These time management strategies for overwhelmed moms will help you be more organized and productive. Incorporate these time-saving hacks into your daily routine to be more intentional about how you’re spending your time.
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“We already have 2 watermelons at home. We don’t need another one right now.”
Queue the toddler tantrum.
Her eyes got glassy, her mouth began to quiver, and she started moving around in the basket like she was in an earthquake.
That’s when I realized how much I hate grocery shopping with a toddler and started looking for an option that worked better for both of us.
Most of my time saving hacks started from a moment of frustration and have managed to simplify so many tasks in my life.
So if you’re ready to find simple ways of doing mundane tasks keep scrolling.
1. Grocery pickup
We’re going to start with my favorite time saving hack of all time.
Walmart grocery pickup. (Side note: You get $10 off your first order by using my special affiliate link.)
After one too many toddler tantrums in the middle of the store, I decided to look into grocery pickup.
At least twice a month I go through this easy process and I no longer have to attempt grocery shopping with an active toddler.
Schedule my pickup date and time
Depending on your location you’ll get a list of Walmart stores near you.
Choose which location you want to pick up your groceries from and they’ll show you a list of available times.
Start shopping
Add the items from your grocery list to your online shopping cart.
After you do this once Walmart will add your purchased items to your favorites list and you can easily add those items again.
Since most of us tend to buy the same things over and over this eliminates so much time by shopping from your list of favorite items.
Confirm your order
Once you’re done shopping, look over the items in your cart to make sure you have everything.
You can also select if you want to allow any product substitutions or if you only want that specific item you added to your cart.
If everything looks good you pay for order.
Walmart will send you a confirmation email and let you know how long you have to make changes to your order.
Pick up your order
When your order is ready you’ll receive an email and a text message if you selected that option.
Log into the Walmart app and it’ll track your location (if you allow this setting) so they’ll know when to get your cold items ready.
Once you’ve arrived, put in your stall number, pop the trunk, and wait in your car for a Walmart associate to approach your car.
The associate will verify your name and let you know if any items weren’t available (just in case you don’t see the email).
If everything sounds good they’ll load the groceries in your trunk for you.
Once they’re done, you’ll sign for your order or if it’s contactless they’ll sign for you.
Unfortunately, a Walmart associate doesn’t come with you to put away all of your groceries.
But since my daughter loves to help me put away the groceries this part usually involves fewer tears and tantrums.
2. Outsource your cleaning
A task that can take up a good chunk of your day is cleaning.
I was watching one of those clean with me YouTube videos and the girl said it took her 7 hours to deep clean her kitchen!
I don’t know about you but I have better things to do with my time so I would much rather hand this task off to someone who will do it better and faster than me.
If you don’t know what outsourcing is, it means to obtain a service from an outside source. So hiring a maid is my way of outsourcing the house cleaning.
It also may be more affordable than you think.
When you use a website like this one you can compare prices in your community to find the best deal.
Having someone deep clean your house once a month or even once every 3 months will remove that extra stress.
3. Meal services
Another task that causes extra stress for busy moms is trying to figure out what to make for dinner every night.
An easy solution is meal planning. But to maximize your meal planning efforts My FreezEasy is a must-have.
This is how you can prep 10 meals in 1 hour, freeze them, and cook them when you’re ready.
The process is straightforward and made with the busy mom in mind.
Choose your meals
The first step is to customize your meal plan for the month.
You put in any dietary preferences and choose your serving sizes.
I find it best to double the serving size so we’ll have leftovers and I won’t have to cook every day.
Print your grocery lists
Once you’ve finished deciding on your meal plan, you’ll get an email with your grocery lists, food labels, and freezing instructions.
This is helpful because I like to use a categorized shopping list like this one to organize my grocery list to save time while I’m in the store (if I’m not using grocery pickup).
Prep your meals
After you’ve finished grocery shopping, your instructions will tell you exactly how to prep each meal for maximum freshness when cooking.
Label your meals
If you did make 10 meals it may get confusing trying to remember which meal is in what bag or container.
Use the labels provided so you can keep them all organized.
Cook your meal
When it’s time for you to cook the meal, follow the instructions for that meal.
You may have to let the food thaw for a certain amount of time or you may be able to dump everything in a crockpot.
MyFreezEasy is the easiest way to have 10+ meals prepped and ready to be made on any given day.
4. Task batching
Every time you stop doing one thing and start doing something else your brain takes time to process that change.
With task batching you complete a task before moving onto the next one.
A few examples are:
- Cutting all of the vegetables for a meal
- Doing all of your laundry on a Saturday
- Sweeping all of the hard surfaces
- Changing all the batteries at one time
Your brain is already focused on this one task so it doesn’t have to stop and refocus on another task.
This ends up saving you a lot of time because you do things on autopilot which helps you get it done faster and easier.
5. Automate what you can
Trying to remember everything takes up a lot of valuable space in your brain.
Make things easier for yourself and set things up to automatically happen. Here are a few suggestions.
Household items
We’ve been using Amazon Family to auto deliver diapers and wipes since my daughter was a few months old (she’s almost 2 now).
I choose the diapers brand, size, and how frequently I want them delivered. We have her Pampers Pure diapers delivered every month and a pack of water wipes delivered every other month.
Natural products
If you love using natural, non-toxic products that skip the hazardous chemicals then you’ll love Grove.
