How I stay organised every week as a busy working mum
In this post, I’m sharing some of the key ways I stay highly organised and how I fit everything in each week as a busy working mum.
It’s no secret that mums have very full lives running around after their family and doing everything to keep life running smoothly for everyone. When you throw full time work into the mix, staying organised gets a whole lot more complicated because you not only have to be organised at home, you also have to do it at work too.
The struggle is real!
If you find yourself looking for some tips to help you get organised while doing the work/life balancing act and juggling ALL THE THINGS, read on for the ways I keep myself organised as you might find some ideas to help you as well.
I plan my week out early 🗓
The first thing I do every weekend is ✍🏻 plan out my upcoming week.
I look at all different things we’ve got going on, what commitments are coming up in the next seven days and anything which may become overwhelming for me if I don’t manage it well.
I also have a think about what priorities are most important to get done, and which ones I can let slide if need be. By doing this, I don’t leave anything to chance and I’m fully in control of how I handle my time.
While I still value spontaneity, I can be much more intentional about where I can change my plans at the last minute and when I should stick to them because it’s more important to do so when I have a well thought out plan in advance.
If you haven’t done this before, it might sound a bit boring but I’d encourage you to do so because there’s definitely freedom in knowing how your week is going to look ahead of time. This is the first and most important step to being organised!
I keep my to-do lists manageable 👌🏻
✅ Home
I try to keep my to-do list at home short with only 1-3 items on it each day.
I make sure I don’t overload myself with a never ending list of things to do just “because”, as I’m generally busy enough without adding extra pressure to my plate!
I do keep a master to-do list in my personal “Central Hub” though (that I’ve built in Notion) which holds all the projects we want to do as a family as well as all the “nice to do one day” tasks, along with anything I need to organise at some point in the future.
I don’t put these on my main task list because it would overwhelm me just looking at it every day and I don’t need to keep reminding myself of these tasks each time I look at my list.
For anything that needs to be done as a priority that day/week I’ll either do it straight away if I know it won’t take long or I’ll do it when I do my life admin tasks (see more on this below).
Otherwise I just have 1-3 things set for myself that I want to accomplish each day (usually relating to my business) and I let that be it.
✅ Work
I spend the first 15 mins of every day going through my action items at work and working out what the most important priorities are each day.
I’ll then decide on 1-3 of the most important things to get done and get those tasks done before everything else. I also decide what time and day I’m going to do them to improve my chances of making sure they are completed and everything else gets done in and around them.
My role is highly responsive and I usually have 30-50 different things to do each day so keeping just a few “must-do’s” makes me feel more in control of my efforts.
I use apps and technology or automation to streamline what I can 🚀
Here are some of my current favourites to make life a little easier on myself:
✔️ I use my robot vacuum to keep the floors tidy during the week (and run it while I drop the kids to school and daycare).
✔️ I use automated reoccurring payments to manage my finances.
✔️ I use a cleaning and meal planning app with presets built into it.
➡️ My current favourite apps I use to organise my life are:
Notion
Google calendar
Picket Fed
Microsoft to-do list
Lastpass
I set aside time to take care of my “life admin”
I normally spend around 30-60 minutes each week making sure my life admin is taken care of.
This includes things like:
paying bills ✔️
responding to personal emails ✔️
checking school apps and completing any forms required for the kids ✔️
booking appointments (eg. hairdresser or doctor) ✔️
ordering groceries ✔️
Instead of trying to do it on the fly every day and wasting so much time thinking about all the life admin jobs I have all the time, I save everything to once or twice a week and knock it all over in one sitting.
I generally block out a 30 min time slot one night during the week and if I have any more left over to do, I’ll do it again on the weekend. This allows my brain to let go of thinking about life admin each day.
I have “homes” for everything (including my digital items)
One of the biggest organising mistakes and frustrations people have with having a cluttered home or digital life is not having good processes and designated homes for everything.
I’ve worked over the years to make sure everything has a logical spot and it has made life so much easier to clean up and reset everything quickly! I no longer have bits and pieces sitting around because I’ve given them all a home where I know I can find them again easily.
I not only save time this way, but I don’t feel stressed anymore as I know where everything is 👏🏻.
I have a daily cleaning routine & I don’t put any pressure on myself to have a “perfect” home 🏠
By keeping my cleaning routine streamlined and easy, I don’t spend hours cleaning every day (or even on the weekends for that matter) anymore. I have a few tasks I like to get done every day and that gives me a sense of having a clean and tidy home.
While I’m by no means perfectionistic about it, I do like things generally tidy most of the time so by doing a little bit every day to maintain our home goes a long way to us feeling organised every week.
I put strong boundaries between work and home ❌
I don’t feel the need to jump straight away if an email comes in when it’s outside of business hours and unless it’s urgent (in which case someone would call me and I would know it was unusually urgent), I try not to look at my work emails after hours anymore.
This helps me keep my work and home life separate and alleviate feeling like one spills over into the next.
I also do my best to finish on time 99% of the time so that I can pick up my kids and be present for them once work is over.
I regularly declutter my inbox and avoid digital chaos
I don’t let emails ever get too out of hand and spend about 10-15 mins ⏰ each week making sure my inbox is either cleared out or things are filed in a logical place. This maintenance habit goes a long way to keeping myself organised and I find most people don’t commit to the little habits every week that can keep them feeling calm and in control.
👩🏻💻 I also clear out my phone messages, delete duplicate photos and tidy up my computer desktop regularly. A little bit of regular effort is what helps me keep on top of it and I know I don’t have to sit down then and do a big 3 hour organisation session (which I find very boring).
I have developed systems 👀 for everything I do
One of the biggest organising hacks is having repeatable systems and processes for everything.
From keeping my keys in the same place to having the same easy cleaning routine, this helps me streamline my time management because I don’t run around looking for things or figuring out how to do something over and over again anymore. Plus it means I’m much less stressed most of the time.
I do make sure I tweak my systems regularly though to make sure they are as practical and easy to follow as possible because things will change a bit as the seasons of your life change.
I share responsibilities equally with my husband and get my kids to help 👨👩👦👦
I am very thankful my husband steps up at home and shares the load equally. We try and have our designated jobs each day and it’s split evenly between both of us, but if one of us doesn’t feel well or have the energy that day, the other steps up and carries the load during that time.
The hardest part is getting the kids to do what they are supposed to without all the whining and complaining so it’s still a work in progress! Thankfully, as they get older it’s getting a little easier but we still have to remind them daily about what they need to do.
All in all…. keeping organised is always a work in progress and requires a bit of effort each day but it’s not impossible to be a working mum and still keep your sanity!
If you struggle to stay on top of things, know that it takes a lot of work to do all this but if you can make it a part of your routine bit by bit, you will feel much better about things (and less stressed as a result!).
I hope this post inspired you to consider some of the ways you might be able to get more organised and make your life easier for yourself!
I’d love to hear which one you want to give a try.
Valli x
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