In this time of more technological advancements than ever before, I think we all need to grasp how technology can help working moms. Since our lives aren’t getting any simpler on their own, I think it’s important to embrace how technology can help us streamline and simplify our busy lives.
For example, imagine a typical day where you’re rushing to get the kids ready for school, responding to work emails, planning meals, and somehow trying to find a moment for yourself. It’s a familiar scenario for many of us, and it’s during these hectic moments that technology can become a helping hand.
Since most of us cannot afford to hire a personal assistant but could probably benefit from having one, I want to explore some tech-savvy solutions designed to make your life easier, allowing you to focus on what matters most – your family and your well-being.
I want to discuss a variety of technology tips tailored specifically for the modern working mom. I’ll be covering everything from mastering the art of efficient time management to simplifying meal planning and grocery shopping.
While we all know that technology can be a problem, especially our and our children’s dependence on it and how it distracts us, I want to explore how we can use it to our advantage instead. There are many ways that we can make our professional life more manageable while ensuring we don’t miss out on precious family moments.
Speaking of our children, I’m also going to explore educational and entertaining apps for your little ones, providing a guilt-free way to incorporate screen time into their routines. Our attitude toward our kids and technology does not have to be all or nothing; it can be more intentional.
I’m also going to emphasize the importance of health and wellness for any mom and look at ways to introduce fitness apps that cater to your busy schedule and mental health tools to keep stress at bay.
So grab your favorite beverage and a pad to jot things down, and let’s explore how technology can bring ease, efficiency, and a little extra peace of mind to your busy life.
This week I’m going to discuss time management apps and tools, meal planning and grocery shopping apps, educational and entertainment apps for kids, and health and wellness apps for mom.
Time management apps and tools
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I talk a lot about effective time management for working moms. The truth is that, in the whirlwind of a working mom’s life, time is of the essence.
Balancing work commitments, school activities, and family appointments requires a well-organized schedule. Luckily, technology offers options to help you stay on top of your game.
First, let me say that when I teach my accountant coaching clients all about effective time management, I do not have them rely on technology to manage their workload or their productivity. However, I do suggest managing appointments and activities using a digital calendar.
Although I don’t recommend a digital calendar to manage your productivity, as a busy family, there is a lot to be said for the importance of having a synchronized family calendar. The family calendar can become your secret weapon for keeping everyone on the same page.
The first suggestion is Google Calendar. It allows you to synchronize family events, work commitments, and personal activities. You can share calendars with family members, set reminders and receive notifications to stay on top of your schedule. It’s my go-to for staying organized for my life and my coaching business because it’s easily accessible on my iPhone.
The second suggestion is the Cozi Family Organizer app. This is a family-friendly calendar with color-coded events for each member. It includes a shared shopping list and to-do lists and can send automated weekly agendas to keep everyone informed.
As I said before, I don’t teach my time management clients to use technology to manage their productivity, but task management tools can be helpful. Creating a digital to-do list that aligns with both your professional and personal priorities can make it easier for things not to fall through the cracks.
For example, an app like Todoist allows you to create and manage to-do lists with due dates and priority levels. It helps you to collaborate on shared projects with family members or colleagues and integrate with other apps for a centralized productivity hub.
Task management apps allow you to categorize tasks by urgency, set deadlines, and track completion progress. This way, you can say goodbye to the chaos of scattered sticky notes and hello to a well-organized task management system.
The last category under time management tools and apps is collaborative tools for delegating responsibilities. As I tell my coaching clients all the time, just because something is on your to-do list doesn’t mean it’s yours to do.
Technology allows you to team up with your family members by using collaborative tools that allow for task delegation. Assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and celebrate achievements together. These apps promote teamwork, ensuring that everyone contributes to the household’s success.
For example, there’s the app Any.do. It helps you to organize tasks, set reminders, create recurring events as well as share lists and projects. It also allows for smart integration with virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant.
Hopefully, by incorporating some of these time management apps and tools into your daily routine, you’ll find yourself navigating through the demands of work and family life with greater ease.
