13 useful productivity tips from a work-at-home mom

Why be a work-at-home mom?

Being a work-at-home mom is wonderful.

You get to spend a lot more time with your kids. They see what working life looks like. They see their supermom being so much more than a mom. There are lots of good things to say about being a work-at-home mom.

It’s also quite difficult to find a way to be productive and also be present for the kids. Balancing work and family is not easy.

I’m a work-at-home mom of two small kids. I have an amazing employer that has let me work from home as much as I want even before the pandemic. I’ve chosen to do both: work from home and at the office.

I want to spend as much meaningful time with my kids as possible and I love my job and want to do it well.

After a couple of years of trying different ways to be both productive and present, I’ve found what works best for me.

Now, I wake up before my kids do. I work in my home office or go to the university’s office until noon. And after, I’m home and completely available for the family. I also work at home during nap/quiet time and after the kids are in bed. The rest of the time, I enjoy staying at home with my kids.

I’ve put a lot of thought into my system, and I have some productivity tips for other work-at-home moms that I’ve learned along the way.

1. Multitask the small things

If you’re a work-at-home mom, you’re the expert at multitasking and finding productive things to do in your little chunks of free time.

Use multitasking as a way to free up your time to work.

I do things like meal prep while I cook dinner, or make a grocery list while I’m on hold on a phone call. I know multitasking is not the way to go for things that require more brainpower, though.

Many times my job requires my full attention and all of my brainpower. Eight times half an hour does not equal one time four hours. I need as much time as possible in one go. So when I do sit to work, I do one difficult task that I can not split.

2. If it takes one minute, do it now

I know it’s very satisfying to cross things off a pretty to-do list.

Have you ever felt like your mind has so much clutter that you can’t focus on anything?

Sometimes just thinking about this little thing takes up more mental space than doing it.

So instead of writing call my mom for this dinner recipe in your to-do list, just do it. It takes one second. If it’s not a good time to call, send her a message.

Another way to take something off your mind is to set a reminder in your Google Calendar as soon as you get a deadline. When you get the notification saying that the deadline is today, you will find a moment to do it. Use this tip at your own risk.

3. Value your time for what it’s worth

Sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to save some time or money by being more organized, having prettier planners… and we do this because we think it’s productive. However, your time is worth some money too.

Some years ago I came across a calculator that told me how much money my free time was worth. I don’t know how much it was, but the idea that my time is worth money has stuck.

Think of your current hourly salary or potential hourly salary based on your skills, or minimum hourly salary where you live. An hour of your free time should cost something around those numbers.

So I don’t want to spend a lot of my time looking for a good sale. If I see a good sale, I’ll happily take advantage of it. But I’m not going to spend a lot of time looking. Half an hour of my time is worth more than the money I would be saving.

There are things, services, and even software that you can buy to save you time. Your time is worth money. So if you can, spend money to buy you time.

Also, say NO and don’t feel guilty about it.

4. Outsource

This one comes together with valuing your time, and here is where I should take my own advice, but here it goes: pay someone to do the things that you don’t have time to do.

If you are lucky enough and can afford it, pay for the things that are not worthy of your time, that you just hate doing, or simply someone else can do so much better than you.

5. Wear different hats at different times

We’re all a lot of things. I’m a work-at-home mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a scientist, a student, a blogger. We can’t be all of those at the same time. Or even every day.

If I’m with my kids, I want to be present. I don’t want to think about work. If I’m at work, I don’t want to think about kid-related things.

I make personal calls to friends and extended family on my way to work, or on my coffee break, but not in the middle of my work time. Nor while I’m trying to spend a good time with my family.

Find out what hats you wear. Realize what your priorities are and be mindful of what hats you’re wearing at what times. For example, I wear my mommy hat every day and only take it off during those morning hours where my kids stay with my husband. On the weekend, I wear the mommy and wife hats.

Also, you don’t have to wear every hat every day. You can wear your daughter hat on even days and your friend hat on odd days.

6. Spend quality time with your kids

When your work and private life are not clearly separated in time and space it’s easy to use every free minute thinking about work and your to-do list. But the reason you decided to be a work-at-home mom is probably so that you can spend more time with your kids, isn’t it?

They’ll value the memories of all the special times you made for them so much more than they’ll value all those days that you were at home but a little distracted.

