5 tips for busy mums – how to find more time

Originally Posted 17 October 2014

Picture

I don’t have the time to … exercise, go running, do yoga etc. I hear this so much from pretty mum any mum I know including myself of course. So how do we find the time for ourselves? Or do we actually have time but just try to find excuses?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a working mum or a stay at home mum or not a mum at all – we all have 24 hours in a day. If you’re extremely lucky and your kids sleep through the night, you’ll be asleep for almost a third of this time and the rest… well you’re going to have to find a way to make time if you want to do something for yourself (which anyone around you will benefit from at the end of the day)!

In my case, as I’m still on maternity leave, I currently spend my day mainly with cleaning, cooking, entertaining the children, washing, ironing, food shopping and so on and so on… Obviously what I also want to do is practise yoga, read about yoga for my teacher training course and write my blog (and so on and so on).

That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Anyone who has little kids will agree with me, however, that everything just takes quite a bit longer than you think when you have little ones!

Let’s take leaving the house for example. Trying to dress a two-year-old who is more interested in playing with Peppa Pig in the playhouse than putting her shoes on (where are the shoes?), packing the changing bag (nappies for two, spare clothes, NEVER EVER leave without snacks, bottle, milk, keys, money, phone), how cold is it, do we need rain covers, sling and buggy or buggy and buggy-board?
And then when you’re just about to leave, the baby has done a massive poo and needs to be changed completely. You don’t want to leave pooey clothes lying around so you have to put the washing on. Then you finally leave the house (after a long discussion about why the baby has to be in the buggy and the toddler on the buggy board and not the other way round) and obviously forgot something important such as baby wipes or favourite cup.
And all of this just to go shopping which is a mission in itself when you’ve got a “helpful” toddler who wants to carry the shopping basket and randomly packs everything she finds on the shelves at her eye-level (which always seems to be butter and mascarpone). I am not complaining at all and I wouldn’t want it any other way but in the evenings I find it often very difficult to motivate myself at 8.30pm when the kids are finally asleep to do any kind of exercise or reading. The more I have to do, however, the more efficient I seem to get. I’m not saying I’ve got it all figured out (far from it) but here are my 5 tips of “how to find more time”:

1. Prioritise

I have realised that I simply can’t do everything everyday and that I have to choose. At the end of the day the decision is mine: do I want to watch Game of Thrones once the kids are in bed, get some sleep, clean the kitchen or practice a little bit of yoga? What do I get the most out of? If it’s cleaning the kitchen then fine! Yes I will have a nice clean kitchen but my back might also hurt because I haven’t done any exercise. If I go to bed early then I might not feel so tired in the morning (depending on the sleep thieves) but I will wake up having to tidy up the kitchen. If I watch Game of Thrones then I will be fully informed about any conspiracies going on in King’s Landing but that’s about it…

2. Find time pockets

I now actually try to spread things out throughout the day. The ideal situation is obviously when both kids sleep at the same time at lunch time which doesn’t happen very often! I try to wake up 30min before the kids (not always possible when one of the sleep thieves wakes up at 5am) to practice some pranayama (breathing exercise), I try to write my blog or practice yoga at lunch time when at least the toddler is sleeping and read my yoga philosophy books in the evenings. 20 minutes here and there makes a big difference! Even 10 minutes is better than nothing!

3. Don’t watch TV – it’s a time waster

I currently don’t allow myself to start watching series 4 of Game of Thrones because I won’t be able to concentrate on anything else!

4. Involve your kids in tasks

No, not to create little slaves of course but why not combining work and play! Toddlers love to sweep the floors or clean windows! They won’t really help of course but it keeps them busy while you do it properly. Let them “help” you cook and e.g. sort vegetables from one plate to the other. I don’t actually do this often enough as it’s quicker if I don’t involve them but it’s a fun activity for them which lets me get on with my tasks at the same time.

5. Be more efficient

We can’t magically add more time to our day but apart from prioritising we can be more efficient with our time. Multitasking during the day can be useful but I often find myself with half finished jobs which stresses me out. You can try move the “playground” to the room that you’re cleaning. I’ve also tried cleaning the bathroom while the kids were in the bath but got a bit worried about poisoning them with the cleaning product fumes so I now do it when they watch Peppa Pig after the bath (you watching TV is a waste of time but you can win some time when the kids are watching TV ;-))

Let me know if anyone has any other ideas! I’d love to hear them!

Mums' Days

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

  1. I waste so much time watching TV, it’s just like a black hole. The thing is i know once i start exercising i’ll get addicted to that instead, i need to break the habbit!

    Reply

    1. addicted to exercise might be better than addicted to TV but you’re right, it’s good to break the habit! I completely understand what you’re saying. I think I might have an addictive personality too as I tend to throw myself into things…

      Reply

  2. Going on internet and blogging related activities are my big black hole of time 😀 Otherwise just cuddling my little girl takes a lot of time in the day too, but that is much more worth it 🙂 It is tough though, I constantly struggle finding the time to do anything… #thelist

    Reply

    1. I wrote this post when I just started blogging so didn’t realise yet how much time social media takes up!! Cuddling the kids is quality time so that’s absolutely worth investing in 😉 x

      Reply

  3. Great tips! You know what they say…”You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce” Dang, that girl is efficient then!! You are so right though, priorities, ditch the TV (although the only thing I am watching is GoT!!) and also getting more sleep helped me reach a few of my health and fitness goals. It is difficult though, and the less sleep you get (thank you toddler) the less you feel like it!

    Thanks for linking up to #Thelist xx

    Reply

  5. Hey Christine. My tip is to eat with the kids at lunch. It will mean eating early – but mums are often up from the crack of dawn anyway so 11.30am seems like a good time for lunch! That way, if they do post-lunch naps, you’ve more time to spend on other stuff. Probably cleaning 🙁

    Reply

  6. Haha, loved your way to clean the bathroom 🙂 Some lovely tips here, I agree about no.4 and will definitely try no.5 !

    Reply
{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Get your Sample Yoga Sequence for Scoliosis!

Subscribe Now
__CONFIG_colors_palette__{"active_palette":0,"config":{"colors":{"30800":{"name":"Main Accent","parent":-1},"f2bba":{"name":"Main Light 10","parent":"30800"},"trewq":{"name":"Main Light 30","parent":"30800"},"frty6":{"name":"Main Light 45","parent":"30800"},"flktr":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"30800"}},"gradients":[]},"palettes":[{"name":"Default","value":{"colors":{"30800":{"val":"rgb(59, 136, 253)","hsl":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61}},"f2bba":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.1)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.1}},"trewq":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.3)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.3}},"frty6":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.45)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.45}},"flktr":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.8)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.8}}},"gradients":[]},"original":{"colors":{"30800":{"val":"rgb(59, 136, 253)","hsl":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61}},"f2bba":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.1)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.1}},"trewq":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.3)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.3}},"frty6":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.45)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.45}},"flktr":{"val":"rgba(59, 136, 253, 0.8)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":216,"s":0.98,"l":0.61,"a":0.8}}},"gradients":[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__