Trade Time Wasters For Calm Routines

We connect time management to productivity and show how better structure helps us hit goals, lower stress, and feel proud of what we have built. We share simple swaps that cut negativity, calm overwhelm, and create routines our kids can copy.
• defining time management as productivity tied to success and goal achievement 
• replacing time drains like excessive social media with clear limits 
• refusing gossip and negative debates by walking away 
• easing anxiety and worry with meditation, exercise, and chamomile tea 
• reducing hectic mornings through night before preparation and evening routines 
• using YouTube and DIY learning to make screen time productive 
• journaling three to five year goals for us and our children 
• communicating expectations at home with chore charts and taught independence 
• protecting our energy in dating and showing up as our real selves 
• unsubscribing from emails, reducing overthinking, and using AI as a helpful tool 
• benefits of time management through structure, less stress, and positive modeling 
If you did, tell another single mom or another dad or a parent, all right, uh uh about time management and the importance of time management. 
I would love some feedback from you as far as, you know, was this episode helpful to you?

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Transcript

Time Management Equals Real Productivity

Cut Social Media And Gossip

Replace Worry With Tea And Movement

End Morning Stress With Night Prep

Use YouTube To Learn Useful Skills

Map Three To Five Year Goals

Set Clear Expectations With Chores

Protect Energy While Dating

Unsubscribe, Use AI, Stop Overthinking

Benefits Of Structure Kids Copy

Share, Send Feedback, Closing Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom to Mentor podcast. If this is your first time joining, welcome. And to all of my repeat listeners, thank you, thank you for your loyalty. Hey, I'm gonna get right down to it today of what I'm talking about. And as a parent, it's challenging to manage your time because your kids need a good portion of that time, and then you're trying to do the whole work-life balance thing, and sometimes life just gets crazy. Ask me how I know I'm a mother of two while I'm an older mother of two. I remember that balancing of time management and making sure you get time for yourself and what was unproductive versus productivity. It's crazy. So today, hopefully, by the end of this particular episode, you will have a better handle of time management and really understand why it's important as a parent. All right, so let's get the party started. So, my definition of time management equals productivity. Good time management equals productivity. And when you have good productivity, you start achieving goals that you've set for yourself. Because remember, in the other episodes, I talk about what success is. And success is not literally saying I have all of this money, but success is saying, hey, I established a goal for myself and I was able to achieve it. That's what success is. So if you're able to do that with time management, woo-woo, you are successful. So let's talk about a few things today. Um, if things you are doing are not improving your lifestyle, consider replacing it. It's just that simple. Because you can't recover time. You you can't turn while you can turn the clock back, doesn't mean you can go back to yesterday. Yesterday is gone. See ya, was nice knowing you. Did you get anything done yesterday? That and that's how you have to look at things as you progress forward and managing your time. So here are some things that are unproductive that I would ask you to consider and ponder on as far as cha exchanging. So excessive time on social media. Replace it with limiting yourself to an hour or weekly or no time at all. Don't believe, and then don't believe everything you read and you hear. There's just so much negativity out there, and and the invitation to, hey, what do you think about this? Don't you think so-and-so is this, and da-da-da-da-da. And people navigate and start responding to nonsense. And it's like, listen, let that go, move on, scroll up, scroll down, whatever it is, but you don't have to entertain um an invitation to negativity to participate in that. Just keep moving. Again, negative discussions, gossip, replaced with positive word choices. Find something good. You know, there are a lot of groups out there, and I consider myself an encourager. Yep, I do. I don't give myself a lot of titles or and really don't believe in titles per se. But I will say I am an encourager every day in my stories. I try to offer an encouraging word. Why is that important? Because the news and other outlets provide the negativity, no sense in uh participating in that. So I want to try to find a better balance as far as encouraging people. Um, because you never know uh what people are going through. And it's none of my business. But if I put something out there to encourage them that, hey, you can get through this, what you're going through is temporary, then I've achieved my goal. Whoop whoop! Oh, hey, look at there. I'm successful. All right, let me keep it moving. Anxiety and worry replace it with meditation or exercise. And chamomile tea works. Um, it acts as an agent to really calm that anxiety you may be experiencing. And if you haven't invested in teas, teas are a good thing and they're pretty reasonable to buy. Um, a good box of tea uh generally runs around$4.99. So, ladies, you may be able to go out and say, you know what, I'm feeling overwhelmed today. Fix you a cup of tea, you know. Um, other cultures they use tea a lot, and so it works. And so if you're feeling overwhelmed, then often as parents, as we feel overwhelmed with different things happening in our lives, it's like, oh my gosh, here comes something else, something else, something else. And you know, go go fix you some tea. And the good news is it's easy, you don't have to put a kettle on the stove, you can put about maybe a half a cup of water um in a mug and nuke it for a minute and then put your tea bag in it. See how simple that is? And and you can have you a nice cup of tea without going through a lot of uh emotions uh to get it. If you're experiencing hectic morning, oh my gosh, I remember the days. Um replace with preparation the night before. Sit the book bags at the door, make sure they're packed and homework is completed, put it at the door, especially if you have multiple kids, like I did or do, excuse me. It's just that they're older now. Um make sure they get their showers in the evening. You should have an evening routine. I did, you know. Homework is from