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Daily routine for working moms is vital to have a balanced life and being best at your role as a mom and a working professional. Most of us feel chaos and overwhelmed with many things to do as working parents that we often end up feeling unsatisfied and stressed. However, this can be avoided if you have a good schedule as a working mom that meets your need and is practical to follow. 

In this post, I am sharing the daily routine of a working mom. This is a full-time working mom schedule that I follow as a 9-5 Working mom with a toddler of 3 years old every day except weekends and has helped me be a working mom able to balance both roles with sanity.

This post will help you with:

• A full-time working mom schedules ideas
• Build your own daily schedule
• Inspire to build a simple and practical schedule

If you are a new mom getting back to work after maternity leave, you will find my post on 12 tips to get back to work after maternity leave very helpful.

Let’s look at the busy working mom schedule …

Daily schedule for working moms

Being a working mom is difficult, you have more to deal with and less time at hand. And even after trying your best you often feel guilty about not being a good mother and worried all the time about your kid’s wellbeing or a deadline to meet at work. I get it, being a working mother is really hard. But there is nothing that we women cannot do #girlpower. 

When I became a mother and had to join back to work after maternity, I almost felt like this is just not possible but luckily I am a person who lives by schedules, routines, and plans. This gave me hope that it will be doable and the fact that many women are out there doing it each day made me realize I can do it too. 

So immediately I got my notebook and pen and started to jolt all I need to do and started to build my routine.

This was one of the best preparation I had done and this routine has just been improvised with time as my daughter is growing and changing needs.

Why do you need a daily routine for working moms?

Having a daily routine is of great help. It creates a structure in your life. Chores and work become part of your life without you even realizing the need to complete work. 

Daily routine offers the following benefits

• It reduces your stress as you know work will be taken care of as per routine.
• You have less need to plan as the most thing when part our your daily routine will be taken care of.
• When you build a routine you are more intentional about the things that you include in your routine this helps you build good habits and break the bad ones.
• Brings a positive start to your day and life.

Now that you are convinced that having a daily routine as a working mom will be really helpful to you, we can move to a daily routine for working moms.

Before we begin know that it may feel challenging to start and follow a routine initially but once you get it, you will be addicted to a good daily routine as it brings so much peace to your life. It is totally worth it.

Daily routine for working moms 

Here is a complete daily routine for working moms this includes morning routine and evening routine, This will be very relatable to full-time working moms

Mornings routine

Wake up early (5:30 am)

The best start for a day as a working mom is to start early in the morning. I suggest getting most of the work done in the morning as after work we are tired and not able to do much.

Also, plan for your day the previous night so that you have a general idea of what your day looks like and you can accordingly start to progress towards the tasks. 

If you are looking to build a practical and useful morning routine read 5 steps to build a morning routine before work that is best for you.

Wake up before kids

The best time management tip for working moms is to get up before your kids. You must Identify all the things that you wish to do in the morning and the approximate amount of time you would need to complete them to plan your wake-up time. Don’t be too ambitious ensure sufficient sleep too.

Personnel hygiene (5:30 – 5:50 am)

After waking up do quick essential personal hygiene things like nature’s call, brushing teeth, and skincare routine. I am not a make-up lover and I like to bathe in the evening so these 20 minutes are sufficient for me.

Have a quiet time (5:50 – 6:00 am)

With many things to take care of in the entire day, it is good to have some quiet time before the start of the day. As a working mom once the day starts till the time you get in bed there is constant work and thinking and morning is the only peaceful time you can take for yourself.

I spend quite – 10-minute sitting on the balcony and sipping water without any gadgets, doing basic breathing exercises, and trying to fill myself with positivity and gratitude.

This just makes me feel calm and better. On days when I skip it, I get very grumpy and feel overwhelmed. So make sure to include these much-needed 10 minutes in your daily routine.

Breakfast and Lunch preparation (6:00 -7:00 am)

Here the actual day starts as a working mom.

Start prepping for Breakfast and lunch first as if you are sure that food for the day is arranged for the family you are at peace.

Bad are days when there is a question lingering in your head thinking about what should you cook for dinner, did your kid have food at daycare? should you get a takeaway on the way home?

Here are some tips to handle this better.

• Plan your meal for the entire week including snacks for kids
• Have basic meal prep done on the weekends
• Eat lunch for dinner too, this will save time
• Try easy breakfasts such as overnight oats or fruit smoothies.
• Cook simple, tried, and tested meals, and leave fancy and long cooking meals for weekends.

Daily chores (6:30 to 7:30 am)

Once you set things for cooking, start with other daily chores for the day.

I start by unloading the dishwasher and putting the dirty ones I used while cooking.

Set the containers for the tiffin on the dining table to pack food as I unload the dishwasher.

Put a daily round of laundry in the washing machine.

Pack lunch.

Just do a quick sweeping of the house. I follow a weekly cleaning schedule with some tasks split in the morning and evening, I use a Google sheet cleaning checklist to make by cleaning schedule that is easy to make a schedule and track the progress.

Wake up kid and get ready (7:30 to 7:50 am)

At 7:30 am, I wake up my daughter or sometimes she gets up before that. On days when she wakes up early, I have to entertain her to get my things done.

