How to Plan a Productive Work Week

Productivity tips for career-minded moms 

No week is the same in our household! Can you relate? My work week ebbs and flows in terms of demands and having three children all under the age of 10 lends itself to a chaotic schedule at times. As a career and business-minded mom, my goal is to have success in all areas of life.  I don’t want to succeed in the marketplace but fumble the ball at home.  Nor do I desire to dismiss my dreams and ambitions because I have family responsibilities.  For me to have a productive week, I heavily rely on planning, prioritizing, and delegation.

In today’s blog post, I am sharing my top five ways to have a productive and successful week for working moms.

Set Your Own Standard of Success

If I can be honest, some weeks, the goal is to get everyone where they need to be without missing appointments. As a working mom, some weeks, this is my reality.  Survival mode! I don’t allow this to be the norm, but some weeks, it’s reality.

I encourage you to plan ahead each week and determine what you need to accomplish and set your standard of success based on the week at hand.  Having an overarching vision of success for my week which includes managing my time effectively, enjoying my family, moving the needle towards my goals, and spending time with God had also proved to be helpful.

Leave me a comment and let me know what your definition of a successful week includes.

Productive Week Tip # 1 – Plan Holistically

It is important to plan holistically and to avoid planning singular activities in isolation.  When you plan your week, consider all of your responsibilities.  I’ve learned that my best weeks are weeks where I sit down on Sunday and plan in my calendar.  I pull up my work calendar, my family calendar, and my kids’ school notes to identify overlaps, reduce conflicts, and help me to delegate and defer tasks.

Productive Week Tip #2 – Create a Checklist

Checklists are extremely helpful tools that working moms can incorporate into their daily routines.  In fact, I live on to-do list.  On days when I don’t create a checklist or forget to jot down my task in my journal, I notice a difference in my productivity and in my stress levels.  

Checklists aren’t just useful for business and professional settings; they are useful in terms of managing day-to-day life as well. A great use of checklists is to incorporate them into both morning and evening routines. In the morning, I’ve found that it is helpful to jot down all of the tasks, activities, and reminders for the day.  Throughout the day, I check items off of my list as they are completed.  Leveraging task list also supports accountability. At the end of the day, I revisit the list and determine what next steps to take as it relates to unchecked tasks.

Keeping a journal nearby is extremely helpful. You can purchase the Career Mom Community, LLC Journal and support this blog HERE.

Check out my Simple 3- Step Planning Process – Career Mom Community post!

Productive Week Tip #3 – Schedule time

Scheduling is essential for on-the-go moms.  Knowing what appointments are coming up, scheduling activities and planning tasks are essential. My best weeks, the ones where I feel the most accomplished are those that were well planned and scheduled.  

Productive Week Tip #4 – Defer and delegate

I’ve been telling myself for a while now, “you don’t have to do it all”.  It’s easier said than done. However, it is an important component of a successful week.

Here’s a quick list of activities I intentionally look for each week to determine if I can defer or delegate:

• Work meetings
• Presentation prep
• Household cleaning
• Kids’ activities (depends) Homework help – leverage teacher office hours

The overall goal is to leverage support systems to ensure my week operates smoothly! 

Productive Week Tip #5 – M.O.M

The acronym for MOM that resonates most with me these days is, Maximize Opportunity and Momentum. 

“Don’t think about what can happen in a month. Don’t think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be.”

― Eric Thomas

As I stated at the start of this post, no two weeks are the same.  Life happens and it throws curveballs often.  In my opinion, sometimes you must manage the working mom struggle bus by maximizing free moments whenever they occur and leveraging winds of momentum to get things done. 

I love this quote from Eric Thomas because it suggests focusing on the moment at hand, the next 24 hours.  Having a laser focus on what’s in front of me has helped me to get more done and have productive days and weeks.

To Wrap it Up

In my opinion, productivity is not always about getting more done.  Instead, the focus should be on intentional living, completing important tasks, and strategically moving the needle towards goal accomplishment.  It is my hope that all moms lean into what works for their weekly routines to have the most successful week possible.

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