10 Tips to make Life easier for Working Moms

For a long time, I felt my life spinning out of control. Between balancing my work life with my home life and then trying to take care of myself at the same time, I was completely overwhelmed. I needed a balance. I needed to find a way to make life easier while still maintaining the little sanity I had left. Below, are a few tips for working moms.
Saving Time, Money and Sanity
I tried so many things. At this point I was going to work for 8 hours then coming home to continue working in the house. Then I had to cook dinner, pack lunches, take care of the pets and try to sleep. I had little time to do anything other than work. My relationships were slipping away and my family wasn’t happy.
Tips for Working Moms
Over time, I learned some pretty valuable tips for making every day life easier and now I feel like everything is completely under control.. Mostly. I would love to share them with you.
1. Set Your Priorities
I had to figure out what the most pressing and important things were to me. What were the things that were consuming most of my time and how could I improve my performance?

As a mom, family was number 1. I had to figure out a way to be more present for them. To do this, I needed to spend less time doing mundane things and dedicate more time be with them. I had to sit down and find ways to save time doing every day tasks so I could spent more time with them.
I don’t have very much free time outside of my full time job so I needed to make the few hours a day I get with them count. This meant finding routines and shortcuts to things that I did every day and save myself valuable time. Leading on to tip number 2..
I don’t have very much free time outside of my full time job so I needed to make the few hours a day I get with them count. This meant finding routines and shortcuts to things that I did every day and save myself valuable time. Leading on to tip number 2..
2. Set up a Morning Routine
Want a Freebie? Use my free morning and evening cleaning routine printable as a guide to get you started on your journey to a more peaceful home.
Want one you can fill in yourself? Here you go.
I had to get a routine going somewhere. The thing I spent the most of my time doing was cleaning. I would clean around the house every day during the week and all day long on the weekends, cleaning up the same messes over and over again. I would get everything clean and the next day it was a mess again.
So I put together a morning routine. Your routine doesn’t have to be exactly like mine, though. Figure out what things you spend the most time doing and figure out a way to distribute it evenly throughout the week. Doing a little every day really does make such a time saving difference.
My problem was house work. Laundry to be more specific. We’re only a family of three and I still could not stay on top of our laundry. I was washing on the weekends or throwing loads of clothes in on random days during the week and then the clothes would sit out in the living room until we went through them all or until they needed to be rewashed because the animals made themselves comfortable in them.
I decided to do a load of laundry every day. This was such a good idea and exactly what I needed. After catching up all of the laundry and forcing myself to pick it all up, I started putting a load of clothes to wash every night. In the morning while I am getting ready for work and getting Ember ready for school, I put the clothes into the dryer and since the load is small (just our clothes from the day before and towels), it dries super fast and I’m able to fold and pick it all up in minutes.
This simple trick was the key to starting the perfect morning routine. When I realized how quickly I was getting my most time consuming tasks complete by doing it every day, I was blown away.
Now I’ve got a flawless morning routine and my housework, the thing I was wasting the most time doing, is staying under control.
3. Plan Meals Ahead of Time
Meal planning will make your life so much easier. Seriously. It takes me about 10 minutes of digging through recipes once a week to create a meal plan. As you get better at creating them and find recipes you and your family like, you can start planning meals with similar ingredients to save time and money.
For instance. If I am planning to cook spaghetti one night, I will also plan another meal with pasta, like stir fry noodles or some sort of noodle soup. Then, when I cook the first meal, I will cook all the noodles I need for this meal and the next pasta dish. Save the leftover pasta and just heat it up for the next meal. You just saved yourself seven minutes of boiling time.
Seven minutes doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but if you think about it, it takes me seven minutes to pick up a load of clothes. So really, how valuable is that seven minutes?

Make use of those appliances you insisted you needed
I’m talking about your slow cooker, your instant pot, that air fryer.. all those things that are sitting in your cabinet taking up space that you aren’t using. You bought these appliances with the idea that they would make life easier. So let them do their job.
Plan out a slow cooker meal once a week. Use that instant pot to “bake” some potatoes as a side for a meal. Honestly, I use my instant pot as a crock pot all the time.
Air fryers cook french fries so fast. Like, ten minutes fast. On Thursdays I plan quick meals, like burgers and fries or tofu nuggets. I can throw it all in at the same time and in 15 minutes our food is ready.
4. Make use of Grocery Delivery and Pick-up Services
Where I live, we don’t have grocery delivery services, so I am very jealous of those of you who have it. However, I do have grocery pick up.

Since you are planning your meals a head of time now, you know what ingredients you need for the week. Pull out your phone, open the designated grocery app and add those items to your cart right then and there. As the week goes on add whatever things you have run out of like toilet paper and cleaning supplies to that cart. On your designated pick up day- mine is usually Mondays- pick-up your groceries on your way home from work.
Doing this saves you the hassle of going to the grocery store, browsing every isle, buying things you don’t actually need and then fighting for your life in the check out line.
So you save time, money and sanity- with just one pick-up.
5. Get a Planner and USE IT
I know it is difficult to make use of a planner when you have never touched one before. It is hard to accept that we don’t have everything under control when we thought we did.
I was losing track of my days and losing track of when I was expected to work when I was working shift work at the hospital. I was missing important school activities, due dates, picture days and vacation days.
When I decided enough was enough I ordered a cheap $6 monthly planner off of Amazon that would fit in my bag and changed my life. That sounds dramatic, right? But it’s true. I was able to grab that planner and schedule my overtime days around things that were planned for school or doctor visits. I know months in advance now when I have time to do something.

