Productivity Hacks for Mothers?

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Can productivity hacks really work for stay-at-home-mothers? Or are they ore applicable only for working men and women with no childcare responsibilities?

And yet, it is mothers who desperately need the productivity hacks! Stay-at-home-moms, work-at-home-moms, work-out-of-home-moms. All mothers, period. But do the productivity hacks offered out there work for us?

Time Blocking

Read any productivity book, browse any productivity blog or listen to any productivity podcast and you’ll see a common theme Whenever these experts talk about the best hack they have found to improve their personal productivity levels. I am referring to Time Blocking. Below is a sample from Just a Girl and Her Blog.

Hey, Donna provides a variation of the same theme over at her blog. Or you could just ask Mr Google for recommendations 🙂

But what is time blocking? Simply put, it is blocking out a chunk of time to do dedicated, uninterrupted work. This chunk of time can just be 30 minutes or 2 hours but it is to be uninterrupted so that you can work on that one task single-mindedly before proceeding to the next task at hand. Yes, I can hear you moms sniggering already. That was my reaction too when I first read of it. But bear with me for a little while.

Multitasking

It is now confirmed by multiple studies* that multitasking isn’t really multi-tasking. That the brain isn’t really able to do multiple things at the same time. Instead, what we have been calling multitasking is actually the brain switching from one task to another at such a fast speed that it appears that the person is doing multiple things at the same time. However, as we age and/or as the tasks get more complicated or require more brain power, this constantly toggling of our brains amongst the various tasks at hand gets slower and slower. And sometimes, more mistakes and even accidents would occur. We would actually be more productive if we would just focus and work on one task at a time. Who knew?

But…

Tell that to a mother of many littles or a teenager for that matter 😀

Toggling

Multitasking or being able to toggle between different tasks was what allowed me to thrive when the children were much younger. I had to toggle between teaching and cooking and dealing with sibling squabbles. Even breastfeeding couldn’t be done in peace. Remember the cartoon below I shared on our Facebook page during World Breastfeeding Week? Yeah, that was me multiple times over!

Can Time Blocking Work for Moms?

So, can this productivity hack work for mothers? Especially stay-at-home-moms of young children? Or those with no help at home?

(a) Mothers with older children

At this stage of my life (my oldest is 18 and my youngest is 7) I do have this luxury of being able to carve out some uninterrupted and quiet (relatively) time in the day. And if I force it through with lots of planning beforehand, I probably could carve out one whole day or even two, of uninterrupted time. But there is a price to pay, of course. There needs to be lots and lots of planning (and cooking) ahead. Which is why, unless the occasion which calls for it is extremely important, I just won’t do it. Why? Because after all that planning (and cooking!) I would be totally exhausted and unable to do my uninterrupted work anyway!

But, I digress. 😉

Time blocking for me in this season of life

I do get an hour or an hour and a half of uninterrupted and quiet time early in the morning before anyone is awake if I can haul my tired body up by 5am. And I get about another hour in the evening, after dinner and washing up. But that evening slot of time isn’t quiet.

So I am able to get about 2 hours a day of uninterrupted time if I plan my day well and am disciplined to get up when the alarm goes off. Those are the times I spend time with God, and work on my blog. But if I wake up late, or have evening activities, then those slots are gone. Despite not having babies or toddlers in the house, there are still no uninterrupted slots of time during the day. And definitely no quiet. This is the reality of being part of a large homeschooling family living in a HDB flat.

The lack of uninterrupted time and quiet is largely because we have chosen to homeschool. If I sent the children off to school, I would have at least the whole morning to myself. But with homeschooling, the children are with me all day. And if not all the 7 children, at least the 3 younger ones. They all need to be fed 3 times a day – the audacity of that, huh? 😛 And they need to be reminded to finish up their schoolwork and chores.

For those of you with older children or children who go to school for 3 hours or more, this is a fantastic time block to work on what you need to work on uninterrupted. If you are at this stage of time where you can afford the luxury of uninterrupted time, do share what you do in this time!

(b) Mothers with younger children

But if you are in the baby and toddler stage, even if you have older children to help you, can time blocking work? Is there even time to be blocked out???

My immediate response was “no”. But after thinking back, the answer is, actually, “yes”.

How?

Let me share with you my experience and see if you can improve upon it or use it as is.

Use naps and bedtimes as time blocks

When my children were much younger, I depended on naps and early bedtimes. Those were my scheduled time blocks. Of course, back then I did not know that that was time blocking! But looking back, that was what those slots were.

