting. But truly, it doesn’t have to be. It can be fun and exciting. It can be EASY.”

It Takes Time to Learn New Skills

Learning to be successful with my time is something that took a lot of practice and when seasons change, I have to take sit down and give it attention. My time would dictate me if I didn’t do that, our framework doesn’t operate automatically based on any changes. What would automatically happen is that other things would start dictating my life. My kids, my emotions, my home, the mess, and other people that want or need me, all would dictate my time. So instead of me being in control of my ship and being in control of my motherhood, it would be the other way around.

To be candid, what led me to what I teach inside the Academy and what we talk about in the Facebook group is that I needed help. I started creating systems and this framework. Five years later, we are still using these systems and this framework. It’s been amazing for my family and has helped so many other moms.

Learning Time Management Skills is So Worth It!

This is the way you figure out how to divide your time between your kiddos, your work, and your husband. This is the way I have found to get a decent amount of sleep every single night and stay focused whenever I’m in my work block, plus have time for self-care and not experience burnout.

The First Step in Managing Your Time Better

So how do you do this? The first step is to know exactly what responsibilities you have to maintain as mom, wife, worker, housekeeper, and any other roles you take on.

What do you regularly have to pour into? Are you a volunteer in your church or your child’s school? Are you a student? Do you have a job outside of the home? You need to know exactly what you have to do to fulfill each of these roles on a regular basis.

These tasks are how you build your time blocks and these time blocks are how you build your framework. Time blocks are not a schedule. Everyday will not look the same. It is a support for you to know how your day should flow. For example on Mondays, my Mom/AM block is huge because I pour into my kids in a very intentional way at the start of my week. The rest of the week, that block is smaller because they go out of my care for most of the morning block. That is the beauty of having a framework.

Since I sat down and figured out exactly what I need to do every week with my fundamental needs (The Great Eight), I know exactly what I need to be doing when. I know how my week will flow and don’t have to worry about when I will squeeze in important things.

A Free Time Management Resource!

A great resource to support you in this is my completely free Time Management Workshop. I walk you through an in-depth process of what it looks like to truly manage your time well and why you need to do it the way that I teach it. I’ve done it the way I teach you and in doing so, I have allowed myself the freedom to be me, to thrive and flourish in my life. My home has become a place of refuge, it’s clean and the laundry is taken care of without me feeling like I don’t have enough time. And I want you to feel that exact same way.

Just know that this will be a work in progress for you, as it is for me. There are days I sleep through my morning routine because I need it and that’s ok! I know exactly what I need to do to jump back into it whenever I am ready. The framework will be ready and waiting.