Take a step further and incorporate your newly learned life planning skills and create a family calendar. I keep a magnetic marker board calendar on the fridge with our important days during the month and our meal planning for the week. This way no one was in the dark about where they needed to be and when. The best part, honestly, is that now I don’t have to hear, “what’s for dinner?” 900 times a week. I just direct them straight to the calendar.
I was never one to keep up with a planner in my phone because I like being able to just pull out the planner and flip to where I need to see what’s going on. And I love being able to personalize it. Once I realized that I was actually good at using that planner, I never stopped.
I have since graduated from the cheap Amazon planner to a more personalized one from Agendio. -No affiliate links here, I just really like this planner.
6. Learn to Say No
Now that you have your life planned out and you know what is coming and going, your next step is to learn to say no.
Working moms are busy. Moms in general are busy. We hardly have time to get the important things done on time, much less time to do things with or for other people that aren’t bringing us joy or helping us in a positive manner.
We have to teach ourselves to say no. Whether it is to a friend, your employer (who is begging you to work overtime), or even a family member, if it doesn’t fit into your schedule after all of your priorities and needs are met, say no.
Don’t feel guilty. You have to put your kids, your spouse and yourself first. You can say no.
7. Get Some Actual Sleep
I was ashamed for a long time to admit that I just couldn’t sleep. Having as much anxiety as I do leaves my mind racing the second I close my eyes. I can lay down for hours and never fall asleep.

It was when I started working night shifts that I realized I needed help. After speaking with my doctor, we agreed that I could benefit from prescription sleeping medication. I haven’t looked back since then.
We have very strict routines here. We wake up early during the week and we go to sleep early. Ember will ask me to kiss her good night at 6:30pm sometimes. Every night, even weekend nights, we are in bed by 7:30pm. This gives everyone an adequate amount of sleep which makes for a more productive day.
I know early nights and early mornings are not for every family. However, you can plan out 7 or 8 hours of sleep. You’ve got to. Getting enough sleep is so important for us, health wise and mentally. The amount of stress that will be relieved by just getting an hour more of sleep will make such a difference in your overall well being.
Use that nifty planner you now have and keep track of your time. Plan things around a good sleep schedule.
8. Make Time for Your Spouse
Obviously, if you are rocking the single life like a rock star you can omit this tip.
For those of us that were suckered into a relationship found love, we have got to remember that our partner matters. Our partners make us happy. They are on our side and we have to make them a priority, too.
I struggle with this and Leslie likes to remind me of it. As she should.
If you are like me, we get so overwhelmed with all of the things we have to do- work, chores, children, shopping, cooking, etc.- we forget to put our partners on the priority list. It is not because we don’t love them. It is because as a busy mom, our to-do list is never ending.
Look at your calendar and find a night where just you and your spouse can have a date night. Even if it is just once a month, plan it. It will give you both something to look forward to. It is something that you can plan ahead and have time to do and enjoy.
9. Make Time for Your Children
The little beings that call you mom love to spend time with you. Just as I know you love to spend time with them. Even if it is for a few minutes a day after you come home from work, pull out a box of toys and play for a while.
This is hard for me to force myself to do, not because I don’t love my kid, but because I have a hard time incorporating play time into my schedule. It is hard for me to sit down and just play with her when I know I have a tasks to complete. This has always been a struggle and a very big cause of mom guilt for me.

This issue has always caused me immense amounts of stress and landed me on anti-depressants years ago.
I have learned that Ember just craves attention from me. It doesn’t matter what kind of attention it is, she just wants something.
So I dedicated a night a week to let her cook dinner. She prepares the food and I teach her what to do. She gets to decide what she is cooking and honestly doesn’t even realize she is making mom’s life easier by giving me a little bit of free time and taking on a chore around the house.
Our kids don’t need much. They just need us to be present when we can. As a mom, we have to make sure to save some time for our kids.
10. Make Time for Yourself
Now that we have taken care of every thing and every one else it is time to take care of ourselves. Take some time out of the day to do something that makes you happy. For me, it is a a Podcast in the car on the way to work. It is going outside and spending time with my chickens because they are huge stress relievers for me.

If you like a long bath, don’t feel guilty about taking one. Your kids don’t need mom for the little bit of time you can squeeze in for a hot bath. They will be just fine. Set those kids up in front of the television with some food, make the water temperature as hot as you can handle and soak. Lock them out of the room and enjoy some quite time.
After the day you’ve had, you deserve it.
This is how I make life easier for everyone.
A happy mom means a happy household.
These tips work for me. I hope that they work for you. Even if you only take one of two things from this list, if it makes one working mom’s life easier, I have done my job.
Do you have any tips or life hacks that you use to make life easier and more efficient? I would love to hear them.
As a working mama I agree with all of this! Great post 🙂
Thank you, Taylor. Good luck to you!