This is Step 4 of the Time Management for the Stay At Home Mom Series. For all posts in the series, please go here.

Oh no she did-n’t. Yup, I did.

Is your computer your time suck?

Now for all who said “No,” take a second and ask yourself that again–I once answered no and later found that I should have answered Yes. Denial is a fascinating thing.

I didn’t realize how much my computer sucked up my time until I stopped looking it until the kids went down for a nap. GASP! Did you read that?! NAPTIME? That’s like…all the way until 1pm. Holy cow.

I once read about one blogger who didn’t open her computer until 1pm and I thought that was like blasphemy. How on EARTH did she do that?!?! Maybe she cheated and used a SmartPhone, I dunno. But once I tried it, I realized how much more I got done.

I do still pick up my SmartPhone for little tasks, like managing my apps, checking my calendar and to do list, seeing if emails come in, or photographing my kids, but aside from that, I rarely get online until the kids are asleep! And holy moly guacamole I am so much more productive! I often find that an email I check in the morning, or an IM with a friend, can throw off a full day. I put up a blog post and have to press refresh 1,000 times because I want to make sure there weren’t any issues people had. I see some recipe on Pinterest and then find a blog filled with delicious recipes. I post a comment on Facebook and feel the need all day to keep refreshing to see what people have said.

So this is your challenge: Take just ONE week to where you don’t turn your computer on until your kid naps (if the kid’s don’t nap, pick a 1 hour block mid-day).

Mind you, I am not perfect at this. You’ll see me on here before nap time. I strive to do this most days of the week and find that it helps me out tremendously. My challenges are not about taking extremes, but about testing different things that help productivity.

Let me know how it goes. If you find you are more productive, awesome, keep doing it. If not, well, at least you tried!