Are you a mom who is struggling to get through the day? Set yourself up well with daily habits for mom success!
I was not prepared for just how hard it is to be a mom. Sure, I knew to expect the newborn stage, and the terrible twos, and the parenting conundrums. But no one warned me about the day-to-day struggles of just surviving as a mom. Moms have so many things on their plates at all time that it’s easy to get frazzled and feel like a failure.
I know I often feel like I’m spinning in about 35 different directions. Have you ever gone to fold the laundry but saw that the bed isn’t made, then saw that your mouthguard needed to be cleaned, and then made a dentist appointment, only to have the laundry sitting in the dryer wrinkling for five hours? That’s me.
Although I certainly haven’t figured out how to stomp this type of day out of my life, I have found that the best way to combat this frazzled feeling is to set daily habits. Because my day is anchored by these habits, when I get off track it doesn’t last long.
If you want touchstones of daily habits for mom success, I urge you to take a wholesale look at your life and figure out which habits would best serve you. Then, slot them into your day. I’m sharing my daily habits so you can see what I mean. If some of my habits seem like they’d be helpful for you, go ahead and borrow them. But please don’t just adopt my schedule from soup to nuts. You really need to decide on your own daily habits for mom success so you can keep them up!
Daily Habits for Mom Success
Morning
I like to front-load my daily habits. Starting my day off strong makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something early and gives me momentum to get through the day without falling apart. Want to know how I start my day? Here are my morning daily habits for mom success.
Empty the dishwasher
My first morning daily habit for mom success is empty the dishwasher. As you’ll see if you keep reading, one of the last things I do every night is run the dishwasher. I let them wash and dry overnight so they’re ready for me to put away in the morning. Because I know that this is the case every morning, I head straight for the dishwasher. It takes me all of five minutes and it really starts my day on the right foot. It’s so powerful to feel like you have your stuff together before 6:00 a.m.
Fill the water bottles
If you have kids in the 2020s, you know that water bottles are a big deal. I can’t ever remember drinking water until I was in law school, but water is very important to this generation of humans. They need their water bottles for hydration and emotional support, so they’d better be ready to go when they get up and moving. That’s why my next morning daily habit for mom is to fill the water bottles. A tip for those of you who want to adopt this habit: take your kids’ orders the night before. Do they want the blue one or the yellow one? Do they want ice? How about lemon? Trust me, a simple question at bedtime will save a lot of heartache in the morning.
Do laundry
I am a huge proponent of the one load a day philosophy when it comes to laundry. That way I always know that I have a load of laundry to do, and I never get buried under a mountain of dirty clothes. If you haven’t tried doing one load of laundry a day, I highly recommend it.
Although you might call doing one load of laundry a day itself a daily habit, I take it one step farther. I start a load of laundry every morning before I wake up my kids. That way, it washes while they get up, eat breakfast, and get dressed so I can head straight to the laundry room and transfer the load from the washer to the dryer as soon as I get back from school drop off. This actually might be my favorite daily habit for mom success. I know, I really need to get a life.
Make coffee
Most moms I know rely on coffee to survive. I count myself a proud member of that group. But to be able to ingest your coffee, you need to make your coffee. I knock out this task right after I do my laundry transfer. I rinse out the pot from that morning’s coffee, and tee up the water and coffee grounds for the next day’s brew. Because I’ve made this one of my daily habits for mom to do, I never wake up without that sweet, sweet caffeine ready for me.
Set out clothes
Another habit that I add to my morning habit stack is to set out the clothes for the next day. I take a look at what the weather is supposed to be, check my calendar to see what we have going on, and choose outfits accordingly for me and both kids. I almost always stick to the outfit I pick for myself. My kids are developing some pretty strong opinions about their clothes these days, so my success rate with them is about 50/50. Pretty soon I’ll transfer this daily habit for mom to them.
Move
My 2024 resolution was to move more. I was so proud of myself for hitting that goal, and I continue to be proud of myself for keeping it up. My daily movement isn’t always something crazy, but I make sure that I move my body every day. I usually slot this daily habit for mom at the end of my morning habit chunk. Depending on how much time I have, I take the dog for a walk, do a YouTube yoga class, or go swim laps. I’m so glad I have this movement to ground me before the day really has a chance to go off the rails.
Afternoon
If I have a weak spot in my daily habits for mom, it’s the afternoon. I’m usually working and then doing the school run in the afternoon, so I don’t have much time for habits. I do try to keep a few things steady in my afternoons, though.
Start dinner
It is almost impossible for me to get dinner made from start to stop at dinnertime. My kids want to play outside, my dog wants dinner, and I’m usually the only grown-up at the house. Because I’ve been doing this a while now, I know that I’ll feel a whole lot better if I start dinner at lunchtime. This is my daily way to ask The Lazy Genius‘ magic question. Now, this looks different every day. Some days I can do a whole bunch of prep for dinner on my lunch break, and other days all I can manage is to fill a pot with water. But whatever I get done helps.
Designated daily task
I might be cheating a bit by calling this a daily habit for mom success, but this is my blog so I can do what I want. Judge me if you will! Every afternoon I do a designated task. These are things that need to be done once a week, and each day gets one of these tasks assigned to it. For example, I set up my calendar for the next week one afternoon, meal plan another afternoon, and change all the sheets on yet another. Assigning these weekly tasks to a specific day really does help make sure they all get done.
Evening
We have already talked about most of my evening daily habits for mom. I set myself up in the evening and then finish the task in the morning. This system works really well for me.
Gather the laundry
So, you know that my favorite daily habit for mom success is my one load a day system. Although that’s largely a morning habit for me, I start the process at night. Before I go to bed, I gather the next morning’s load of laundry so that it’s ready to go in the morning. If I had a delay start function on my washing machine, I would 100% use it, but I don’t so this is the best I can do.
Run the dishwasher
If I want to unload the dishwasher first thing in the morning, I have to run the dishwasher in the evening. It’s the last thing I do before I march my butt upstairs for bed at night.
Read at bedtime
I have found that I sleep so much better if I stick to a consistent bedtime and I read in bed before I turn off the light and go to sleep. Because of how impactful these two things are, I’ve turned them into daily habits for mom success. After I start the dishwasher, I brush my teeth and head to bed. I like to have the light off by 10:00 pm these days, so I usually time this process at 9:30 p.m. Then, I read in bed for about 30 minutes. It really helps me get to sleep faster and stay asleep longer, so it’s a crucial daily habit for me.
Other posts
Looking for other mom life tips? You might want to check out these posts:
I hope sharing my daily habits for mom success helps you set up your own. What are your daily habits that really make a positive impact? Let us know down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.