10 Productive Work-From-Home Routines for Busy Moms
Being a work-from-home mom is both a blessing and a challenge. You get the flexibility of working around your family’s schedule, but also face constant demands on your time and attention. Establishing productive routines is key to finding that elusive work-life balance. Here are 10 powerful work-from-home routines that can help busy moms maximize their productivity:
1. Wake Up Early
Embrace being an early riser. Use those precious quiet hours before the household wakes up to kickstart your workday. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish without interruptions.
Before my son was born, I was an early bird, and I loved these quiet moments. But for almost two years, I barely could wake up early because I was awake with him many times at night, and I felt no way that I would be able to leave the bed. And actually, many times when I could leave the bed, he woke up, and I had to hold his hand to help him sleep back.
So when I read suggestions like this on other webpages my blood just started to boil… and though what a f… But actually this is really a great help. When I have a chance to be awake alone a little and focus to my work or do my daily scripture reading in the morning and even meditate a little that makes the day much better. I am calmer and have more patience.
2. Create a Dedicated Workspace
Designate a specific room or corner as your home office space. Keep it organized, minimalistic and free from household clutter to help you stay focused during work hours.
I love that we have a home office. I am not a tidy person. My desk is full with notes and books that I try to read in the same time and gadges taht I use for other tasks. But the fact that we have a home office is a great help that I could set up my laptop and another monitor to work easier. Here I created a list of my favourite home office tools.
3. Prioritize and Plan
Start your day by prioritizing your tasks and creating a flexible schedule. Use productivity tools like Trello, Asana to map out your day and week effectively.
I like using notebooks and pen but in my virtual assistant projects we using a lot of different tools like Trello, Asana, Microsoft Team (That is funny because it was introduce me by a company who use only Apple thighs)., or even Zoho or Google apps.
My husband used for a while Freedom app and he loved it. He is that kind of guy who tries a lot of different apps all the time but what he mentioned he liked that he could block out everything that would disturb his focus. That can be useful when you as a mom work from home and you have limited time to finish your daily work.
4. Implement the Time Blocking Method
Batch similar tasks together by allocating specific time blocks for different types of work – creative tasks, administrative duties, meetings etc.
I read many management and motivational books and I know many about time management that were written by men. That is good, I know my husband learned a lot from these books but I really want to learn more how women do these time management business and stay focus while they have a lot of responsibilities.
So here is my list about focus and productivity at work:
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
by Nir Eyal (authored with Julie Li) This book provides strategies to combat distractions and develop the skill of being indistractable at work and in life. Julie Li co-authored it with Nir Eyal.
In this groundbreaking book, behaviour expert Nir Eyal teams up with writer Julie Li to reveal the hidden psychology driving why we get distracted and how to become indestructible. They provide a four-step model and hacks to help you regain control over your time, attention, and life choices.
Indistractable teaches you how to identify and overcome the root causes of your distractions instead of just hacking at their symptoms. You’ll discover how to manage internal triggers like boredom and anxiety that prompt you to pick up your phone, as well as external triggers like social media notifications that interrupt your day.
Packed with relatable stories and cutting-edge research, this book equips you with practical strategies to focus more intently, reduce distractions, and spend your time and energy on the pursuits that truly matter to you. Whether you’re a student, employee, or entrepreneur, becoming indistractable is the new skill to master for achieving your highest goals.
Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less
by Tiffany Dufu Tiffany Dufu advocates for women to reevaluate societal expectations and learn to unapologetically prioritize the skilled management of their time and energy.
In this empowering book, Tiffany Dufu, founder of The Cru, urges women to reevaluate the lofty expectations society places on them to “do it all” perfectly. Drawing from her own experiences as a struggling working mom, she makes a compelling case for why women need to actively “drop the ball” on certain tasks and responsibilities in order to devote quality time to their life’s priorities.
Drop the Ball outlines strategies for women to let go of the belief that they must excel at everything. Dufu shows how embracing imperfection allows women to re-energize and refocus on the skilled management of their limited time and energy. She provides frameworks for determining which obligations are worth prioritizing and which can be shed without guilt.
With refreshing candor and relatable anecdotes, this book helps women break free from the unrealistic pressures of modern life. By shedding superwoman myths, delegating tasks, and selectively dropping balls, women can flourish in both their careers and personal lives. Drop the Ball is a timely wake-up call for overworked and overwhelmed women to cultivate sustainable success on their own terms.
Boundary Boss: The Essential Guide to Talk True, Be Seen, and (Finally) Live Free
by Terri Cole This guides women to set healthy boundaries to maximize focus, ditch overwhelm, and devote quality time to meaningful work/life priorities.
In this practical guide, psychotherapist and boundary expert Terri Cole empowers women to set healthy boundaries in order to reclaim their time, energy and identity. Boundary Boss outlines strategies for communicating boundaries calmly and confidently in both personal and professional relationships.
Cole draws from her own experiences overcoming people-pleasing patterns to help readers recognize their boundaries being crossed. The book provides scripts, affirmations and action plans for women to start speaking up about their needs and limits without guilt or fear.
Whether dealing with an overbearing friend, controlling partner or demanding boss, Boundary Boss equips women with the tools to assert boundaries around physical and emotional space, money, time, and more. Readers learn how defining boundaries allows them to maximize focus on meaningful priorities.
With practical exercises, relatable stories and Terri’s humorous yet reassuring tone, this book helps women ditch overwhelm, increase self-care, and finally live life on their own terms by becoming “boundary bosses.”
Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness
by Rick Hanson, PhD (foreword by Sharon Salzberg) While not the sole author, Buddhist meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg contributes a foreword about cultivating resilience and focus.
