How is everyone doing on the Time Management for the Stay at Home Mom series? In the last post, I talked about establishing a brief morning and evening routine. Something that helps you keep up on the things that tend to get pretty out of control.

If you haven’t done that step yet, it’s worth going to that post and checking it out. Remember, it’s all about taking baby steps.

STEP 2: COMBATING LAZY DAYS

Do you ever have those days where you just want to sit on your couch all day? Maybe you just want to fiddle around on Pinterest or Facebook? In this step, I’ll help you get through those days and turn them into productive days.

This next baby step is learning to fall in love with your timer.  I swear by the timer in my house, it is great about motivating me. There are days when all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV or work on the computer. Those days come by most often after a long night with the kids. But I have learned to bargain with that lazy side of myself by using my timer system.

I set a timer for 10 minutes and tackle the most overwhelming task. This could be the messiest room, a thing on my checklist that I have been procrastinating on, or whatever. I just try and spend 10 minutes doing it.

It’s easy to think, “I’m tired and don’t want to do anything, but all I have to do is 10 minutes of ___ and then I can sit back down.” I will often find that after just 10 minutes, I want to keep going, and so I do. But if I want to sit right back down after the timer beeps, I don’t beat myself up. Instead, I set the timer for 10 minutes and allow myself a break. This is a great chance for me to sit and knit while chatting with my daughter. Or we curl up and watch part of a Disney movie. Or I catch up with email or blogging.

I am also notorious for letting my computer be a time suck for me. Checking my email could translate into an hour on the computer, flipping through Facebook pages, chatting with friends, googling recipes, or whatever. And I don’t like that–at all. I don’t want my children to see their mother as a person whose face is always behind a computer. So I find that the timer helps snap me out of it and keep me from losing track of time and spending most of the day wasting time online. Once the buzzer goes off, then it’s back to do a next task.

One note: I found that setting the timer on my phone didn’t work, because I could essentially turn it off right there, which worked moreso like a snooze button for me. I instead use my kitchen timer, which makes me have to get up and separate from the current task.

So Your Challenge: Set your timer to work, and set it to rest/play and let me know how it goes. Did you get more done?

Comment here and let me know how you are doing. If you are a blogger, and are blogging about this, feel fee to link up.

Stay tuned for more steps in this series. You’ll see how I build on top of this timer concept to ensure my children get my attention and that I use it to make sure I accomplish something in all areas of my life.