7 Work-From-Home Mom Routine Tips

Today, I have 7 Work-From-Home Mom Routine Tips for you to help supercharge efficiency in your work-from-home routine, as well as calm the chaos around the home and even carve out a little bit of time for yourself so that you can recharge and reset and be more efficient in your week.

Stick around to the end because I saved the most effective tip that I found for last.

This post contains affiliate links for which I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

7 Work-From-Home Mom Routine Tips

Tip 1, The Now vs Later List

The first tip that I have for you is one I learned from a therapist I had a few years ago; she was also a large family mom and she worked—she actually worked outside the home, but this tip is perfect for all of us.

It’s to have a to-do now list and a to-do later list. So the way this looks for me is in my planner, I have one page that has the things that can kind of be done any time throughout the week, and then on the other page right across from it, I have a list of things that need to be done on a specific day, and I’ll put a time with it if it has to be done at a specific time. This helps to streamline the priorities.

Tip 2, Phone vs Text

The second tip that I have for you is one that I actually learned from a hairdresser I used to have. She worked from home and she never answered her phone; she only responded to texts.

Many people have a tendency to want to answer the phone every single time it rings or feel like they need to answer it, and there are some work-from-home jobs where you would have to do that. However, if it’s not work-related, you can field all communications to text. This does two things: the first one is it helps protect your time; it helps you to keep from getting swept up into long conversations during a workday and losing an hour and then not being able to get your rhythm back.

The second thing that it does is if somebody is asking something (like a question, favor, or something like that) it gives you some time to think about when you really can fit their request in and if you can fit their request in.

Sometimes it’s hard for friends and family members to understand that just because you’re home doesn’t mean you have time for XYZ. They don’t seem to understand sometimes that when you’re working from home, it means you’re working.

A lot of times people think, “Oh, I will call her and see if I can just drop in, it should be fine because she’s home.” So, fielding communications through text gives you time to respond and either say, “Yeah, no, I can’t today; I’m sorry,” and then you can give them an alternative day for whatever it is that they are wanting to either come see you or have you.

Tip 3, Structure & Streamline

The third tip I have is to have days of the week and parts of the day for certain activities. Sometimes it’s a little too easy to be unstructured with our time since we are home, but I find that having parts of the day for certain activities and days of the week for certain activities helps increase productivity.

The two biggest activities that we like to tackle on certain days of the week are a kitchen day and a cleaning day. On cleaning day, we like to go through the house as a team; if your children aren’t old enough to help yet, it’s just going to be you. If they are old enough to help, I have videos with cleaning tips for when you have kids. I will embed them below.

The kitchen day is the other day that we like to set aside some time for on a weekday or weekend; it doesn’t have to be the same day every week. It might not work out for it to be the same day every week for you; you might have to just go with this as needed.

Some things I like to do is the day before the kitchen day, I like to just jot down a few meal plan ideas and get the food out of the freezer if I am going to need some things thawed out on the actual kitchen day.

More things I do on kitchen day; I clean out the fridge and make a list of the foods that are about to expire that need to be eaten, and then I like to cook up the meats or prepare them and maybe a few grains in bulk. This way, we can just kind of eat off of that food over the week, and if I cook up three or four chickens instead of just one for one meal and cook it a little bit simply, it means I can use that chicken for a variety of different things throughout the week.

The same goes for any meat; beans are another thing to make in bulk and have in the fridge.

Here’s a little bonus tip when it comes to meals: it’s kind of nice to have a meal that you have pretty regularly, or a few meals actually, so like Taco Tuesday, Hamburgers on Friday, Pizza on Saturday—something like that where you don’t have to think too much about it. That way, your meal routine for those things stays simple.

Tip 4, Build Chores & Habits

I won’t talk too much about this fourth tip because they will be in those two other videos that I just told you about below, but if your kids are old enough, chores make a big difference. Child specialists are pretty much unanimous on this—they like to see that kids have some age-appropriate chores. They say that kids who don’t have them do not grow up to be very active members of society, see HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Checklists are great for older kids; if you have younger kids, like kids under 13, I find that THESE CHORE CARDS work really well. These also work well for ADHD kids. If you would like to know more about chore cards, LEARN MORE HERE.

Tip 5 & 6, The Right Planner & a Home Management Binder

My next two tips are to have a planner, and the other one is to have a home management binder. Here’s the thing: as a work-from-home mom, you are also a homekeeper or a homemaker.

This is where the disconnect happens for a lot of us, and I think part of the reason that happens is because it’s difficult differentiating and balancing the two. Being a homemaker can be a vortex and a whole job in itself; so can being a work-from-home mom.

What you need is a planner that will accommodate both things. If you have other things going, you’re going to need separate planners for that too, or a planner that also accommodates those things.

So, as a work-from-home mom, you need a more customized planner than most people are going to need. In my case, I am a homeschool mom, which takes up huge portions of my day. We also have a homestead, which takes up a good chunk of the day. I work from home; there’s also the home to manage.

