Not Sure How to Catch Up
When You’re Behind on Everything?

Time management tips are essential when you find yourself asking HOW to catch up when life becomes completely overwhelming!

As a stay at home, work from home, homeschool mom – time management will always be my worst enemy! Finding time to teach daily lessons, work, keep up with the house, spend quality one-on-one time with my children, adult in the evening with my husband, and still manage to fill the dressers with clean underwear and get dinner on the table is hard stuff, you guys!

My to do list never ends.

Want to know more about how I manage my to do list on a daily basis?

Check out Mom’s Priority Tracker for all the details and even get your hands on a free printable!

It’s so incredibly easy for me to get overwhelmed and place an area of my life on the back burner. Self care tends to get put there more often than I would like to admit, but quality time with the kids or husband, laundry, and dinner all take their turns on that back burner as well.

This was a cycle I really needed to break. Not because I absolutely needed to do all the things every day, but simply because I needed my sanity back.

I’ve written post after post on self care and catching up on a specific area of your life… but catching up on everything when you feel like you are drowning? That one is a doozy!

I currently (and always will) struggle with this one, you guys!

Not drowning in every single area?

If homeschool is your main struggle… Check out How to Catch up on Homeschooling for all the details on how I used last summer to catch all my kids up and get our homeschool back on track.

House work, or more specifically –> laundry your current struggle?

Check out How to Catch up on Laundry to get all the details on the simple method I use to get completely caught up in as little 2-3 days!

How to Catch up…
Time Management Tips
Simple 3 Step Process

Step One

Create a DUMP to do list.

This is just how my brain works best. I seriously thrive on a good dump to do list, you guys!

Behind on a work project? Jot it down. Need to clean out the fridge? Put it on there too!

Use details or be completely vague – that part doesn’t really matter and is what I would consider pure preference when it comes to brain dumping. The end goal should always be the same though – a list full of random things that need to get done. Boom!

If you are a homeschool mom, don’t forget to add homeschool tasks to your list as well!

Simply take a moment to think about all the different elements and tasks that make up your daily life.

Cover every single area and make sure everything makes it to your brain dump list! Work, homeschooling, family stuff, housework, meals, errands… if you need to do it, add it!

Step Two

Re-write your to do list in order of importance.

Once your brain dump list is complete, this is a great time to work on prioritizing.

You can get fancy and make columns for each area of your life, or you can keep it simple and compile everything into one giant to do list that is listed in order of importance.

I prefer the method of separating my newly prioritized tasks into columns or even on separate pieces of paper. I simply function better this way.

Plus, it helps to eliminate any type of overwhelm from all your top priorities landing in the same category. I can bounce around and tackle the number 1 priority in each area of my life, then move on to priority number 2 in each!

Step Three

Here it is, you guys! The FINAL step!

Work in 25-30 minute bursts with simple 5-10 minute breaks in between.

Okay, this is where things get real good. I can talk for hours on how to plan a good catch up day. Heck, I could even spend days planning one, cause I live for that stuff! However, actually following through with the above method is where it really matters!

I absolutely love block scheduling my catch up days.

Want to know more about this method? Check out A Much Needed Catch Up Day, where you can also get your hands on a free printable BLOCK schedule for catching up on all your important tasks.

First, start by blocking out your important tasks in 25 minute bursts.

Then, plan 10 minute breaks to catch up on actual LIVING.

My block schedule tends to be 25 minute work burst – 25 minute work burst – 10 minute rest.

That’s 50 minutes of work, followed by 10 minutes of soaking up the little moments.

Once your official plan is in place, simply adjust or tweak it as you go along!

Working in bursts, followed by a small moment of rest, allows your brain the chance to restart and gives you a quick moment to soak up some snuggles with your kids or have a quick conversation with an actual person – leaving the overwhelming feeling of being completely consumed by your work behind.

How to Catch Up…

While this isn’t ideal for every day living… these simple time management tips will help you get a handle on things when they become too much!

Trust me… I’ve been there.

Actually, I am kinda there right now… and if I’m honest, I come back to visit waaaay too often. Ha!

Life’s hard and unexpected and as long as I’m a homeschooling, working mom… I will revisit this 3 step process many, many times a year.

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