this time to this time. Then once that, then you can watch a little TV. Then after that, then it's time to get ready for bed. It's just that simple. So my kids had a routine and they'll tell you if you ask them, yep, mom had us in bed by nine. That's exactly right. I sure did. Time to go to bed because I need to make sure you are up and ready to go in the morning when it's time for school. So, yes, we had a routine, and mom is gonna save you a lot of heartache later. And get rid of some of that morning stress when you start having you a definitive evening plan. So if you don't have one today, I encourage you to start. Yes, it's gonna save you some headache later. So, ladies, if you're feeling depressed and feeling less than replace with learning something new. Yeah, remember you should always be learning, and now we are living in an age where you have no excuse not to learn something new, even if it's just another language, yeah. And YouTube is a great channel for you to learn something new, they have a lot of how-tos out there. Matter of fact, um, I had to look up something um to do a repair. And remember, I was uh pretty useful with uh repairing things back in the day. Things have slowed down a lot um as I'm older, but I looked it up and I said, hmm, I could probably do that, and so I watched the channel and I watched um what the person did and everything, and I said, Okay, and I did it. All because I watch YouTube, so I encourage you, just don't go out there and look at videos, make sure your time on social media is productive. Learn something, you know. I love DIYs, you know, and how people go to the dollar store and buy little trinkets and then they make stuff out of it. And I'm like, oh, how cool is that? That's the kind of stuff that we should be absorbing and learning and taking away when we do go on social media because now it's a productive. And for folks on a budget, hey, I can go to the dollar store, buy five dollars worth of items, and make something. How cool is that? How cool is that? And when your kids see it, guess what? They're gonna be excited too. Like, oh, well, mom did it. I certainly can do it. Mom, can I have a couple dollars? Right? So now you're you're creating this positive energy and creativity that you know you're not gonna get if you're spending a lot of time with negative content. Yeah, let's try to get away from that, moms. Let's try to make our lives more productive, better managing our time. You know, I also talked about goals uh in other episodes, you know, where you want to be in three to five years, and not only where you want to be in three to five years, where do you want your children to be in three to five years? You're gonna be three years older, your children are gonna be three years older, so things are going to look different from where you are today. And so I would challenge you to journal or jot down where you want to be in three to five years. Yeah. And where do you want your kids to be? Hopefully, they'll be in um, if they're school age children, then they'll be in the three more grades up. And then who knows? Um, depending on where they are now, they may be graduating in five years. So what does that look like? Yeah, and why is this important? I heard you. Yeah, you didn't know I heard you. I heard you. Um, the reason why that's important because you can track that, and every now and then you can revert back and say, am I still on track to with my three to five year goal or goals? Plural. Uh-huh. You can have more than one. And if you're not, then why? What changed? Hmm. Yeah. Something to think about because remember, we're also inviting critical thinking to this process. What changed and why did it change? And now, what do I do? Do I go in and re um adjust goals? And which you would have to, right? If they change, so you're gonna have to set new goals and take into account what happened to not allow you to achieve this goal or these goals. Yeah, that's where good time management comes into play, and that could be why you didn't achieve the goal, is because you didn't put in time management or didn't use it effectively for you to achieve that goal. Hmm, yeah, think about that. All right, communication, no communication. You want to replace it with um communicating expectations. So, again, in your house, there's a lot going on, and especially if you have multiple kids, especially if you're a working mom, there's a lot going on. So sometimes we just assume that your children know what to do, right? But if you don't sit down and have a conversation with them, then both parties are assuming, and that's why things aren't getting done. Yeah. Um, that's why you need a chore chart. Mm-hmm. Your children should be able to go in and uh wipe the counters down, clean the bathroom, um, do laundry, some of the basic things. You shouldn't have to be doing all of that, mom, but you're doing it because you haven't communicated to your children or taught your children the value of being able to develop that independence because they're gonna have to take this outside of your house. Yeah. So you have to set the expectation now, mom, of what is supposed to happen in your house. And how do you do that? You talk through it, you have that conversation with your children, and especially if they're school-aged children, there's no reason that they should be coming home and doing everything else instead of doing chores, making sure the dishes are put up or their dishwasher is loaded, whatever. They should be able to be doing that. There should be established set expectations as it relates to running your home of what is required, and that's gonna ease some stress off of you. How do I know? Because I was working nine to five every day, and making sure the kids got the school and home and fit and homework done and all of that. So I I understand exactly what it takes for to be or have good time management, and it's required, mom. It's required, so don't sell yourself short, get you a plan together. The other thing, and I've heard a lot of you say, you know, the relationship with the baby's father didn't work out, and so hey, I'm lonely. I need somebody in my life, I need someone to hold me, yeah, and all that's good, all of that is good, but yeah, if they are not the one, then it's taking away uh energy that you can be providing to your kids, so be careful in the manner in which you're pursuing a relationship. And the other thing, just be you. And if the right guy is out there, he's gonna be attracted to you. And a lot of times relationships don't go as planned or get interrupted, it's because we put on that mask, we put on that fakeness of who folks or who we want people to believe