All our children were put on a routine from Day 1 so that I knew when nap and bed times were, approximately of course. I put those nap and bed times to very productive use indeed since that was the only time I got any uninterrupted work done.

Yes, I know babies and toddlers are highly unpredictable. So I always had Plan B in mind (which usually is to abandon all plans!) and learn to work in short snatches of time. And more importantly, learn to work FAST, really fast!

Actually, I think I was more productive then. I had to be since I had only that much time from a baby’s nap – especially those pesky babies who like to catnap!

Planning Required

In order for the time blocks to work and not to waste it, I had to plan. I needed to focus. So sometime during the day I would list down the things I had to do. And decide how long each item would take. And at which time block I could do it in. I had to prioritise. Cook or take a nap? Mark school work or wash the toilet?

What I Did During My Time Blocks

When I had very young children, the main focus of time blocks was meal prep and certain household chores that couldn’t be done when the baby is awake, like ironing and any meal prep. When we started homeschooling, my focus was on teaching and planning.

An example: when baby still took 2 naps a day, food prep was always done during the baby’s morning nap. This was so that I could take a short power nap during the baby’s afternoon nap which was badly needed since night sleep was always broken and interrupted. Then I would do other household chores that cannot be done when the baby is awake.

I worked fast. The moment I put the baby into the cot to sleep and shut the door, I rushed around like a mad woman getting all sorts of things done. When the baby dropped his/her nap, things would have to be rearranged.

The toddler/older children were required to rest in their rooms/beds or read quietly during baby’s afternoon nap. This way, I could work faster without tripping over them or shushing them.

Work With What You Have

What if you have a non-napping child or older children who demand your attention? Well, you just have to work with what you have and, you have to teach your children to learn to occupy themselves.

READ: Teach your children to play on their own and Helpful Tip #9

Let me share with you an example of how I made it work for me with regards to school planning. School planning was especially hard. Because I need BOTH quiet AND uninterrupted time. And I needed it to be in a long stretch, not 30 minutes but at least a solid hour.

This was the usual scenario when I tried school planning utilising nap times : by the time I laid out all the books I wanted to use for ONE child, and organised them, the baby would already be awake! So I would have to pack them all up. Or, I would be in the midst of getting into the rhythm of things and the baby would bawl. Again, that would be the end of it.

It was frustrating.

Don’t Be Envious

For the longest time, I envied those mothers who could get a weekend off or even a day wholly to themselves to sit and plan. Actually, I sometimes still do! But it is what it is. That is an unproductive feeling! Instead, I learnt to figure out how to make it work for me and my family.

The most productive thing for me to do was to work on it after the children had gone to bed. This is where the institution of early bedtimes for the children was a huge blessing. Once they were in bed by 8-8:30pm, I would swing into full action mode. And I would stay up a few nights to get it done. I have had to go nurse the baby back to sleep and then continued with the planning till I was done. But it got done.

Can Time Blocking Work as a Productivity Hack for Mothers?

Yes!!!

Yes, time blocking can work for mothers even though at first it seems a ridiculous idea. We just nee tod adjust our expectations of being able to have a 2-hour uninterrupted chunk of time throughout the day and think of 30 minutes blocks instead. And be realistic in estimating what can be done in that 30 minutes. We could also negotiate with our husbands or the children’s grandparents to watch the children for a period of time while we do what needs to be done. Even if we can’t get it done daily, I am sure we can set aside at least once time block once a week.

Use the time block wisely. We can use it to re-charge ourselves (read, take a nap, get on social media) or use it to get other work done (housework, checking on schoolwork, pay the bills, planning). Be intentional about the usage of this precious block of time and we can stop feeling like we are running around like headless chickens.

Your Turn!

How has it been for you? How do you handle being constantly interrupted when you need to do focused work? Do you think time blocking can help you? And if you are a working mom, whether in the home or out of the home, can time blocking be helpful too?

And lastly, do have any other productivity tools or tips that helped you, or is helping you in your calling as a mother? Share with us! Next week I share a few tips and tools that have helped me.

Related Posts

Setting Up Routines to Beat the Overwhelm
Do the Brain Dump and Get Out of the Overwhelmed Zone

External Links

Here are a few articles explaining why multi-tasking is a myth and how it actually undermines productivity, not improve it.

• Multitasking damages your brains and career
• Why multitasking doesn’t work
• Why multitasking is more than just inefficient
• The true cost of multitasking

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