5 Hacks Every Exhausted Work At Home Mom Needs!

Mompreneur are you exhausted? Do you feel like you are always running on empty trying to juggle SO MANY THINGS?

Your kids, husband, parents, your primary business and side hustle ALL need your attention but there are only 24 hours in the day!

I completely get it!

As a work at home mom with competing priorities, I had to find a few tricks and hacks to help me overcome my exhaustion and regain my sanity.

Additional Work at Home Mom Resources:
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Working from Home IS Different

If you are anything like me, when you step back from the exhaustion you know how lucky you are that you get to work from home.

Every day is like a winning lottery ticket.

Wearing whatever you want (or whatever is clean!), being able to participate in your kid’s activities during work hours and working whatever hours you are most productive.

But to be fair, working from home IS different than a traditional office.

• Even if your kids are at school or you have childcare when you work at home, you are surrounded by your family’s to-do list ALL DAY.
• You can’t escape your family or personal needs like you can at a traditional office job.
• You can’t escape the dirty dishes in the sink or piles of laundry waiting to be folded.

And I don’t know about you, but I brought home some of my not so good habits from working in an office.

I’ve struggled to change some of those behaviors including being more timely with expense reporting – bookkeeping – and keeping my desk less cluttered.

And if we are being totally honest here, I also had trouble breaking the 3pm snack habit until I found Noom. But that Noom post is for another time!

How to Overcome Exhaustion and Regain Your Sanity

1. Create Routines

Routines Are Magic. The more you can automate in your life the fewer decisions you have to make. And the fewer decisions you make the less energy your brain needs to use.

Decision fatigue is a real thing!

Routines are a great solution. And they can always be adjusted to meet unexpected needs. Life happens!

For example, knowing every Monday and Wednesday your kid gets a lunch meat sandwich and an apple in his lunch box, every Tuesday and Thursday are fake PBJ’s with an orange and Fridays are leftovers with a banana means lunch boxes are one less thing you have to think about. And it makes grocery shopping easier too.

Save your mental energy for the things that really need it.

A great place to create new routines is with errand running and household chores. Which leads me to tip number two

2. Let Other People Help You

How much would you love to get back the hours you spend in Target and the grocery store? Today that’s possible and totally worth doing!

There have been two huge routine changes in our household that have given me back more time then I could have ever imagined. And while one does cost money the other saves me money.

Target Drive Up. The BIGGEST change in easing my exhaustion as a work from home Mompreneur has been using Target’s FREE Target Drive-up service. I am still kicking myself for waiting as long as I did to try it.

Now instead of dragging my preschooler to Target, I fill the shopping cart on my phone as I notice I need something then hit submit a couple hours before I’m ready to pick it all up. By not going into Target I save a ton of TIME and MONEY.

No more strolling the aisles and coming home with impulse purchases!

If the idea of having someone do your grocery shopping for you feels weird start with household goods. Laundry detergent, tissues, toothpaste or your husband’s undershirts are easy to let someone else shop for.

I love Target Drive Up so much I wrote a whole post about how Target Drive-Up works (You can Pin it to read it later.)

Shipt is another one of those things I wish I had done it sooner. And the best part is not only do they deliver from the grocery store they deliver from TARGET too!

If you’ve been thinking about trying a grocery delivery service I use and love Shipt.

The other routine change that made a huge difference was with our cleaning routine.

Hire Someone to Clean. Yes, this costs money but so does your time. If you think about your hourly rate and how many hours it takes you to clean your house really well you will find this is a worthwhile business investment.

Now, I’m not talking about a weekly housekeeper. We started having someone deep clean our house once every threeish weeks and it has been amazing.

It’s much easier to keep up with wiping the surfaces down, sanitizing the bathrooms and vacuuming in between her professional cleanings.

And as an added bonus we all pick up around the house before she comes!

When you work at home your house gets a lot more use. Your time is valuable and worth paying a professional to help you clean.

3. Implement House Keeping Hacks

While we are talking about housekeeping, I have two more hacks that have helped ease my Mompreneur overwhelm and have given me back some sanity.

Pick up Floors Every Night.

Every night before bed the toys get picked up off the family room floor. When I come out into the family room at 5:30am each morning to start working I’m much more productive when the mess is picked up.

It’s amazing how this one hack that I learned from Clean Mama has made such a huge difference!

This behavior change took a while to catch on with my daughter and husband. And they don’t always get everything put away perfectly. But so long as they try and toys are off the floor I’m happy.

If toys on the floor aren’t the thing driving you crazy, figure out what that is and ask your family for help. Enlist the people that drive you batty to help you regain your sanity!

If you don’t know where to start check out Clean Mama. Finding her has made a huge difference for me.

Use a Roomba.

Like I mentioned earlier your house is used more often when you work at home. For your next holiday next gift ask for a Roomba!

I use my real vacuum on Monday’s to pick up the weekend dirt and my Roomba is auto set to run during the week. And because my floors are picked up the night before the Roomba can do its thing. (See above if you skipped that section.)

The Roomba is an exhausted work from home mom’s best friend! I don’t know what else I can say about it except if you don’t have one you really need one.