Meal planning and grocery shopping apps
Let’s face it, balancing the demands of work and family life often leaves little time for meal planning and grocery shopping. Fortunately, technology has come to the rescue with a variety of apps designed to simplify these tasks, making mealtime more enjoyable and grocery shopping less stressful.
First, let’s talk about meal planning apps. One of the biggest issues for accountant moms is dealing with decision fatigue.
We’re making thousands of decisions a day, so anything we can do to lighten the cognitive overload, the better. That’s where meal planning apps can be helpful.
My suggestion is to create weekly meal plans for a less stressful routine. When my kids were younger, we had certain days of the week that we ate certain things like meatless Mondays, taco Tuesdays, and burger Fridays.
The first app that can help with meal planning is MealBoard. It allows you to plan weekly meals, create shopping lists in one place, organize recipes, track inventory, and streamline your cooking routine. It’s also customizable for dietary preferences and restrictions.
The next suggested app for meal planning is Yummly. With this app, you can discover personalized recipe recommendations based on your preferences, plan weekly meals with easy-to-follow recipes and step-by-step instructions, and automatically generate shopping lists for efficient grocery shopping.
If you’re looking for apps with family-friendly recipes and nutritional information, you might want to check out BigOven. This app allows you to access a vast recipe library with family-friendly options, plan meals, create grocery lists, and even utilize leftovers efficiently. It also provides nutritional information for informed and healthy choices.
If you’ve ever opened your refrigerator or pantry and had no idea what to make with what you have on hand, then the app SuperCook might be a good choice. With this app, you can input available ingredients, and the app suggests recipes to minimize food waste, providing family-friendly recipes suitable for various dietary needs.
I don’t know about you, but grocery shopping has always been one of my least favorite chores. It’s too time-consuming, and I would always get to the checkout and be shocked by the amount I was spending.
Once I discovered the grocery shopping app Peapod, which is connected to the grocery store Stop and Shop, I was hooked. Not only did I fill my grocery cart with only what I needed, but it also saved me so much time, effort, and money.
Now I’ve started using Instacart because I like the idea of supporting individuals who purchase and deliver the groceries for you. When my daughter, Kelly, needed extra money, she worked for Instacart and I loved the idea of supporting people trying to make ends meet by doing something that is so helpful for me.
What I like about Instacart, besides supporting people who do the purchasing and delivering, is that they aren’t connected to just one store. You can purchase things from Walmart, a pharmacy, Bath & Body Works, etc. It’s like having your own personal shopper.
Along with using apps to purchase products is having budgeting features to save money.
For example, there’s the app Flipp that helps you browse digital flyers and coupons from local stores. It can create and organize shopping lists with the best deals in mind, track expenses and stay within your budget with the app’s budgeting tools.
Another app is Out of Milk. This app helps you manage shopping lists, pantry inventory, and to-do lists in one app. You can scan barcodes to quickly add items and compare prices, as well as set budget limits and receive notifications to avoid overspending.
With these meal planning and grocery shopping apps, you can transform the often hectic tasks of planning meals and restocking your pantry into efficient, time-saving processes that contribute to a stress-free routine.
Educational and entertainment apps for kids
While we don’t want our kids to become dependent on technology, we also have to face facts – technology isn’t going away, so the more involved we are with our children’s choices, the easier it might be for everyone.
As a working mom, educational and entertainment apps can be invaluable allies, providing not only educational content but also a means for quality family time.
When my children were younger, I used to worry about my son, Brendan, being so involved in video games. But then one day, he showed me what he was doing, how it helped him with problem-solving, the friendships he was making, and the social interaction he was having.
He is now a very successful software engineer because of his love of technology. I once saw the insanely gorgeous yacht of the creator of WhatsApp docked at a marina I was visiting and joked with my son Brendan that this is what happens when you let little boys play with technology.
As far as educational apps go, there are so many options, depending on the age of your children.
For example, ABCmouse is tailored for preschool to early elementary school children and contains interactive games, puzzles, and activities covering various subjects. It offers progress tracking to monitor your child’s learning journey.