In this insightful book, psychologist Rick Hanson, alongside a foreword by renowned meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, reveals how to develop the 12 vital inner strengths needed to overcome life’s inevitable hardships and difficulties.
Resilient combines proven-effective techniques from ancient wisdom traditions and modern neuroscience to grow your capacity for coping with stress and recovering quickly from setbacks. You’ll learn powerful practices to build up your core resilience, including cultivating gratitude, compassion, mindfulness, grit, self-reliance and calm.
With warm, relatable anecdotes and easy-to-understand explanations of complex concepts, Hanson and Salzberg provide a rich roadmap for developing unshakable inner resilience. This allows you to face life’s challenges with more ease, focus and happiness.
Whether dealing with trauma, loss, relationship woes or work stresses, the tools in Resilient can help anyone develop lasting psychological strengths to not just make it through tough times, but emerge from them stronger and wiser.
The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work by Christine Carter,
PhD This blends personal stories with science-based strategies for working smarter, enhancing focus, and creating work+life “sweet spots.”
Do you constantly feel stretched thin, scrambling between the competing demands of work and family life? In The Sweet Spot, Christine Carter draws from the latest scientific research to show how you can achieve your optimal work+life fit and unlock your highest potential.
Carter blends moving personal stories, cutting-edge findings from biology and psychology, and practical expert advice to help you pinpoint your personal “sweet spot” – the optimal balance of activities and commitments that make you feel energized and content.
The book provides powerful strategies for increasing focus and productivity, managing technology distractions, overcoming guilt, setting priorities, and finding pockets of leisure amidst the busyness. You’ll learn how to tune into your body’s cycles and rhythms to maximize your energy and efficiency.
With actionable exercises, checklists, and real-life examples, The Sweet Spot equips you to confidently make choices that align with your values and allow you to thrive in all spheres of life. Find the right groove to experience more joy, better health, and richer relationships.
5. Take Breaks to Recharge
Working from home makes it easy to stay glued to your desk all day. Build in short breaks every 60-90 minutes to stretch, rehydrate and re-energize yourself. A quick walk outside can work wonders.
When my son is at home with me the only time I can work is when he is sleeping. So I use the mornings to go out with him to the playground and have a lot of fun together. When is time for me to start to work I like starting it with a little scripture time to refill my soul before I start to work.
When you read a suggestion to take a break to recharge you need to adapt it to your current situation. I cannot take a 60-90 mins break because that is basically almost my working time in daily time.
But I also need to refill my energy tank, my emotional tank and my will power tank so I need to make sure that beside the work I take care of myself.
6. Eliminate Distractions
Social media, the TV, household chores – identify and minimize things that pull your focus away from work. Use website blockers or disable notifications when you need undisturbed focus time.
Okay, I don’t know how you manage your things but I am that kind of person who read an email and if it is interesting I open the website that it was suggested and just leave there and go to the next email. So when I finish to clean up my email box my screen is messy because I opened a tone of websites.
Yee, I know it is crazy. But when I realize what would happen next, I don’t do this, instead of I close everything. I save the websites to a note to check them later and close up all the open pages. In this way I open up only the sites that I really need and I really want to work with.
To be honest, I was struggling with social media addiction for years. To solve this situation I deleted all of teh social media apps from my phone and logged out from my computer so if I want to check anything I need to log in, because it is not automated anymore. It helped me to be farther from it, and use it only when I really want to post something, or go into one of the community groups and be part of the online events.
7. Batch Household Tasks
Don’t let home responsibilities like laundry or meal prep take up your whole day. Dedicate specific time slots to batch these chores instead of multi-tasking them with work.
I wrote an article about this earlier (Simplifying Meal Planning: The Post-It Menu System Revolution). The post-it method helped us to save a lot of time to prepare our menu. Now that our son is tall enough to reach the post-its he helps us to create the weekly menu together.
8. Involve Your Kids (When Possible)
If you have older kids, involve them in small age-appropriate chores or activities that give you pockets of distraction-free work time.
My son when I am writing this article is 2 years old. But he already helps us basically with everything. He loves washing the pots, putting the clothes to the washing mashine and take them out when they are ready, and put the clothes to the clothes horse to dry; set up the table, put the table maths on it, put the cutlery; brush and mob the floor. Even he loves the vacuum cleaner, so we do it that together also.
Don’t be afraid to involve your kids from early ages to every tasks you do at home because in this way it will be automatic for them to do it by themself.
9. Capitalize on Your Peak Hours
Figure out the hours when you’re most productive and energetic. Prioritize your most challenging tasks during these peak times for optimum efficiency.
This is a challenging point when you have small kids, and your time is limited. It can happen that your most effective hours would be when you are with your kids and not when you have time to sit down to work.
But the second best is still good. So be aware of your effectiveness. I like working at night or early morning when everybody is sleeping. I like the mornings for training and scripture reading, to fill up my tanks with energy.
I like working at night when I know nobody will wake up to disturb my focus.
Find your best time and go with it.
10. End Your Day With a Routine
Just as a morning routine anchors your day for productivity, an evening routine helps you unwind, spend quality time with family and mentally disengage from work until the next day.
I like study. Right now I am in the process to improve my Spanish. I have two learning app but it was super hard to stick with them. But when I started to put them in priority I always make sure before I go to sleep that I made the daily assignments and have that day’s steak.
These are only takes 5-10 mins but in a long term they are adding together.
Another one is my sleeping affirmation. I have a few mediation and affirmation mp3 that I listen before I go to sleep. These are good because I can fall asleep while I am listening them and not require to be awake.
Implementing these 10 productive work-from-home routines can help busy moms like you maximize their time and energy. Always remember that consistency is key – it may take a few weeks to form new habits, but sticking to your routines will pay off immensely. Here’s to more focused and fulfilling work-from-home days!