This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Reckitt Benckiser. The opinions and text are all mine.
As a stay at home mom for the last ten years, I have learned some basic time management habits for getting more done from start to Finish®.
Have you been here: At about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, panic hits. The husband will be home soon and yet you feel like you have nothing accomplished. The house is still a wreck. You have yet to think about dinner. Dishes are piled high in the sink. Baskets of laundry wait to be folded.
But… if you have done nothing all day, why are you so exhausted?
I can testify that time quickly slips away when you are a stay at home mom. Children beckon for this and that. The phone rings at the most inconvenient times. Not to mention all the things you do that never make it on a to-do list like making lemonade, tying shoes (over and over), feeding the pets, and wiping spots from dishes.
We need to spend our time with focus and do the things that are most valuable first. These tiny chores and obstacles are time leeches and all we really want to do is Finish®.
A Valuable System for the Stay at Home Mom
Creating a system for focusing your time each day will help you get more done. Value is not just an indicator of price. No. Value is the ability to balance more, the intersection where saving time and saving money meet, but when you can have both, GRAB IT.
Over the past ten years, I have used this five-step process for finding the value in my day and gaining more control of my time.
I believe if you make these changes, you will #SeetheDifference too.
1. Brain-dump before bed.
Settling down in bed each night is a prime time for the stay at home mom’s brain to rattle off the unlimited list of things she either didn’t accomplish or all the chores she needs to get done the next day.
Having this long tally of stress pressing on your mind will rob your of the valuable night of sleep you desperately need. Get rid of that list by dumping everything out of your brain and onto a notepad that you keep beside the bed.
2. Narrow your daily to-do list.
If your list of things that needs to be done as a stay at home mom looks anything like mine, it is a never ending nightmare. You cross one off only to remember three that you didn’t write down.
Instead of having an outrageous inventory of tasks, narrow your to-do list to just three items each morning. Which items will make you feel the most value? Which three items must be finished? JUST THREE. And do not add anything until those three items are completed.
3. Tackle what you hate first.
I really do not mind cooking. I kind of like it. But the dishes… that is a completely different story. I know that if I do not tackle that pile of dirty dishes first thing in the morning, they will sit there all day long.
While I use Finish® Max-in-One to scrub-away dried-on leftovers, resulting from my neglect of the inevitable, I still have to force myself to get the chore that I hate accomplished at the beginning of my day.
Finish® gives you an amazing clean and shine – which means you’ll never have to re-wash your dishes ever again. Just imagine what you could do with all that extra time!
Of course, an amazing thing happens when I unload and reload the dishwasher in the morning… I get to look into a clean sink all day long and feel a great sense of pride that speaks to me, “I have added value to my family. I got something finished today.”
4. Work smarter, not harder.
Sometimes, we make choices that create even more work for ourselves, like trying to divide our shopping between several stores instead of making one stop at Walmart.
With their price-matching policy, you can save time (and gasoline) by visiting Walmart. Plus, you can save even more by using Ibotta, a rebate app that pays you cash back on products you purchase like Finish® dishwasher detergent and Jet Dry® rinsing aid:
- $1.00 off Finish® Max-in-One 23ct and higher (automatic dish detergent)
- $1.00 off Finish® Jet Dry® 8.45oz (rinse aid)
- Bonus offer: If you buy any Finish® Detergent (23ct and larger) AND Finish® Jet Dry®, you’ll get an additional $1.00
Check this out…
I purchased Finish® Max-in-One 23ct for $4.93 and Finish® Jet Dry® 8.45oz for $2.96 at Walmart.
That’s a subtotal of $7.89, which is an amazing value for two products that work harder in my dishwasher so I don’t have to, but I was not finished yet because I used the three Ibotta offers to save an additional $3…
Making my total only $4.89 for both!
<<Learn more about the Finish® Detergent AND Finish® Jet Dry® Ibotta offer.>>
5. Recruit helpers.
As your children grow, train them to be self-sufficienct but also to be helpful. Having your kids do simple chores like unloading the dishwasher can cut your workload in half and it trains them in responsibility.
<<Get to the Finish® faster with team chore charts.>>
Realize that your children can probably do more than you think and make a list of possible chores for kids like feeding the pets, wiping the table, dusting surfaces, and more. Every time you delegate a task to someone else, you save yourself time, leaving room for more value in your day… like snuggling with those hard-working kids and watching a movie.
Share how you find value
As a stay at home mom, how do you find value in your day? What time management tips can you offer to help other moms? Please leave a comment.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Reckitt Benckiser. The opinions and text are all mine.
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