Award winning entrepreneur, Inc. Female Founder 100, recovering lawyer, & 4x girl mom. I teach women the skills and networks today that they can use to pivot their work or business tomorrow.
This is my best productivity hack as a working mom of 4. Every month, I create a dinner menu where I serve the same dinner every Monday, the same dinner every Tuesday, etc. It’s not enough of the “same” that my family gets sick of it - but it does make grocery ordering easy and makes my/my husband’s life much easier. (Also, to be honest, one night every week is “go to chick-fil-a” and one is “family dinner at a restaurant.” I am not in this season of my life a gourmet cook.) Hope it helps. Send me your hacks, too, please! (📸 of the fam at one of our favorite restaurants, City Egg.)
Now that kids in middle school my goal is to get them responsible for planning/executing one meal per week. I'm sure it will take a lot of parent-involvement now, but hopefully within the year they will be able to execute independently.
Love this ♥️ One thing we started implementing was talking school updates during our commute (30 min) - checking assignments, missing assignments, goals etc. My daughter is learning to manage her education early — she’s in middle school now — and I feel like this was such a game changer. Everything is accessible online, so it’s doable. Also, by the time we get home, it’s really nice to have already discussed and have the ability to move into other topics. The conversation rarely takes the whole ride, but it gets a 13 yr old talking! Which isn’t always easy!
I do something similar and it makes life so much easier! Now with two teen boys, I automatically just double every dinner recipe too, which will give me a day or two of leftovers for my lunch (if I’m lucky!)
Meal / family related (not necessarily productivity) - Whenever it looked like we were going to have a snow day from school. We would buy a turkey and make a turkey dinner together on the snow day. It was fun to "celebrate" the time at home together in a different way.
Brilliant. Even though my kids are in middle school and I’ve been doing this a while now, every day I’m like “you have to eat dinner AGAIN??” 😓
We have the same hack - I batch cook and then Wednesdays all 4 kids have gymnastics so we get them fast food on the way there and it breaks up the week for us.
We make the same rotation of meals every week too! Leftovers for lunch. Cook M-F and eat out Sat/Sun.
That's an excellent time-saving hack, Amy! Meal planning can be daunting, but this simplified approach sounds practical and stress-reducing. I'm definitely going to try it out. Thanks for sharing!
Love this. We do something similar with food where at least one night a week is pasta and more than likely one is charcuterie aka clean out the open crackers, cheeses, meats, fruit and veg for a picnic style dinner and then one of course is pizza… My hack with three under 6 is packing the car as much as possible for the next day before I go to bed. Getting out of the house is just a tiny bit easier when I know I’ve got the diaper bag, backpack, coats, and water bottles all loaded for school and nanny drop off.
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13hNot exactly a productivity hack, we have themed family nights. These give us something to lean on when life feels busy. Themes: Music Mondays: Pick a music genre or legendary artist, introducing the kids to the world of music history and culture. Tasting Tuesdays: Everyone picks a new food that we all must try. The goal is to expand their tastes, especially the picky eaters among us. Thanks to our pediatrician for the tip. It's not fail-proof but it's a pattern we aim to follow anyway. Winning Wednesdays: Game night. We play cards, board games, or interactive talking games. Thriving Thursdays: The aim is to sprinkle in those little learnings we realize are important for future adulting—reading, experimenting, or creating something as a family. Friday Night Family Movie Nights: A chance to unwind and snuggle up after a long week of school and work.