Once she wakes up after some cuddles she is off to the bathroom. My husband loves to brush her teeth etc. It is now their ritual and father-daughter time of the day.  And this is such a great help, as during this time I put the lunch bags, water bottles, etc, in the bag and keep the bags ready at the door to leave. Change into my work clothes and get ready

Seek support from your partner where possible, they may be better than you at something.

Breakfast time (7:50 to 8:15 am)

Most importantly have a good breakfast before you leave the house. As a working mom, you need good nutrition to run all around the clock. As a family of working parents, the last we need is for anyone to fall sick, and being healthy and nutritious is the most crucial for all. There may be days when you may choose to eat well and get late for work rather than running empty stomach.

This is something that I have learned after being a mom the health of your entire family depends on your health. If you fall sick everything goes out of place.

So make sure to have a good healthy breakfast and keep sufficient time for it in the daily routine.

Getting out of the house (8:15 to 8:30 am)

We target to leave the house at 8:30 am every day, the last 15 minutes are for changing my kid’s dress. I change them after breakfast to avoid getting them dirty and just look around the house for any safety things like switches off, windows closed, etc. 

Work Hour

My working hours are from 9:30 am in the morning to 6:00 pm in the evening. 

Try to be focused and productive during your work hours so that you are efficient and can leave work on time. The last thing you want is to stay up late after work hours. This just disturbs your schedule for the evening and can at times affect your next day too as you can get late for sleep.

I find being organized at work and prioritizing tasks is very helpful to be at the top of things at work and not get overwhelmed.

In my post 18 tips to be organized at work and How to prioritize work tasks I have explained it in detail, you may find it helpful.

You may also like the Best tips to improve email productivity if you are struggling with spending too much time with emails.

Try to use your lunch hours. Rather than scrolling on social media, you can use it for small personal tasks like ordering groceries or planning cleaning or meal prep etc. when required. Since I do my planning in Google Sheets I can easily do it during office hours.

To keep track of everything I need to do for the day, I follow simplified planning and use this Digital life planner. It help me track my tasks, routines, meal planning, budget, and much more.

Evening routine

Try to keep things minimal in the evening. Avoid getting directly into tasks at home after work, this often makes you feel frustrated and more tired. 

In my post on 5 step system to help you relax and unwind after a busy day and a Simple After work evening routine to keep you sane, you will be able to find help to build an evening routine that is helpful for you.

Bath time (7:00 to 8:00 pm)

After work, the first thing immediately after reaching home is to give my kid a bath, after putting her in a night dress. I put on the TV to keep her occupied so I can take a shower.

There is hardly any time left after work for us to do much. 

After the bath, I catch up with my kid and fold the laundry for the day. As a full-time working mom, it is difficult to find some quality time with kids so try to get it any chance possible.

P.S. You may like Secrets to spend quality time with your kids in a busy life.

Dinner (8:00 to 8:30 pm)

Since the meal will be already prepared in the morning you can just reheat the food and start with dinner, there will be no need to cook from scratch.

At dinner, we catch up with each other about our day and relax ourself by watching web series or movies. We watch only till the time we have dinner which is around 30 min. 

Evening chores (8:30 to 9:00 pm)

Wind up your day with some chores to keep things ready for the next day and in order.

This includes things like loading the dishwasher, getting the garbage out, and doing a 10-minute reset of the house. It is the best way to get the house tidy quickly. You set an alarm for 10 minutes and try to tidy the entire house in that time. You must try this, you will be surprised to realize how much you can complete in 10 minutes.

P.S. You may find my post on 10 Tips To Be An Organized Working Mom useful.

Lastly, have a look at the meal plan for the next day to keep things ready if required, like soaking a pulse or defrosting.

Give a wipe to the kitchen counter and call it a day.

The details of house cleaning as part of my daily routine are detailed in the post Realistic daily and weekly cleaning schedule. Grab your free printable and checklist to build a custom cleaning schedule. Also, check 10 simple working mom cleaning hacks for a tidy house.

Bedtime 9:00 pm

Bedtime around 9:00 pm gives you sufficient time to unwind and fall asleep so that you have enough sleep to get up fresh early in the morning. 

I try my best to be in bed by 9:00 pm, have some talk with our daughter, and put her to sleep. With daily life, we often neglect our well-being, as a working mother it is even more important to avoid burnout, I have Self care ideas for busy moms that are not difficult to practice that you can try for yourself. I like to listen to podcasts or audiobooks while going to sleep, it is my way of practicing self-care. It feels like I have spent some time on things that I want to do and help me unwind. Around 9:30 to 10: 00 pm I am off to sleep.

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Conclusion 

So this was the complete daily schedule of a full-time working mom. This daily routine for working moms is practical with bare essential things. There are days when this is not entirely followed and things are all over the place but on most days this is a go-to daily schedule with a toddler as a working mom. 

It is difficult to immediately have a perfect schedule for you but once you start you will be able to improve it and find the one that is suitable for you, so just be kind to yourself and start with a simple daily routine in your life to see the difference it brings. 

I hope you find this helpful and give you some ideas and inspiration to build your daily working mom schedule. I would love to know in the comments if it inspired you and what your daily schedule looks like.

If you like this you will like: 

10 Practical Time management tips for working moms

22 working mom hacks to make life easier

10 Practical Habits of Productive Moms

21 Tips for work-life balance while working from home