How to Plan Your Days as a Busy, Working Mom
Let's talk about what you get done in a day.
Do you start thinking about what you need to do as soon as you wake up? I'm often mentally creating a list while I'm in the shower 🛁 or drying my hair.
I want to hit the ground running as soon as the kids are out the door for school.
Some mornings, you wake up with the energy to seize the day! You slept well, have energy and lots of ideas about all the things you want to accomplish:
Finally take care of that big project that you've been putting off.
Get your inbox cleaned up and sorted.
Make decisions about upcoming events and invitations.
Or just get organized and plan ahead for the coming month.
What so often happens though is that time flies by ✈️. Your energy doesn't last as long as you thought it would. You get interrupted and something you weren't expecting lands on your desk.
Or maybe you are really productive, but only a magician would have been able to accomplish all the things you put on your list. 🪄
At the end of the day as you review the list you created that morning; all you can see are the things that didn't get done.
For so many of the women I talk to, this is a regular occurrence.
More days than not they leave work or go to sleep at night feeling defeated. They didn't do enough. They feel "behind".
No wonder we're so exhausted. Not only do we tell ourselves that we're not doing enough but we're seeing it in every item that's not crossed off at the end of the day.
But what's the alternative?
How do you get off the hamster wheel of defeat and actually accomplish what's on your list?
You create a realistic plan.
When you created that list or filled your calendar with tasks, did you check first to see if those tasks actually fit into your day, or were you just hoping they would?
Because there's a difference. And the difference is in how you feel at the end of the day.
You can feel defeated, frustrated, and "behind", or you can feel accomplished, proud, and satisfied.
Let me give you an example of what this looks like in practice:
As you think of all the things you could do, you start by putting those on your running list. It's a "brain dump" 🧠 of sorts to get all the options on paper (or into an app/digital doc).
Next, look at your calendar. How much time do you actually have today?
By the time you drop the kids off or get to your desk, how many working hours do you have until you need to shut down and get the kids?
If you have 3 hours of meetings + 30 min for lunch/breaks + 30 min for email/interruptions = 4 hours that are already "taken"
In an 8-hour day, that leaves you with 4 hours to fill with tasks, projects, etc. from your list.
Then you have to decide: what do you want to accomplish with those 4 hours?
What's important? What will yield the biggest results or have the biggest impact? How much energy and focus do you have today? What deadlines do you have today or coming up?
🎯 Your goal is to create a list for the day that you can COMPLETELY cross off.
Have you ever looked at a to-do list that is completely crossed off? It feels soooo good. You have to try it.
⚠️ But I do need to warn you:
When you follow this approach, your list will be short. Shorter than the lists you're used to creating.
You're probably not going to like it.
And you're going to be tempted to add more and make it longer. But don't do it.
I need you to practice with an extremely short, realistic list so that you can experience what it's like to cross everything off. I need you to feel the difference.
And those things that didn't get crossed off your lists before?
They were never going to get done. 🤷♀️
The only thing you're changing here is your expectations. You're not changing how productive you are (though, in my experience I'm more productive with this approach because it creates energy and momentum).
But your list is just matching your reality.
And you're able to end your day feeling good about all that you did do. Because you're staring at a list that's completely checked off. ✅
Once you get this process set up, you can book a Planning Intensive session with me so we can really optimize your schedule, think about your energy and the most productive way for you to work, and we'll take the momentum you gain and use for the things that really matter for you in this season of life.
Here's to a short list and feeling accomplished at the end of the day.
Book a Planning Intensive
Let’s make a plan so you can use it effectively on the things that will make the biggest impact for you, for your work, and for your family.