How to Be More Productive (Even As A Busy Mom) by Doing this ONE Thing

Are you a busy mom who needs a simple way to increase productivity?

This is by far the easiest thing you can do RIGHT NOW to be more focused, productive, and intentional with how you use your time. Let’s get our productivity on, Mama Friend!

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Do you ever have those days where time just seems to slip away, and you’re not sure why or how? Even if you started with a great plan, time-blocked your tasks and set your top three priorities — you just don’t feel productive.

Been there, done that! I constantly struggled with figuring out how to stop wasting time, and how to be more productive. (Not gonna lie, it can still be a struggle.)

And I couldn’t really figure it out at first, even though the answer (or problem) was right in front of me the whole time. Seriously — it was literally right in front of my face!

The answer?

My phone.

Yep… I’m going there!

Are You Killing Your Productivity?

Think about all those “empty” moments throughout your day. What do you do in the one or two minutes while you wait for your lunch to get warmed up in the microwave, or the 20 minutes you wait for your food at a restaurant?

Really think about what you do to pass the time as you wait for something.

Are you like me, and the other 51% of people who check their phones several times in a single hour? (Source: BankMyCell)

My guess is that you probably are.

Now think about what you could be accomplishing if you used your wait time more intentionally. Could you be planning your future, spending time with your family, reading a book, or exercising?

How Being On Your Phone Is Just A Waste of Time

Yeah, yeah, I know — how else are you going to keep in touch with your friends and family? And it’s especially hard if you’re a blogger or have another kind of online business, right? Believe me, I know the struggle!

But that doesn’t change the fact that most of the time — though, admittedly not all the time — your phone is just a distraction. And being on it is usually doing nothing more than wasting your time.

Face the fact: It’s a habit and you don’t even think twice about unlocking your phone and hopping on Facebook or Instagram.

It is the golden excuse for every procrastinator (like me!) to make.

I really need to vent to my friend!
Being on my phone helps me decompress.
I deserve some down time.
This adorable picture of my baby needs to be seen by EVERYONE on my Facebook!
This is how I grow my online audience.
Social Media, texting, calling, etc. is how I stay in contact with friends and family!

and on and on the list goes.

All true, and all very valid points! But I want you to imagine something with me. What if instead of getting on your phone during your “wait times”, you did something that gets you closer to your goals? How many hours out of the day do you think you use to scroll Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or Instagram?

Those things likely aren’t getting you a single step closer to what you want to achieve in life, and they certainly are not helping you to be more productive!

Ways You’ll Be More Productive By Not Being On Your Phone

You’ll have “more” time

We’ve all heard the famous saying, “we all get the same 24 hours, but it’s what we do with it that counts”. (That may not be the exact wording, but you get my point.)

Well, the crazy awesome thing about being intentional with your time is that you get to tell it what to do for you. No more feeling frustrated or sorry for yourself because you didn’t “get to” the long list of to-do’s on your notepad, or you “ran out of time” before you had to put the kids to bed or cook dinner.

By trading in your wait time for more important tasks — even five or ten minutes at a time — you will feel like you have gained HOURS each day! I swear!

You will have increased focus

Earlier I mentioned how being glued to your phone is usually nothing more than a mere distraction from the more important things in life, so naturally as you become unglued, your focus will improve.

This means that as time goes on and you get used to not checking your phone every several minutes, your brain is going to let you focus on the task at hand instead of saying “hey, you should see what’s changed on Instagram in the last five minutes since you’ve been off”.

Not only will your focus improve on whatever you’re doing in the moment, but you’ll find that it’ll be easier to stay on track with your goals even in the long run.

You’ll be encouraged to be more intentional and productive

If you don’t tell your time where to go, you’re going to waste it. Likewise, if you’re not actively trying to be productive, you won’t be.

The more you trade in your phone for something more important, the more productive you are going to become! It’s simple. Put down your phone and do a load of laundry instead of browsing your Facebook feed.

There is a certain kind of satisfaction that comes along with choosing to live and use your time intentionally. By being purposeful with your choices, productivity will naturally flow out of you and become second nature.

The results will inspire and motivate you

When you start to see the results of your efforts — in this case, learning how to be more productive by not using your phone as much — you will be so inspired by the progress that you will keep at it.

You will start to see where you can use your time better whereas before you mindlessly scrolled social media or looked up random questions on Google.

It may sound silly, but by simply choosing to use your “spare” time (just kidding, what Mom has spare time?) aka your wait time with a purpose and a plan, your entire life can change.

At first it’ll just be using the time while your coffee brews to put laundry away or write in your bullet journal. But the more you put down your phone and ask yourself how you can use those couple of minutes you never even realized you had before, the more you can see the other areas in your life that needs more intentional choices.