My Roomba doesn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles because that wasn’t our budget. Buy the one you can afford and enjoy letting the Roomba take something off your to-do list.

4. Use Apps to Reduce Paper Clutter

I am finally starting to win the war on paper clutter and these two apps have helped me a ton.

Try Trello.

Do you rely on paper lists covered in sticky notes to keep up with business and family?

First, I recommend that you ban sticky notes from your home! I did this years ago and it was a HUGE help.

I resisted Trello the same way I resisted Target Drive-Up. My notebook had served me well in my traditional office job and I didn’t see the need to change.

But fellow Mompreneur, operating and growing a business takes more organization and leadership then it does to work for someone else. Even when it’s a business of one.

I haven’t given up my business notebook for meeting notetaking or my Simplified Weekly Planner Sheets for my MUST DO list (you can download my exact Simplified Weekly Planner Sheet from my Resource Library FREE) but everything else goes into Trello.

I have oneTrello Brain Dump Board that I enter ideas and notes into from my phone. It’s super easy to move the idea cards around to the right Boards from my computer or my phone when I have a few free minutes.  (Or when I’m procrastinating doing something else!)

I use Trello mostly for my business goals, client projects and keeping the back end of my business organized. The best part is Trello is free and really easy to learn.

Get Freshbooks.

Freshbooks has been a huge time and sanity saver for me as a work from home Mompreneur. I have been able to streamline my bookkeeping, keep the IRS happy and reduce the paper clutter on my desk all with this one simple app. Once you set it up it does all the work for you!

In my post How to Set Up a Successful Bookkeeping System Today I talk about why I selected Freshbooks over Quickbooks (you can Pin It to read it later.)

5. Take Care of Yourself

Mompreneur, your health is just as important as your family’s. Your exhaustion isn’t good for anyone. Selfcare is the new buzzword but there is truth to it. Caring for you is IMPORTANT!

Don’t forget to exercise.

I know you are thinking you just don’t have another minute to squeeze in exercise. But this is one of those things that will give you more energy and will help you sleep better.

To help you find the time to exercise try doing it WITH your kids! They get mom attention and both get your bodies moving.

On Sunday, instead of lounging around the house explore your neighborhood on bikes or on a walk. Or do mommy and me yoga with your little one. YouTube has some great Mommy and Me yoga options including Cosmic Kids Yoga. (We are big fans of Betsy the Banana!)

For a really good work out, instead of getting the parent “no jump” pass at SkyZone (or your local trampoline park) buy the adult “yes, I am really going to jump pass” on a Saturday morning BEFORE it gets too crowded. Embarrass your pre-teen by jumping WITH them and get some exercise while making great memories too.

Moms need sleep too!

The only way to be a less exhausted when you are a work from home mom is to get more sleep.

But you already knew that and if you could get more sleep you wouldn’t be reading this!

There are tons of sleep studies that show people need nighttime sleep. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think those study participants have kids and work more than 40 hrs a week!

So how can you get more sleep, still get everything done and regain your sanity?

This is what works for me and I encourage you to give it a try:

• Pick a time that you will consistently end the day every evening and set the alarm on your phone to remind you.
• Every night at that time spend a few minutes writing down or putting in Trello, everything that you still need to get done or want to accomplish the next day.
• Then climb into bed with your spouse, put your phone on the charger and let everything go until the next morning.
• Wake up 30-60 minutes earlier then you do now, open your list, and get to work.

And most importantly give yourself some grace.

It took me a couple of weeks of changing my routines to be able to do this. But once I did it made a huge difference.

Writing out my list at night lets my brain shut down easier. The mental load eases and I’m able to fall asleep.

Before I start a new routine like this, I find it’s helpful to stop and totally reset. I created a simple action plan and checklist on how I reset my routine.  You can download a copy (free) below.

Conclusion

Mompreneur you CAN be less exhausted and regain your sanity.

Create routines for your business and family chores. Routines and automation are the magic that keeps my Mompreneur household running.

It’s also important to learn to ask for help. And if you don’t feel like you can ask friends and family ask strangers. Hire a housekeeper to come every few weeks to deep clean, let others do your shopping with Target Drive-Up (FREE) or Shipt (use the 50% off code above!)

Your time costs money too. These times saving conveniences will pay for themselves with the time you save. And by not going into stores you save money (and calories!) on impulse purchases.

You can also make simple housekeeping changes to lighten your load by updating your family’s chores and investing in a Roomba. Clean floors are a great way to start every day!

Reduce paper clutter and stay more organized with easy to use apps. Run your business like a real business with super easy to use Trello and Freshbooks. Let technology help you reduce your overwhelm.

Exercise with your family. It’s a win win! Your children get to spend time with you away from your computer and phone and you get needed exercise.

And last but not least, take care of yourself Mom. Your family and business count on you to be strong enough to lead them every day!

Exhausted work from home Mom, if you do nothing else please get a few hours of nighttime sleep. Learn to turn your mind off for the day so your body can recharge for the next day.

Which of these hacks will you be implementing? Let me know in the comments below!

Additional Post You Might Like:

9 Sure Fire Ways to Survive Working at Home with Kids

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Balancing Work and Family as a Work From Home Mom

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