Get More Done in Less Time. Tips for WAHMs and Bloggers

Multitasking, women love to multitask, and in fact, many believe that they are efficient multitaskers. However, I have come to the realization that multitasking means I get less done and I end up with more stress on my plate.

Chances are, this happens to you too, especially if you are a work from home mom. There is always something that has to be done, the laundry, preparing dinner, cleaning the floors, disciplining children, and of course, your work. So how do you get it all done without multitasking?

It is simple really; you just stop multitasking, or at least the inefficient multitasking. For example, I used to start my “work day” when the kids were eating breakfast, thinking that they were preoccupied and I would be able to get some work done. This never worked out according to my plan because let us face it, children do not care if you have to work or not.

If you read my Become the Mom You Always Wanted to Be post, you know that I took on The Early to Rise Challenge and started getting up at 5 am before anyone else in my home. Revolutionary. I stopped multitasking and instead, started concentrating on the tasks at hand. I ignore email, Facebook, and even my blog while I am writing away. The quiet time in the morning is the perfect opportunity to be creative and to get more work done in less time, without multitasking.

Getting as much work done in the morning before my household wakes up, allows me to have more time during their awake hours to spend with them, cleaning up my home, and preparing dinner. I am not as stressed and frazzled trying to balance it all.

I schedule in fifteen minutes every two hours, to check social media and email, usually while my boys are eating lunch or running around outside. Only allowing myself fifteen minutes of “zone-out” time, helps me keep up with the never-ending cycle of email and engagement on social media.

Before I start reading and responding to email, I first delete anything that is nonessential, I do not even open those emails I simply delete them. Do not waste your time checking sales messages when you have nothing planned to buy. Once those nonessential emails are deleted, I check for the emails that require immediate attention and response. Once those emails have been handled, if there is still time in my fifteen minutes, I will check the other emails and response accordingly. If there is not enough time to check the rest of my emails then, I wait until after my children have gone to bed to respond.

I schedule my Facebook posts so that I do not have to be present in order to avoid being sucked into the time waste vortex of Facebook. Since I cross post my Facebook posts automatically to Twitter, I do not have to worry about posting to that social media account. Scheduling out these posts has allowed me to have more free time in my day, and allowed me to spend my time more efficiently.

Need more help finding balance? Check out my resources page which includes all of my must reads for WAHMs and Bloggers. 

What is your number one piece of advice for avoiding multitasking and getting more things done in less time?

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