If you have raised little kids, you are familiar with the struggle to be productive as a stay at home mom. I had productivity pretty well mastered, then I became a mom.

The laundry seems endless, for some reason the kids need to be fed AGAIN, and any free moment you have it's tempting to lay on the couch and scroll through social media before someone inevitably screams, "MOMMM!!"

Although you're home all day as a stay at home mom, I've found it harder to keep a clean house than when I was working full-time. Here's an excerpt from a typical day in the glamorous life-

Feed baby. Make breakfast. Toddler who is learning how to not spill his food ends up spilling all over the floor. Clean toddler off. Put "hose in kitchen" on hubby's to-do list. Start eating my cold breakfast. Get interrupted by toddler who needs help. Time to feed baby. Clean up toddlers mess at table. Meanwhile , toddler has made 5 other messes...

You get the picture. I'd bet you're thinking, u h huh. Yep. Same here.

While I can't get your toddler to stop making messes, I can share a few pieces of productivity advice I've received and put into practice since becoming a stay at home mom!

➡️ Read:

In his book, Make Your Bed , Admiral William H. McRaven encourages beginning your day with a task completed by making your bed. When you hop into your bed at night, you can reminded that if nothing else, you did one thing well- made your bed.

Don’t underestimate the power of small habits. It’s the small changes in our life that are the sum total of all the decisions we’ve ever made.

Start small, start by making your bed.

You don’t need to get dressed up by any means, but you need to get out of your PJ’s. This will signal to your brain that it is time to get going with the day.

You’ll find that the longer you stay in your PJ’s, the longer you procrastinate. Plus, we all know how easy it is when you’re in your comfy clothes to just crawl back into bed when the kids are napping. Sometimes, this is needed! However, don’t make it a recurring habit if you don’t have a newborn and you are getting enough sleep at night.

Keep a basket around during the day, collecting items that are in rooms they don’t belong. This is an especially great tip if you have a home with more than one floor. Keep your basket by the stairs, and every so often put items back to their respective floor. My basket is almost always filled with TOYS! We are working on downsizing our toy collection ;)

Set a timer for 5-15 minutes throughout the day and speed clean. Once the timer goes off, move onto the next item on your to-do list. I don’t know about you, but once I start cleaning, I can sidetracked with all sorts of mini side projects.

I preach the motivating nature of keeping visual reminders to track progress. If you want to be more productive and break bad habits, use a habit tracker! This will help you GET IT ALL DONE. As a stay at home mom, I struggle will staying self-motivated. A visual reminder, like this habit tracking sheet, is what you need to be self-motivated!

If you commit to meal planning your meals once a week, every two weeks, or once a month (if you’re super ambitious), you will change your LIFE.

I know that sounds dramatic. However, I was once a newlywed with no idea what she was doing. I wouldn’t even start thinking about what we were having for dinner until 3 or 4pm every night. As a result, I’d end up scrolling Pinterest for 10 minutes, going to the store for the couple ingredients I didn’t have, and slapping together a meal. Multiple times a week. I could’ve saved so much time if I would have planned my meals!

Since I blog part-time while my kids are napping (I don’t want to take away from the reason I became a stay at home mom), I don’t have much time for meal planning. Because of this, I use a meal planning service called $5 meal plan.

It costs a whopping $5/month, and every meal is designed to cost under $2/person.

This service is TIME friendly and BUDGET friendly! Double whammy!

Whether you work full-time, part-time, or don’t work at all, this meal planning service is a huge asset to moms with a full plate.

You can try it free for 14 days here and instantly get your meal plan for the week. Additionally, you’ll be sent a grocery list organized by ingredient and store section.

If you have special dietary needs in your family, they have gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, paleo, and keto meals as well.

Y’all… it’s the best. I love it, and I’ve been using it for over 2 years now!

⭐️ Other meal prep/grocery hacks:

Online grocery pickup is a life-saver for busy moms with little kids . Let’s be honest, it can take 10 minutes just to get the kids from the car to the store. It’s a blessing to be able to shop from the comfort of your home, and pickup without having to unload the kids!

Another bonus is that you don’t have to spend half the time in the store trying to not act like a crazy mom because your kids want to touch, lick, and buy everything ;)

One word of caution, be sure to stick to your grocery budget when shopping this way! Online shopping though convenient, removes the cause-effect nature of the transaction in our brain. Because we are not physically handing over money, it’s easier to spend.

Be very careful and watch your spending patterns when grocery shopping online!

Between kids sports schedules, school programs, volunteer opportunities, and other events, most families have a few nights per week that are hectic. You bustle from one place to the next, and by the time you get home it’s dinnertime.

Instead of taking time to prep a full meal, keep a freezer meal stash! I do this by simply making double batches a few times per week of whatever meal I’m making.

For instance, If I have tuna noodle casserole one night, I double the recipe and freeze one for later! You have all the ingredients out anyway, just double the recipe and freeze in a disposable pan for later. You’re welcome 

It’s tempting to scroll through your social media while dinner is cooking. Instead, start cleaning dishes as you use them. This means less time cleaning up after dinner, and you’re multi-tasking in an effective way. When multi-tasking, you want to pair tasks that don’t require a lot of brainpower together. Otherwise, multi-tasking is ineffective.

Make yourself work to waste time on your phone. During the day, I try to keep my phone in our bedroom. This way, if I want to scroll instead of getting things done, I have to get up, put down what I’m doing, and walk to the bedroom. While that’s not a HUGE feat by any means, you’ll be surprised how this simple, small change will deter your bad habits.

After making your bed, throw a load of laundry in. This way, you don’t have to try and find a break somewhere while caring for the kiddo’s to start it. This is another item to check off your list and give you a small win. It’s the same concept with using the debt snowball to pay off debt. You pay off the smallest debts first so you get an easy-win and stay motivated!

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by cleaning, especially with you’re in the house with messy kids all day! I focus on one area of the house per day.

I have my daily tasks, such as wiping down the counters, steam mopping, putting dishes away, etc. I do my daily tasks, and then when I have 5-10 minutes to spare, I focus on the one area. If that are is the kitchen, for example, the cleaning jobs in addition to daily tasks might include:

By grouping tasks by area, you can keep your house on a consistent cleaning schedule!

Most people have the most mental capacity in the morning, an optimal time to complete tasks that require more brain power.

Save tasks that require less thinking for later in the day. I reconcile our checking account, pay bills, and fold laundry in the evenings. By this time my mental and physical energy is running low. By batching these tasks later in the day, I avoid overwhelm!