My “Go-To” Time Management Technique to Balance Work, Family and Me-Time

You’d love to cut down your work hours but the endless tasks, looming deadlines, and the fear of letting your colleagues down keep you chained to your desk. And even when you manage to stay away from work emails on the weekend, you’re still rushing between grocery shopping, meal prepping, cleaning, endless laundry, and shuttling the kids to their activities… Finding time for family fun or for a hint of me-time feels almost impossible!

Now, I won’t deny it: if you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s probably because your load is heavier than what your schedule can realistically handle. That said, there are time-management techniques that can help you carve out space for the things you really want to do. In this blog, I share why time-blocking is my go-to method, and how it can help get things done while still leaving room to breathe and actually enjoy life.

What is time-blocking?

The concept of time-blocking is pretty simple: you organise your day by scheduling specific blocks of time for different activities. For example, you might have two hours of deep work in the morning to focus on an important report, followed by 30 minutes for checking emails, and then three hours of meetings. You can organise your personal time in the same way: 30 minutes to prep dinner, 45 minutes for bathtime and bedtime stories with the children, and 20 minutes of yoga or relaxation before you go to sleep. The key is deciding in advance what each time block is for and sticking to it as much as possible (but without being too rigid).

Time blocking helps me be realistic and kinder to myself

Planning my schedule through time-blocking forces me to think about how much time each task is likely to require, and ultimately whether I can fit it all into my day. For example, I might have five items on my to-do list (okay, in real life it’s more like 1,000, but roll with me). If each takes 30 minutes, that’s great, I can get them all done. But if one task takes three hours, the next one four hours, and I also need to factor in two hours of commuting, suddenly it’s a very long day… and I haven’t even ticked off half my to-do list! I might end up beating myself up for not getting things done with that familiar negative self-talk telling me I’m so inefficient… but the issue was not my productivity, I just needed a more realistic plan!

Time-blocking also helps me tackle medium to big projects without overwhelm. Let’s say I have an article to write, I divide it into several blocks: one hour for research, another for brainstorming and sketching out the outline, two hours for the actual writing, and 15 minutes for proofreading and formating. This approach turns a huge and scary job into small manageable chunks. It also helps me work backwards from the deadline to make sure it will be done on time. And at the end, I can check whether my time guesses were realistic which means that next time, I can plan even better without overloading myself.

Time-blocking stops my day from being hijacked

You’ve maybe heard of the Eisenhower Matrix and the difference between urgent and important. The bad news? If you don’t plan the not-so-urgent but important tasks, they’ll almost always get pushed aside to accommodate other people’s “urgent” things. If you have a project that really matters to you but has no fixed deadline, it’s unlikely to get done unless you deliberately block time for it in your calendar. Otherwise, you’ll end up scheduling meetings, replying to emails, and staying “busy” without actually moving forward on what makes a difference.

This is especially important if you’re often pulled into meetings that aren’t productive and keep you distracted. A client of mine had a brilliant idea: she blocked a full day as a “writing retreat.” That way, she could confidently say, “Sorry, I can’t that day, I’m on a retreat.” When you time-block your important projects, you’re far less likely to give in to last-minute requests that derail your focus.

And time-blocking isn’t just for work. I also block out my personal time, especially exercise (if you’ve read my previous blog, you’d know that I’m not a sporty person, so I really have to be disciplined about working out). For instance, I’ve been meaning to go swimming once a week. The weeks I actually put it in my calendar, I go. But the weeks I just tell myself, “I’ll go sometime… maybe Wednesday, maybe Friday,” well, guess what? I don’t go at all, because something “urgent” always gets in the way.

That’s why I encourage you to include your personal priorities as blocks in your schedule: playtime with the kids, a walk to the park, dinner with your partner, your yoga class, a coffee catch-up with a friend… You might also want to block out time for yourself without a specific agenda. Yes, that precious “me-time” that mums so often lack! If you schedule it, you’re much more likely to protect it.

How I make time-blocking work with my busy mum schedule

The first thing is that I stay flexible and allow myself to be imperfect.

My schedule isn’t set in stone, I can move blocks around when I need to. For example, if I planned just two hours for a creative project but find myself in “flow mode,” and the next hour was meant for budget planning, I won’t stop mid-flow to look at my finances, I’ll keep creating. The same applies to the unpredictability of mum life: sick kids, last-minute school events, forgotten sports gear… You may have planned two hours to finish a report but instead end up spending them driving to deliver your daughter’s swimmers for her lesson. Those two hours will need to be rescheduled, and that’s okay.

Time-blocking is meant to give you structure, not to create more stress (and definitely not more negative self-talk) if you can’t follow the plan perfectly.

If you work from home, it can help to build in little windows between blocks for quick household tasks. For instance, I usually switch on the laundry before heading out for my coffee walk, then come back for one hour of focused work. When that one-hour block is done, it’s time to hang the laundry.

I also like to add micro-pauses between blocks. For example, I might sit in the sun for five minutes, stretch, or listen to a short meditation before moving into the next block. These tiny breaks help me recharge throughout the day, so I’m not already running on empty when it’s time to leave my desk and pick up the kids.

As a final note, remember that every mum’s life looks different. What works for me might not be the magic formula for you. Give yourself permission to experiment, notice what feels helpful (and what doesn’t), and trust that over time you’ll shape a system that will fit your life and make your days feel a little lighter.