So, are you ready to give it a try and trade your phone for a plan and productivity?

How to Be More Productive

The short answer is this: stop using your phone so much!

So easy to do, right? 😉

Just kidding, girl. I know it’s hard to form new habits and train your brain to think differently. But that’s exactly what you need to do — create better habits. Not just any habits, though. They need to be productive and intentional. I know, I know… I keep talking about those two words. I may or may not be obsessed with productivity and intentionality, but darn it — they go hand in hand!

Use your wait time wisely

I touched on this already throughout the post, but I think it deserves mentioning again. Let’s face it, as moms we don’t get a lot of time to just sit for a solid 30 minutes or more to devote to a single task or project.

That’s why making your wait time work for you and your goals are so dang important.

We all have time in our day between tasks to utilize. Normally we just think of it as time to waste though, because it’s usually only a couple of minutes at once. For some reason, our brains like to tell us that unless we can knock it all out of the park in a single sitting, it’s just not worth doing.

So what do we do instead? Yep, we look at our phones. Watch TV. Stare at the wall. Think about everything we should be doing, but can’t because we “don’t have time”, right? Pretty much anything but be productive.

Well newsflash, honey. You DO have time. Is it a huge block from 7:00-9:00 every day? No, probably not. But do you have time between tasks or appointments? You probably do. You just have to recognize the moments and use them to get things done.

Things to do instead of getting on your phone

Ultimately you’ll figure this one out on your own, but here are some basic ideas to get the productivity ball rolling. They are sorted by the usual amounts of times that busy moms have throughout the day (1-5 minutes, 5-10 minutes, 10-15 minutes, and 15-20 minutes).

The difference that just 5 minutes at a time can make will both surprise and inspire you!

Remember — use your wait time wisely!

1-5 minutes

• Wash a couple of dishes
• Clean the toilet
• Wipe down the counters or sinks
• Put tonight’s dinner ingredients together in the same area
• Read a page in a book
• Read a few affirmations
• Apply a face mask
• Brush your teeth
• Pay a bill
• Brush your hair
• Journal
• Meditate
• Stretch
• Take trash out

5-10 minutes

• Go for a short walk
• Unload and reload the dishwasher
• Fold a load of laundry
• Do a quick tidy up in one room
• Vacuum one room
• Organize your desk
• Do something different with your hair
• Sort through mail/paper clutter
• Wipe down appliances and other surfaces

10-15 minutes and 15-20 minutes

• Meal plan
• Organize a slightly bigger area (like the pantry or a couple of drawers and cabinets)
• Apply for a job, guest posting opportunity, or research a potential side hustle or career
• Yoga
• Cook a healthy meal or snack
• Sweep and mop
• Declutter part of a room
• Read or listen to part of a podcast

These are just general ideas, and your list will look different than mine. The goal is to get your brain to see all the areas of opportunity that you have to improve in some area of your life, whether it’s housework or personal growth/self-care.

Make it a habit to only use your phone at certain times or for a single purpose

Try to ask yourself what you could be doing instead of wasting your wait time (which are often golden opportunities to get working on your goals and being productive!). It’ll take some time to get used to not reaching for your phone at the first sign of boredom, but eventually you won’t even notice.

One effective way to make it stick in your brain even better is by simply setting an alarm (or several) throughout the day and only checking your phone for a set amount of time when the alarms go off. Until they do, stick your phone in a basket or drawer and go on with your day.

Likewise, you can decide to only check your phone a set amount of times for a single purpose, like responding to work emails or texting your significant other.

This is probably the best way to open up your mind to just how many free minutes you really do have, but never even noticed!

To Sum It All Up

Your goal

So, what’s the overall point of this post? To be more intentional with your time. But to be more specific, I wanted to show you how to be more productive by choosing to be intentional.

And one of the best ways to do that is to use your phone less and use your wait time more purposefully!

How to be more productive

It will take some time but before you know it, you’re going to put the “pro” in “productive”!

Here’s how you’re going to do that…

• CREATE PRODUCTIVE HABITS
  Put your phone away until scheduled times of the day if you lack self-control and focus (like I do).
• USE YOUR WAIT TIME
  When you have even just 60 seconds between tasks, be intentional with how you use that time. Rinse a dirty dish, write a quick reminder to yourself, pick up trash, apply some mascara, etc. Every single action gets you closer to your goals!

And that’s basically it! Two steps towards more intentional living which will increase your productivity, even as a busy Mom!

See? It doesn’t have to be complicated! Keep it simple, Momma Friend!

Are you a little too obsessed with your phone? How has this affected your productivity?
Share with other Moms in the comments below!

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