When I became a stay-at-home mom, I thought I’d have so much time to myself (hello, naptime)! But I never thought I’d feel this exhausted, overwhelmed, and unfulfilled.

When you’re a mom, it’s so easy to feel like you’re losing a piece of yourself. After all, during the day, you’re so busy cooking, doing laundry, and let’s not forget about cleaning all.the.messes. By the time naptime or bedtime rolls around, you’re exhausted.

Finding time to do the things you love as a busy mom is challenging, to say the least!

If you’ve been struggling to make time for yourself, or even feeling like you’ve lost your identity, you’re not alone. But it’s time to change that!

Right now, you can get time management, self-care, and organization resources at one low price in The Ultimate Productivity Bundle. Learn more here:

How to Find Time in Your Busy Schedule for Yourself

Use the margins of your day to find pockets of time

Make every second count!

Waiting for a train? Stuck in the longest line ever at the grocery store? Waiting for the timer to go off on your toothbrush?

You may think that a few minutes here and there don’t matter, but you’d be surprised how quickly those spare minutes add up.

If you love to read, download the free Kindle app on your phone and use your margin time to read.

Looking for some great books and more self-care resources? The Ultimate Productivity Bundle is available for a short time, but it’s filled with 129 resources to simplify your life. Downloaded all the ebook files and email them to your Kindle to read them in the margins of your day.

Make your self-care a priority

When you’re running on empty, always putting others first, you’ll quickly burn out. Don’t be afraid to carve out a few minutes every day for yourself.

Have you heard the flight attendants advise you to put your oxygen mask on first? It’s true in everyday life, too.

Take care of yourself so that you have the ability to pour into your family. If you’re dealing with anxiety, burnout, or depression, it’s difficult to be patient with your kids or show affection to your spouse.

You’ll get the biggest benefit if you focus on your health first. Make time for exercise, sleep, and eating healthier.

But don’t forget to make time for hobbies and fun activities that you once loved. Self-care involves making sure that your needs are met, including physical and emotional needs.

Many of the resources in The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, like the Fresh Start workbook, walk you through setting personal priorities so that you can immediately focus on yourself.

These are some of my favorite resources in the bundle to focus on self-care:

Related reading on Organized Motherhood:

Time block your day to schedule your favorite activities

Part of making self-care a priority is to actually make time for it.

One of the best ways to make sure you’re fitting in self-care is to schedule it in your day. Prioritize your activities (and yourself) so that you make time for the things that matter while still crushing your to-do list.

A great starting point is looking at your daily or weekly calendar and blocking out time for your hobbies. Whether it’s 30 minutes before bed every night or a couple hours on Sunday afternoon when the kids take a nap, schedule time for your favorite activities.

You’ll be more likely to make time for yourself if it’s written on your calendar.

Stop doing unnecessary activities

At the end of the day, you’re exhausted. But flopping on the couch or scrolling through social media isn’t going to make you any happier in the long run.

In fact, your social media habits might be causing you more stress.

Instead of doing mindless activities that don’t bring you any happiness or fulfillment, use that time for something that you love.

Streamline your housework or use cleaning routines (and delegate) to be more productive at home so you have more time for the things you love!

Use these resources to automate and create more efficient home routines.

Once you stop doing unnecessary activities, you’ll have time for more fun in your life.

Read a good fiction novel, do a workout video (this will actually give you more energy to do the things you love), or start a new project (knitting, sewing, crafting – anything that you’ve wanted to try or used to do but gave up once you had kids).

Multitask during low-priority activities

Normally, multitasking causes more stress than it’s worth, but sometimes it’s a great way to turn a mindless activity into something you look forward to.

Multitasking during activities that you dislike, like folding laundry, is also a great way to reward yourself and entice yourself to check something off your to-do list.

Try listening to a podcast while you run on the treadmill or do the dishes. Take a self-improvement course while you fold laundry. Or listen to an audiobook (or even the audio files of a course) while you drive.

It’s possible to make time for yourself, no matter how overwhelmed you feel. By prioritizing yourself, blocking time for self-care, and finding new ways to incorporate your favorite activities, you’ll feel better and be able to handle all of life’s challenges!