Today is the last day of school for us (currently feeling very envious of those of you who still have another week to go!). But today also signals that the end-of-year crazy season is only going to get 1000 times worse from now. In between school holidays, increased work at my podiatry job, my book launch prep and tasks, Dorian’s birthday, Christmas celebrations, and more, there’s really not much room to breathe, let alone sit down and have a quiet moment to myself.

The worst thing is that it’s not just December, but this will be our next 2-3 months. Because childcare and vacation care for us don’t start back up till about the 2nd week of January, and straight after that it’s both hubby’s and my birthdays. Then, school resumes and we’ll be trying to get back into a routine whilst adjusting to a new school year, teacher, class, etc (which is not easy when you have a child who is neurodivergent)! Basically, we may not get settled into a “calm” normal until late February.

So, when you’re an already busy mum whose life is about to get even busier, you get prepared. And you start using whatever hacks you can think of to make your life easier. Lucky for you, I’m going to share some of my busy mum hacks with you today in preparation for the summer holiday period.

1. Get Organised

If you’re super busy, then you kinda need to be super organised (or as much as you can be anyway!) For me, it all comes down to schedules, routines, and habits. I plan everything – not only does it help me remember and keep track of things, but writing everything down helps reduce the overwhelm in my brain (if you’ve known me for a while, then you’ll know that I cannot live without my Steph Pase Signature Planner!).

I plan my schedules for the day and week, and I try to time-block or group similar tasks together to make things easier and more efficient. I also plan out my routines, because if it becomes habit, it’s much easier to remember and to do (plus our kids really rely on routines, especially our AuDHD boy). And in keeping things more efficient, I try to routine/habit stack as well, eg as I’m cleaning up the kitchen at night, I pack the lunches for the next day, or when I have my morning coffee, I’ll take my supplements.

2. Five-Minute Tasks

Instead of trying to get a million things done at once, or stressing that I’ve got too much to do and not enough time, I break things down into smaller tasks, eg instead of trying to clean the whole house, I either break it down into cleaning just the kitchen, or just vacuuming all the floors. And if able, I break it down even further, eg listing all the little tasks involved in cleaning the kitchen like wiping the bench-tops, cleaning the sinks, mopping the floors, etc.

Once I’ve got my list of tasks, then I ask myself, how many can I get done in 5 minutes (and depending on your day/life, you can change this to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or maybe even 2 minutes!). Even though they might just be tiny things, they all start to stack up and you’ll find that you can achieve a lot in a short time. Plus, the little endorphin boost you get from crossing things off your list always helps! 🤩

3. "Too Hard" Basket

I mean this very literally. I actually have several baskets around the house, and when there’s something I don’t have time to put away, something that needs fixing, something that I need to work on at some point, or something that’s too hard/time-consuming to do in the moment, I literally chuck it in the “Too Hard” basket and come back to it later. 😅

4. Bulk Grocery Shop

We do a fortnightly bulk grocery shop – we get everything we need for the fortnight both for meals and household items. That way, we only need to brave the shops once in that time period. Occasionally, we might have to go back for a quick refill of items like milk, eggs, and bread, but because it’s only a couple of items, we can be in and out in a jiffy.

*We used to do a Click & Collect for our bulk shop so we didn’t have to go into the shops at all (a massive timesaver especially when you could make a list of your favourite/regular items to quickly add to cart), but due to the increased cost of everything, we no longer shop at the big chain supermarkets unless we need specialty/exclusive items.

5. Meal Plan and Prep

To help us with our bulk grocery shop, we also meal plan. I list out all the dinners we’ll have for the fortnight, and this helps me write out my shopping list. It not only saves time both for shopping and cooking, but it saves money because we know that we only need to get items specific to the meals we’re making.

With the meal planning, I also like to plan quick and/or easy meals on our busiest days, which for us are Mondays and Tuesdays. I also tend to plan meals with a variety of cooking methods for the start of the week, because what we also try to do is meal prep on the weekends. For us, this looks like cooking meals for Sunday to Tuesday all on the one day (hence the variety of cooking methods so we can have meals in the oven, stove, or slow cooker all cooking at the same time). Then on those days, it doesn’t matter if we’re both at work all day or if we’re running late, because dinner’s already been done.

6. Stick Them In Front of the TV

Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. So, if we have a lot of house chores or things that need to be done without kids getting in the way, we have a movie marathon day. Yes, I hear all the buts… “But too much screen time is bad.” “But you should be spending time with the kids.” “But life’s too short to worry about housework.” I don’t disagree with any of that, BUT sometimes shit just needs to get done. Otherwise, your kids will be living in a pigsty with no food or clean clothes.

7. Say “No” To Events

This took me a long time to get comfortable doing, especially around the December school holidays. I don’t know why there’s always this pressure to “catch up before the end of the year”, but that was the reason year after year I’d end up exhausted and burnt out by Christmas. So now I guard my time, and am very selective about what I say “yes” to. Basically, I’ve taken a concept my friend introduced me to, called the “I should-roundabout”, and I ask myself: 1. Is this important?; 2. Do I have to?; 3. Am I able to?; and probably the most life-changing question, 4. Do I want to?

Wow, so that ended up being a much longer post than initially planned! I really hope that you’ve found it useful though! And the best part is, these hacks won’t just help with school holidays, but can be applied to everyday life in general!

Be sure to let me know if you try any of these hacks and how it went for you! Or conversely, if you have an amazing hack yourself, then please share in the comments below! 💛