I’m probably preaching to the choir; I’m sure you all have similar life struggles.

The advantage to a good planner is it can help you analyze how long you need to assign each activity. It’s really important that you know how much time each one of the things you have going is going takes each day so that you can lay things out in a way that they will work and so that things will flow. A planner can help you analyze that and make notes.

I have two planners that I sell in my shop with sections for all kinds of little notes and things that you can customize for all of the things you have going on.

My planners also have sections to jot down the things where every time you have those moments where you’re just overwhelmed and there are so many things running through your mind that need to be done and you’re not sure where to write them.

I want to talk to you about undated planners because I know a lot of people say that they don’t know how to utilize a planner. This is where undated planners come into play. Throughout my journey, there will be weeks when I’m better about planning and weeks when I’m not. I just really can’t stand it when there’s a whole section of the planner, or sometimes like a whole month, where I didn’t get to sit down and do very much goal setting or planning.

Sometimes I’m able to get a lot done just by, you know, going by the seat of my pants, but generally speaking, I get a lot more done when I have some set goals that have been written down. And always, I feel better and more organized when I have written down and gotten everything out of my head that is bogging me down or that is just overwhelming my brain.

My planner has all kinds of customizable little sections that you can use however you want; you do have to write the dates in, and the reason that I did that is so that you wouldn’t have weeks and weeks where there’s a date written and you forgot to do any planning or you didn’t have time to do planning or you just simply didn’t plan for that week. You can just reuse those pages—they don’t go bad; they don’t expire like a dated planner.

Home Management Binder

If you’re having trouble getting organized and getting your whole family on the same page, I highly suggest getting a little home management binder. I first learned of these around 10 years ago. They are so handy to have!

I get binders for mine on Amazon, I found some high quality attractive ones, FIND THEM HERE.

But what I like to do for mine is to have multiple ones for specific needs. I like to have one for cleaning, and it it I have a daily cleaning list. I also have weekly cleaning lists with upstairs cleaning and a downstairs cleaning since we have an upstairs and a downstairs, but basically, the point is to make a list of all of the house cleaning activities that need to be done on whatever basis you like to do them, whether it’s weekly or monthly.

Have the running checklist in a binder where the whole family can go and get it is so helpful. Once I started this, we started getting the upper and lower floors of our home cleaned in a couple of hours; before, it used to take half the day because people would be like, “Well, you know, I don’t really know what to do.”

Once I did this and I wrote down all the things that need to be done on the top floor and all the things that need to be done on the bottom floor, everybody just tackles this. They come get the binder, they pick whatever they want to do from the list or ask what to do, and they go do it. We get it done in like 2 hours, and then everyone has the rest of the weekend for fun and free time.

Having the checklists in binders helps me to feel a whole lot less frazzled and more like the things that need to be done are done, and they are done with way less chaos and a lot more peace.

If you need ideas for what to put in a home management binder I highly recommend THIS VIDEO by CLUTTERBUG.

Tip 7, Rest & Reset + Devotional

The very last tip, and perhaps the most important tip, is—and was- a revelation when I learned it; I was appalled at the difference this tip makes—it’s to create a rest and reset time. For me, that is Sunday mornings. I sit down on Sunday mornings with my coffee, my planners, and I watch a couple of my favorite YouTubers. I’ve selected ones that give me inspiration for the week ahead and kind of like jog my memory for certain meals that I could make.

I also sit with some of my favorite cookbooks and books. Most of my planning is done throughout the week as I’m up moving around and seeing things that need to be done, but having this little time carved out to sit down and rest and recharge makes such a difference.

With the second half of Sunday, I like to use that as family time. I like to watch movies with the kids; we snack. This is the time to really enjoy the fruits of all of this labor. In the Bible, it talks about the Sabbath day being made for man, and this is the day that we are to rest.

When I carve out time to do this when I’m able to, the weeks always go so much better. I have more clarity; I have more energy. So, with that, I’m going to leave you with some Bible verses about resting:

Matthew 11:28-30—”Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Psalms 127:2—”It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”

Hebrews 4:9-10—”So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.”

Conclusion

Being a work-from-home mom is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve had a few jobs that were not easy at all, including jobs working with the sick and the dying. But working toward being a Proverbs 31 Woman, as well as a keeper at home, has been the most rewarding job that I’ve had.

I really believe that in this day and time, it is a true blessing to be able to be a work-from-home mom, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to get to stay home with my kids and to be able to raise them as the Titus 2 Keeper at home is commanded to do, and still have something going on to the side as the Proverbs 31 Woman.

I really hope that 7 Work-From-Home Mom Routine Tips post and video has been a blessing and helped to inspire and encourage and problem-solve any issues you might be having in your work-from-home mom journey. Let me know if you guys have any questions and leave a comment. Also, let me know some of your favorite work-from-home mom routine tips that you have to share with me and others.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS AND TRICKS