There’s also the Duolingo ABC app. This app is designed for early readers and focuses on language and literacy. It offers engaging lessons, stories, and games to foster reading skills. It has a colorful and intuitive interface for a child-friendly learning experience.
But since we don’t want our children attached to a screen all day, there’s also the importance of setting screen time limits and having the use of parental controls.
For example, Google Family Link manages and monitors your child’s screen time across devices, allowing you to set daily limits, approve app downloads, and receive activity reports. This helps to encourage a healthy balance between online and offline activities.
There’s also the app Qustodio. This comprehensive parental control app helps with screen time management, blocking inappropriate content, monitoring social media, and tracking location, offering customizable settings for different age groups and individual profiles.
And since it can be important to meet the tech-savvy younger generation where they are sometimes, it’s also important to consider quality family time with interactive and entertainment apps.
For example, Kahoot! is a family-friendly trivia game for educational and entertaining play. You can create custom quizzes or explore pre-existing content, which encourages friendly competition and learning in a fun environment.
There’s also Toca Life World which is imaginative, open-world play with virtual characters and environments. This offers the chance to promote creativity through storytelling and exploration and is a safe and ad-free space for children to express themselves.
In order to balance screen time with other activities, there’s Adventure Academy which provides educational games on a diverse range of subjects. It balances learning with gameplay, helping to build a love for exploration and encourages collaborative play.
Another app is Seek by iNaturalist. It encourages outdoor activities by merging the digital and natural worlds and instills a love for nature and discovery in children.
These educational and entertainment apps can not only aid in your child’s development but also provide a balance between screen time and other activities, ensuring a well-rounded and enriching experience.
Health and wellness apps
And last but not least, I want to talk about using technology for maintaining your health and well-being. Even though you’ve got a lot on your plate, thankfully, technology can offer you a range of fitness and mental health apps to help you prioritize self-care amidst your busy schedule.
First, let’s start with fitness apps for busy moms. The first one is called 7 Minute Workout and offers short, high-intensity workouts tailored for busy schedules. It requires minimal equipment for convenience and is ideal for fitting in a quick exercise session during hectic days.
One of my favorites is Body Groove. You may have seen their ads, but they incorporate exercise with music and dancing. Their classes are geared for all different ages and stages of fitness.
In order to incorporate physical activity into your busy schedule there’s also the app FitOn. They offer a diverse range of workout classes led by certified trainers and offer flexibility in choosing workout durations and intensity levels.
There’s also Sworkit which tailors workouts to your time availability and fitness level. There’s no need for equipment, exercises can be done anywhere, and they offer a variety of workouts to keep routines interesting and challenging.
Lastly, it’s important to focus on your mental and emotional health. Let’s start off with stress management tools for busy working moms.
One of my favorite apps is Calm. It offers guided meditation sessions for stress reduction, sleep stories, and relaxation techniques for improved sleep, and breathing exercises to manage stress on the go.
My next favorite is Headspace. They offer mindfulness and meditation exercises for stress relief, specializing in focus, anxiety, and overall well-being. The short sessions are designed for busy schedules.
For a healthy mindset, there’s Aura. They provide personalized mindfulness exercises based on mood and preferences, mindful breathing and nature sounds for relaxation, and daily reminders to encourage consistent practice.
There’s also Insight Timer. They offer a large library of guided meditations and music tracks, a community feature for connecting with other meditation enthusiasts, and a timer for self-guided meditation sessions.
By integrating these fitness and mental health apps into your routine, you can carve out precious moments for self-care. Whether it’s a quick workout to boost energy or a guided meditation to ease stress, these apps cater to the unique needs of busy moms striving for a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
Hopefully, I’ve given you some ideas that you might consider implementing to streamline your mom life. Just know that if there’s an issue that you’re struggling with, there’s probably an app that can help.
Summary
There are many ways that we can make our professional life more manageable while ensuring we don’t miss out on precious family moments.
Our attitude toward our kids and technology does not have to be all or nothing; it can be more intentional.