we are. Yeah. And that's why you wear your best outfit, you put the makeup on, and your hair is all done. And but if that's not you, and when he sees the real you, then guess what? Maybe some of that attraction goes away because the real you is out. But if you start out as being the real you, then guess what? That's what he's gonna be attracted to, and then there's no real adjustment needed. Um, I know in the past, you know, I used to go outside, well, and I still do at times, but um, I wouldn't wear makeup, and it seems like guys would start trying to hit on me, and I'm like, Really? But when I'm all dolled up, nobody pays attention. But when I'm looking bland, they they trying to give me a second look and tell me how you doing, and I'm like, wow. So I spent all that time in the mirror, and it does absolutely nothing for me. You prefer to see me without. So, long story short, ladies, long story short, just be you, and you'll attract the right guy, and he won't just be attracted to your looks, he'll be attracted to the inner you, yeah, and and that's what you want to display. Um, if you're wanting to be in a relationship, uh, something else you can do as it relates to time management. I know I get a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of emails, and it takes time to even glance at them, right? So start unsubscribing, opting out, and do daily or weekly deletions, just clean it out. But the best option is unsubscribe and opt out so you just don't get them at all. You know, um, another issue I have is overthinking. I'm always thinking, and and there's times I can't turn it off. And I always have questions, I'm very inquisitive. I'm not sure if that's a good thing because it can turn into being unproductive because why this, why that? It doesn't take all of that. But artificial intelligence uh is a good resource to use. And I know many of them out there have names now, and one's named Rufus, I've seen Gemini, and I've and of course you know the one for Amazon, but use artificial intelligence on some things that can help you navigate life. Um, it it's pretty good. You know, you have a question about something, it's gonna give you a response. And if nothing else, it'll make you think. It'll make you think. So consider uh doing that versus overthinking. And again, replace your negative conversations by walking away. Don't don't accept the invitation that's extended to you when it comes to negativity. Walk away. Everything doesn't require a response. Yeah, everything does not require a response. If you want to fight or you disagree with something, you have to disagree by yourself. That's my own proclamation at this point. I'm not gonna argue with you. I'm not. If that's your position, if you don't like it, if you don't think, okay, all right, God bless. I'm moving on for my own mental sake. I'm just not gonna argue, I'm not gonna entertain negativity. Why? Because it's unproductive. I could be doing something positive, like learning a DIY, or learning something off of YouTube, something that invests in me. Yeah. But if you want to argue and talk about negativity and what's going on in the world and who did what and who's sleeping with who, and all this other stuff, I don't have time for it. I I'm not gonna entertain it. And I encourage you, moms, let it go. It is it's not wise. So here are the benefits of time management. You are creating structure for you and your kids. Better time management equals less stress. Time management equals taking action and not just thinking about it. Allows you to achieve your goals. Remember, you can be successful, establish that goal and go after it. As time progresses, progresses, you won't be asking, what did I do with my life? Because you can't recover time. So at this point, it's a win-win because you're not reflecting back a few days ago. I had an opportunity to just kind of assess over my life some of the accomplishments that I've achieved. And it felt really good. It felt really good being able to do some first-time stuff and introduce first-time stuff. And again, this is along my life's journey. And I feel good that I was able to do some things that even things I thought I couldn't do. And to know that I was able to be successful in that is just phenomenal. So I would encourage you to even reflect back on your own life on some of your successes and some of the goals you were able to accomplish. Because now you're going to start feeling good and say, well, if I did it back then, wow, what's ahead of me, right? Establish a routine you can pass along to your child or your children, right? That's what time management does. Because if they see you doing it, mom, then guess what? They're gonna adopt that. I promise you they will. I promise you they will. Uh, they're paying attention. So again, we can talk until we're blue in the face, but they're watching. That's how they're learning, mom. That's why we have to be careful in what we show them with our behavior, because they are absorbing it. So make sure you have a positive routine that your children see so that they can uh start adopting some of those behaviors. And on the flip side, they will be able to recognize unproductive traits. Yeah. And the good news is they should be able to correct it immediately because they know arguing with something that's silly, that's specifically around negativity, like they'll they'll learn to walk away too. Yeah, they will learn to walk away too, because if they see you walk away from negativity, then guess what? They're gonna say, you know what, it is not worth my time. All right, ladies. So hopefully you enjoyed today's episode about time management and the benefits of it. And if you did, tell another single mom or another dad or a parent, all right, uh uh about time management and the importance of time management. And definitely um, I would love some feedback from you as far as, you know, was this episode helpful to you? I would love to hear from you because why is that important? Because this is all about encouraging you and planting seeds in you to help you grow so you can plant seeds into your children. That's what this is all about at the end of the day, is to make sure that you find this podcast productive and instrumental in your life and that it not only resonates with you, but you're able to take it a step further and build something in your children, and it's gonna pay off. I promise you. How do I know? How do I know? I've been parenting for 35 years. Yes, my children are older, but I learned some things along the way, and I'm trying to pay it forward to you, mom, and maybe dad out there. All right, have a great day, a wonderful week, and a marvelous month. Take care.