Organize Your Way to Less Stress: A Mom’s Guide to Using Planners

Being a mom is the most demanding and satisfying job on the planet, and finding the middle ground between the two is a balancing act. Whether you’re a full-time mom or you’re juggling work with raising your little ones, any help in organizing your life can be a game-changer, and this is where planning comes in handy.

Instead of spending your days running around and stumbling from obligation to obligation, putting it all down on paper can make your life significantly easier, especially if you’re doing the planning for your whole family. Thankfully, millions of moms worldwide are going through the same situation as you, and there are some concrete steps you can take to organize your way to less stress.

Picking Your Perfect Planner

We all have our way of functioning and organizing our thoughts, so choosing the right type of planner for your needs is the foundation for nailing your planning habits. For some, those are daily planners; for others, weekly options work wonders, and some people thrive using a monthly planner to map out their lives.

This means that you should do your research to discover what kind of planner works best for you. That can be anything from custom design spiral notebooks in which you can draw, write, and stick post-it notes to carefully formatted daily planners that allow you to neatly jot down everything you’ve got going on the next day. There’s no one-size-fits-all here; the only limit is your imagination and understanding of what kind of structure is optimal for you.

Benefits of Planning Your Days

When you’ve got a million things on your to-do list, prioritizing can be a nightmare, not to mention that it can get overwhelming very fast. Decision paralysis is real in these situations, so you want to find a way to make your life easier however you can.

Motherhood often puts your focus on everything, but you and a lot of time can pass before you realize that stress and errands have taken over your life. Planning your days lets you take charge and find the best ways to go about everything you need to accomplish, whether it’s picking up kids from preschool or buying a dress for your next office party. 

It also lets you check things off your list, reminding you of everything you’ve accomplished. Add to that the fact that you’ll be able to keep an eye on all the upcoming tasks, and there’s really no downside to planning your days until you learn how to do it like a pro.

Make Planning a Family Activity

Contrary to popular belief, moms shouldn’t carry the organization of family activities on their shoulders. That’s why getting the whole family involved in your planning process is such a good idea, especially when planning out the whole week or month. 

You can make it a family bonding experience, for which you all get together at the dining table, bring out some snacks, and discuss everything that will happen in the upcoming period. 

You can hang family calendars somewhere in the house, where you, your kids, and your spouse write down everything you’ll be doing. That will help everyone stay in the loop and also be a reminder when you’ve got an important date to prepare for. If you’ve got older kids, you can even have a digital family calendar, which will work even better when you’re on the go.

Planning Lets You Make Time for Yourself

There’s no overstating how important self-care is for moms, even though it’s often the last thing they think about. It’s vital to carve out time for some you-time because the only way to take care of everyone else is to take care of yourself first. Using planners is a great stepping stone to doing just that. 

Keeping well-being a priority will be different for everyone, so planning how to do it will be as well. You can get a planner with quick and easy gratitude practices you can implement into your daily routine or a habit tracker that will remind you to nourish yourself within and without. One simple way to mark the time for yourself in the daily planner is to mark an hour or two in different colors so that will jump at you every time you open your to-dos. Oh, and another important thing – try to stick to those times you carved out for yourself; don’t postpone them to fold laundry or clean the washer. You deserve a break and the only way it will happen is if you give it to yourself.

Only a mother knows just how hectic one day can be, so they need all the assistance they can get. Having an easy-to-use, compact planner with you wherever you go will minimize the chance of things slipping through the cracks. 

If you’ve never planned your days like this, it may take a bit of practice to get it right for yourself and your family, and the best piece of advice is to do your planning the night before. Not only will you know what to prepare for, but it will also take the mental load off and let you rest and recharge better. Having a trusty planner will help you not only navigate but also enjoy your life more, and the best way to test this claim is to try it.