7 Tips for Staying Organized as a WAHM

Like most moms, I have a crazy to do list. I’m a mom, a wife, a freelance writer, and a blogger. Trying to juggle all of those roles, plus extended family activities, church, and my own downtime can be a lot. To make life easier, I developed a system to keep track of all of my happenings – and I’m here to share my 7 tips for staying organized with you!

Staying Organized as Mom and Wife

Being Mommy and a wife is my biggest (and favorite!) job. But it’s also my busiest job. I have to make sure everyone is fed, the babies are bathed, diapers are changed, laundry is done, floors are swept, dishes are washes, bills are paid, the dogs are fed… the list goes on and on.

So, how do I stay on top of it? I use THREE different calendars to manage my home life and a couple of other tools. I’ll tell you how.

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1. Bills & Payday Calendar

When we first got married, my husband was horrible about spending money. He’s still working on it, but there has been an improvement. I created the bill calendar so that he knew which bills would be coming out of which paycheck. Back then, I color coded it because we each received a regular income. For example, I’d write in his payday and highlight it blue. Then, all of the bills that came out of that check would be written on the calendar and also highlighted in blue. I’d write in my payday and highlight it yellow. All bills coming out of my paycheck would also be highlighted in blue. It was a wonderful system that really worked!

Now that we’re mostly surviving on his income and supplementing with my writing income, the color coding is less necessary. My writing typically pays for gas, groceries, and the occasional eating out at restaurants. His checks are for bills. Nonetheless, we still have our bills calendar with paydays marked and bills written in on the due dates. It makes our financial life much more organized. If you’re looking to do the same, we use this calendar.

2. Events and Appointments Calendar

Between the four of us, we have a lot of things going on. We frequently have doctor’s appointments, my husband’s extra shifts at work, the occasional wedding, family get-togethers, to me working in the church nursery…we stay busy! Without our family events calendar, I would surely be lost.

I tend to color code this calendar every month. It is dry erase, so it’s easy to change things around if need be. Plus, fine tip dry erase markers in a variety of colors make it look so clean! This calendar is my favorite part of my command center. The color-coded events (purple is for church things, blue is for David’s alternating work schedule, etc) make my life more organized. Some might call me crazy, or just OCD, but the color coding in this situation is seriously a huge help for an organized life.

3. Daily Schedule

I keep track of our daily schedule with the calendar on my phone. While I try to use my phone less throughout the day, it does help when a notification pops up telling me it’s lunchtime. I put in my whole day – breakfast, my toddler’s activities, chores, baths, workouts – just about everything. I am nursing my 5-month-old, so I round every task up in time so that I have the free time to feed her on demand.

Having a daily schedule helps me to feel more structured… it’s the one thing I miss about working outside of my house. I used to get up and get ready for the day. Now, I am working as soon as I wake up. I think that will be an experiment soon – how actually getting ready in the mornings effects me as a work at home mom.

Organization as a Freelance Writer

My freelance writing career is my biggest personal source of income. As I said before, it funds gas (my hubby commutes an hour and a half to his full-time job and an hour to his part-time job), groceries, and eating out. The organization for this part of my life is surprisingly the most simple.

4. Google Drive

I use my Google drive for all of my writing. I have Word, but I honestly prefer the ease of Google docs. So, when I receive an assignment, I immediately open a new Google doc and type in the required title. That way, when I open my drive, I see that document in my recent files and know that I need to work on it.

The majority of my freelance work goes to one specific client. He doesn’t have due dates, but typically I get anything under 2500 words to him within 24 hours. The long-form articles I do for him are around 4000 words – those are usually a 48-hour turnaround. If I end up taking a bit longer, the loss is my own, as I don’t get a new title until the current one is submitted.

5. Writing Notebook

In an attempt to use my phone less, I’ve started using a writing notebook. It’s also easier to scribble down random thoughts. I keep my notebook nearby so that when I have a moment (usually when my toddler is taking 955679 billion years to eat lunch), I can take a few minutes to outline the newest article or jot down an idea I want to remember. It makes the actual writing process a lot faster and increases my productivity.

Staying Organized as a Blogger

My blogging organization is reliant on two things: Google Tasks and my Blog Planner. If you’re a blogger yourself, you know how much work goes into it! If you just like reading blogs, we appreciate the support! For me, staying on top of it requires these two methods:

6. Google Tasks

I love Google Tasks for just about anything, but specifically keeping track of my long term blogging goals. It allows me to set a date for each task and check them off as I reach those goals. It’s a good reminder every time I log into my email to focus on those goals. I’m reminded to build up my email subscribers by a certain date and make so much in affiliate sales by another date. It’s really motivating!

7. Blog Planner

Before my blog planner, I was a mess. I posted at random intervals, picked what I would write about minutes before actually writing, and had no idea where I was going. With some blog education, I finally got into a good rhythm!

In my blog planner, I track my monthly goals, social media posts, and blog topics. I then have a page for each blog post where I can make note of things I want to include in the post. It is so helpful and makes me feel far more organized and less stressed than I felt before!

If any of the above organizational tips might apply to you, let’s talk about it! Or, if you can adapt any, tell me how you did!