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Last updated on September 15th, 2023 at 02:10 pm
Over the past three years, I’ve struggled with the challenges of work-at-home mom life. It’s gotten easier as my daughter has gotten older, but I still struggle with mom guilt. Recently, I began an experiment to see if a planner could actually improve your motherhood.
Some days I wish I didn’t have to do this because being mommy is a job that takes up all my time. I’m grateful I have the ability to stay home with my kid and work, but it’s still not easy.
We have been given this blessing. My child deserves to be home with me and she deserves the best of me.
This year, I wanted to add structure to both of our lives. I was tired of just barely having my head above the water when it came to balancing a job, motherhood, homemaking, and a side business. There would be days where Daniel Tiger would be playing on the TV from 8:30 to 12. Total mom guilt. There were days we wouldn’t get outside. Major mom guilt.
I felt like I was failing. Can anyone else relate?
Before the new year began, I wrote down all my goals. It gave me clarity in order to start making changes. After a lot of contemplation, I made a simple but effective change.
This year I bought a planner for $20 instead of my normal $5. This particular planner is a daily time-blocking planner, which is not something I’ve ever used. (That is, unless we count the planners from school with a section for each period. And those planners I used off and on throughout the school year. In my school days I would sometimes write everything down on a piece of paper and be totally fine, but that was before, you know, mom brain.)
I typically buy planners as an afterthought and use them for about a week until I find them useless. This year I really contemplated it and put some thought into why it wasn’t working in the past years.
- I tried going digital, but the inability to see everything laid out in front of me left me lost and frazzled.
- Purchasing the wrong type of planner made using it useless.
- Not keeping the planner open on my desk caused me to forget I even had it.
We’re going into week four of “The Great Planner Experiment” and I’m loving it more and more.
Here are 5 ways a planner can improve your motherhood.
01. I can set priorities.
I don’t know about you, but I thrive on physically crossing items off my list. Most productivity coaches will say to write down three priorities to accomplish for the day. But I only focus on ONE. This post has the details on why and how I prioritize my days.
02. I block time for each activity.
I’ve been more effective in my day job by blocking time to work on tasks that are…not fun. I’ve been using my Apple Watch to set a timer. My toddler has come to understand that when the timer goes off we will do some sort of play, reading, or educational activity. This allows me to get those things in that I want to get in so I do not feel mom guilt by the end of the day.
03. Everything is in one place.
This may seem like a no-brainer but my appointments, meetings, and important dates are scattered. My work calendar is on Outlook, personal appointments are on iCal, and important dates are on Google Calendar. My planner is now my “hub” for everything so that I can everything right in front of me. I don’t have to wonder which place I put my dentist appointment because it should now be in my planner.
One disclaimer …I don’t take my planner everywhere, so if I’m at the dentist I will put the appointment in my phone to transfer to the planner. It’s my preference not to carry a big bag when I’ve already got a toddler and her bag to take around.
04. I write down my baby steps for my goals.
As I said before, I love crossing things off a list (seriously, who doesn’t?). I tend to get so busy that I forget to do little things to take care of myself. Things such as drink lots of water or eat breakfast, exercise…you know, little stuff like that. I’m more likely to do it if I can cross it off.
05. I am in control.
I am in charge of my day. When I at least make an outline of how I want my day to look, I feel completely in control. Knowing what comes next makes all the difference when I get thrown off because of unplanned events in my day job or the next adventure in parenting a toddler.
I totally agree!! I got a planner and it is amazing how much more in control I feel each day! I love being able to look and see what our week looks like!
Control is definitely my favorite part. It’s amazing how a week can get away from us without knowing it.
The mom guilt is soo real when trying to anything but give them our undivided attention! And, I completely agree with you on the power a planner can have on how you can feel in control staying home with kids. Just this year I invested in a planner, too. (It was a bit pricey, like $50, but totally worth it! I was like you and only ever bought the cheap $5 ones before, too.) It’s a total game changer being able to plan everything out hour by hour!
I can’t believe what a difference it makes to invest in a planner. Thanks for reading!
Love my planner at work! I do double duty with all my personal and work appointments in my phone calendar, but then I note all those in my planner at work too (since my job does not allow me to take my phone inside and it has to stay in the locker). It makes planning trades, picking up overtime, and even reminders that you have something personal planned super easy! “Sorry, can’t work for you that day, I’m going to Disneyland!”
That’s kind of nice being able to unplug for a while. And heck yes to Disneyland!
I’ve been so on and off with using my planner. I currently use a productivity planner, a regular planner, and the Google calendar, and I think that might be my problem. I’m using way too many!
That was totally my problem! I’d definitely recommend putting everything in one place to see how it goes!