That’s not to say that it isn’t important for them to understand that mom has to work and can’t always be spending time with them. But isn’t half an hour being present so much better than two hours of being half elsewhere?

7. Set SMART goals

To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time limited

So instead of setting the goal to eat healthier and exercise more, say “I won’t eat out more than one time a week, and I will exercise three times a week”.

If your goal is a big complicated one, divide it into months and make sure you meet each monthly goal, make it a personal deadline.

Otherwise, you will find yourself procrastinating.

You’ll be doing a lot of things and using a lot of your energy but you won’t be reaching the goals that you set. Or you’ll spend way more time than you should on unimportant little things.

8. Use your prime time for the most difficult things

The only way I can make sure I work out regularly is if I do it very early in the morning when I’m ready to do about anything you throw my way.

I can’t find the energy to work out after working and mommying all day. When the kids go to bed I’m usually too tired to do anything. The only exception is when I have a deadline. Otherwise, I either go to bed myself or do something mindless that I enjoy like cooking, drawing, watching a show…

9. Things don’t have to be perfect

I hope none of my colleagues or students see this because mathematics is perfect by definition. If your argument is not perfect, it’s not worth anything.

Nothing else has to be perfect.

Your kids don’t have to eat homemade meals made from scratch every single time. There are great healthy foods that are made for you at the store. This post will not be perfect, but I’ll post it and hope it helps someone.

You can’t do it all perfectly all the time. Do your best and don’t spend energy feeling bad about the things you didn’t manage this time. You are amazing. Just do your best again next time.

My father once said to me that there are important things in life and everything else doesn’t matter at all. He doesn’t remember, but I took his advice very seriously.

Are you being kind to your kids? Do they know how much you love them? Are they safe? Great, then don’t let yourself feel guilty about the chicken nuggets. They’ll eat a better dinner when you have the energy to make it.

10. Plan your days

Plan your days with a board and sticky notes! It’s the best way. As a work-at-home mom, I have a lot of different responsibilities all mixed in the same space and time. Having this flexible system with different colors and priorities helps me keep the focus.

Here is how I plan my week:

Blue is for mathematics, pink for the blog, orange for family activities, and yellow for housework.

• Add apointments, meetings and deadlines with chalk.
• Add my working at the university hours for the week with chalk.
• Make room for the difficult things.
• Add small activities with my kids every afternoon.
• Divide blog tasks in tasks that take less than an hour and spread them around.
• Make a list of little things to keep in mind.

11. Let your kids work with you

I don’t know of any small children that don’t love to help and work as their parents do. They enjoy the trust you put in their abilities and good disposition.

Here are some ideas of things they can do and toys they can play with that will make them feel like they’re working with you while you are working at home with your kids:

• Coloring
• Tracing letters and numbers
• Solving mazes and puzzles
• Playing with a busy board
• Painting
• Anything with Play Doh
• Giving their toy animals a bath
• Cutting colorful papers into little pieces
• Taking pictures of things that start with an “A”

12. Have a designated functional space for work if you can

Sorry if this is obvious to you, but I didn’t create a space for me to work until recently and I wish I had done it earlier.

Now I have my desk, which is always messy, as it should. The papers I’m reading at the moment are on my desk, not in folders. My own messy calculations on paper are also laying around. It’s like this way I keep my mind in that space, and when I’m back at my desk I can remember what I was doing, and I can go straight to work.

13. Be a salmon

Hear me out. Is laying your eggs up the river the obvious choice? No. Is it the best choice for salmons? Yes. Salmons are badass. All the other little fish be laying their eggs in the ocean and here come salmons with their crazy ways.

If you pay attention, you’ll see that we make a lot of choices based on what everybody else does, and they may not be the best choices.

This last year I’ve been making a conscious effort to make choices based on what I want and need. And I’ve changed some big and little things about my life for the better.

I put my sunscreen in my car because, otherwise, I will forget. I sometimes go to bed in my workout clothes for the day after. No one is going to stop me. I wouldn’t call my boss while I am in the bathtub, but you may want to do that. I’m not going to stop you.

These examples are silly but extend that to other things that are important in life and you’ll see how everything falls into place.

Do you enjoy being a work-at-home mom? Do you have other tips for any other work-at-home mom to balance family and work and be more productive? Please share them! 😊