Every month you’ll decide which safe products you want to be delivered to your front door.
You can decide if you need:
- Cleaning products
- Beauty
- Pet
- Baby & kids
- Personal care
If you find that your family loves Mrs. Meyer’s products (like we do) then you can have them automatically delivered every month so you won’t have to worry about running out.
Bill payments
We were late paying so many bills! Not because we didn’t have the money, we just got busy and forgot to pay the water bill until it almost got shut off.
One day we sat down and set up automatic bill pay for every recurring expense.
Now every month instead of scrambling to figure out what bills we forgot to pay we’re going over our finances to see how much money came in and where every penny was spent.
6. Listen to audiobooks
I don’t know about you but anytime I look anywhere close to comfortable my daughter or husband needs me to do something.
Reading a book was next to impossible unless I woke up early or stayed up late and sacrificed quality time with my husband.
Audiobooks was a game-changer! I use Audible to listen to audiobooks while I’m cooking, cleaning, or in the car.
You simply sign up for an account based on the features you want.
| Audible Plus | Audible Premium Plus | |
| Audible Plus Catalog (unlimited listening to select audiobooks, podcasts, and more) | ✅ | ✅ |
| 1 credit for any title of your choice | ❌ | ✅ |
| Exclusive discounts | ❌ | ✅ |
Since we already have Amazon prime I chose the premium plan because I got 2 books the first month instead of 1.
7. Plan your day at night
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin.
Starting your day without a plan means you’ll end up wasting a lot of time on unnecessary things.
At night figure out the 3 most important tasks you want to accomplish during the day. This to-do list will help you break your tasks into 4 categories:
- Must do
- Should do
- Want to do
- Delegate
Once you’ve prioritized your tasks it’s easier for you to know where to focus your energy.
Now that you have a plan for the next day you can prepare in advance.
If you workout in the morning set out your workout clothes. If your kids go to school or daycare, set out their clothes and put the keys where you can easily find them.
Whatever tasks that’ll save you time in the morning, prep them the night before.
8. Limit screen time
Social media was made to keep us addicted to using the apps. They literally pay people to create ways to keep users on the apps for longer periods of time.
A few ways I like to manage my screen time and my family’s screen time is to have designated times when we watch tv and use app limits.
Designated screen time
In our house we used to keep the tv on all day mostly for background noise. We noticed how our daughter would stare at the tv like a zombie even though it was on something boring like the stock market channel.
Now we only turn the tv on for an hour in the evening usually while I’m cooking dinner. And it’s on an educational channel so she’s at least learning something and interacting with the characters.
And since my husband and I work from home we set designated times for checking our emails and getting on social media.
We usually check email and social media 3 times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening). Since social media is part of our business we set app limits to manage our time while on the apps.
App limits
We set app limits on our social media apps (mostly Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok) so we’re not wasting a lot of time mindlessly scrolling.
We designate 1 hour a day for all 3 apps which means we have to be very intentional about how we’re spending our time.
Knowing you only have 10 minutes left for the day means you have to prioritize what tasks need to get done before your time is up.
9. Use timers
Have you heard of Parkinson’s law? In layman’s terms it means if you only give yourself a certain amount of time to do something you’ll somehow manage to get it done faster.
When you race against the clock you’ll learn how to do something in 30 minutes that used to take you an hour.
The next time your kitchen is a mess and you don’t feel like cleaning it, set a timer for 20 minutes and race against the clock.
Or if you want to learn how to write faster, set a timer for 25 minutes and write as much as possible before the timer goes off.
This teaches you to only focus on the task you’re doing and helps you limit distractions.
10. Create routines & systems
First, let’s break down the difference between a system and a routine.
A system is an organized method of doing something. Meanwhile, a routine is a series of actions you regularly do.
If you have an amazing meal planning system it means nothing if you don’t incorporate it into your weekly or monthly routine.
A few routines to implement are a:
- Daily cleaning routine
- Evening routine
- Morning routine
Within each routine I have a system that I do every time to keep me organized.
Once you find a system that works, make it part of your routine to help simplify your life.
11. Have a donation box
Some days I’m so overwhelmed by clutter that I want to go through the house and get rid of everything.
To help keep clutter to a minimum we have a donation box that we keep in the laundry room.
We use this box to throw old items we randomly find in the back of the closet or food that we bought grocery shopping while hungry.
Now we can regularly declutter and donate unused items before it becomes overwhelming.
12. Everything has a place
When you’re cleaning you’ll save so much time if you know exactly where everything goes.
How many times have you walked around holding a random toy or decorative bowl because you have no idea where to put it?
Try to create a home for everything so your cleaning will go much faster and you’re not wasting time wandering around with a fake plant.
13. Advocate for yourself
Being a people pleaser means you often put everyone else’s needs before your own.
When you already have a jam packed schedule you still say yes to your friend asking you to babysit for them.
Or you don’t want to upset your husband by mentioning how tired you are even though the kitchen looks like a construction site and you could really use some help.
Learning how to say no and asking for help are skills you may have to practice and do mindset work about.
Once you learn this skill you’ll not only have better time management but also less stress and anxiety.
Quick recap…
These time saving hacks will simplify your life and help minimize your stress.
Start by finding ways to create routines and systems throughout the day.
Also, look for ways to automate tasks you do frequently so you don’t have to keep thinking about them.
Finding small ways to save time can make a big difference in your life.
