If there’s one thing just about any mama could use more of it’s time.
Time is our most valuable resource in life and it’s non-renewable. This becomes ever more apparent during motherhood when life feels even more sacred and suddenly the stakes are raised. Time can start to feel like an illusion as your sweet baby begins smiling and giggling, chores pile up, schedules get busier, kids start school, Christmas comes and goes, and spending quality time with your family feels more important than ever!
Something I’ve been embracing lately is truly optimizing my precious time and refining how I spend it. One way I’m doing this is by automating some of the mundane repeatable tasks in my life. Stuff that maybe I wouldn’t mind doing, but if I don’t have to do it right now… well, in this season of my life, that is definitely a win!
We’re talkin simple tasks that can be automated to help free up more pockets of time in your day that YOU can spend playing with your babies, practicing self-care, or just slowing down your day a bit.
If you can feel a HELL YEAH coming up for you, then I encourage you to do the same! Read my examples of how I’m becoming an automatic mama, and see what you can implement in your life to free up some of your precious time too!
Pssst— if you’re preparing for an upcoming fourth trimester then these tasks should definitely be on your to do list!
1) Amazon subscriptions
Automatic subscriptions on Amazon or other sites save you time and the mental bandwidth involved with having to remember to buy something that you use regularly. For my household, our current Amazon subscriptions involve cat food and litter (pet owners, you can also use Chewy.com for this).
Another auto delivery I have is my prenatal vitamins! One less thing to think about, plus you often get a discount if you auto ship. Personally I’m a proud user and affiliate for FullWell (use link for 20% off first order). I get the three month subscription auto-shipped throughout my pregnancy and for one year postpartum.
2) Thrive market automations
Currently I’m using Thrive for healthy convenient foods as well as household items like hand soap, dishwasher detergent, and laundry soap. I love how you can automate the things you use all the time to get delivered regularly. For food, I definitely have Nut Pods creamer getting delivered. I found that I would frequently go to the store (the way over priced one down the street from my house) just for some coffee creamer, but I would leave having spent $200 on all kinds of crap! I’m much happier doing meal planning at home and just having those necessities getting automated so I have fewer trips to the store.
Some more ideas for how you could automate using Thrive: each month have a few packages of chicken breast, ground beef, or salmon delivered so you know that you will always have some quality protein around. Choosing something simple and versatile (like plain old ground meat, chicken breast or thighs) leaves no fuss or last minute searching around for recipes. You can create your go-tos that are easy to whip up and you know your family will eat them. All meat comes frozen so that’s easy! You can also try automating snacks for kids lunches so you’re never completely empty handed come Monday morning, or automate those staples you use all the time like coffee or even spaghetti sauce.
3) Monthly cleaning service
Okay, this one feels bujie to even say, but it can make a world of a difference for your mental wellbeing. Let’s be real, the early motherhood phase is hard! It’s physically exhausting and in order to not let your personal wellbeing fall to the wayside, you’ll have to just lower your cleanliness standards and maybe even let go of some tasks all together. For me, this involves cleaning the house. However, when the house is disgusting (that can quickly happen with two under two!), it makes me feel a little yucky inside too. It’s not a huge deal, but when this continues for months on end, it can take a toll on the family’s mental wellbeing. Hiring a monthly housecleaner (or maybe once every other week if you’re fortunate!) can make a world of a difference. This is something you can even put on your baby registry if you want. Ask your community for recommendations for local cleaners. When you find one you jive with, set your cleanings to happen on the same date and time each month (duh— we’re automating here!).
4) Grocery lists
As a foodie, I do a LOT of food shopping. Even after Thrive market and my weekly farmers market trips, I still find myself at a grocery store every single week. And being the food obsessed (in a good way!) mama that I am, I have different things that I prefer to buy at different stores based on quality and price. The simplest way to expedite this is to have a running grocery list of the things we use regularly for each store. For example, I have my Costco list, my Trader Joes list, and my health food store list (be it Whole Foods, Lassens, or Cal Fresh). This has seriously helped so much, especially on those days when I’ve got one baby in the baby carrier, the toddler is in the cart, and my mental energy is already spread thin. Just refer to the list and grab those foods you know you’ll use and love!
5) Hair appointments
This might sound silly, but I’m really excited about this one! Cause let me paint you a picture of how it usually goes for me. I realize I need to get a hair cut (and some color!), so I write on my mental and then eventual paper to-do list to make the appointment. A few weeks go by without doing it cause I have a million other things going on. I finally go to make the appointment and there’s a two month wait! When all is said and done, my hair is lookin like dookie by the time I finally get in to the salon (face palm). SO NOW what I’m doing is at the end of my hair appointment (my locks are looking fabulous from my recent appointment by the way!), I immediately book my next appointment for four months out (or whatever). This way the next one is set before I even leave the salon. I get first dibs on an appointment time and day of week that is convenient for me since I’m booking so far out, and I never have to think about it again! I just have that to look forward to on my calendar. :) Plus that means lots of extra time to arrange childcare if needed.
6) Wellness or medical appointments
Do you have any regular health related appointments that you can automate? Like the chiropractor, acupuncture, pelvic floor physical therapy, personal training sessions, etc? Automate it! Schedule out each of your sessions to happen on the same day of the week and time (or whatever works for you!) and get it all on the calendar for at least a month out so you don’t have to carry around the mental load of knowing that you need to constantly schedule your appointments.
7) Automatic bill pay
This is something I’ve been doing for years, but it’s on here as a reminder for anyone getting close to birth (or after the matter!) that needs some inspiration. Setting all your bills to automatic payment is a really smart thing to do in preparation for postpartum because those newborn weeks (and months) are such a time warp that it could be easy to get behind on things like bills or other household chores. Set yourself up for success ahead of time so you don’t accidentally find yourself in a pickle later.
8) Pack lists
Who doesn’t love traveling, even if it’s just a one night getaway to mix things up? But throw a baby into the mix, and suddenly the car looks like you’re packing up for a cross country haul regardless of where you’re going or for how long! One thing I’ve gotten wise to is creating a pack list for my family (okay, it’s mostly for the kids but may as well include us all!). This list includes what we need to bring to do an overnight anywhere successfully. Having this list to refer to has made traveling with a baby so much easier. I don’t end up bringing 10,000 things (anymore…), and I have less stress during take off because I know we’ve got all the necessities checked off our list! Now that I have two littles, I actually have two lists: one for the under one stage, and one for everything beyond that (adios pack-and-play!). Try making your pack list during your next pack up. Document everything you’re bringing and then after your trip give it a quick read through and delete anything that you didn’t really need, and add anything you wish you had brought! In the spirit of automation, save this list as a document in your Google docs or on your computer/smart phone with a super obvious name so you can easily search and find it next time.
Bonus idea: further automate food delivery with a CSA box or Instacart
CSAs are community supported agriculture programs where you sign up to get a weekly (or however often) box of fresh local produce delivered straight to your door. CSAs are so helpful for farmers because they can plan and get paid in advance (farming is extremely hard work and we gotta love up on our local farmers!), and it’s great for consumers who get that fresh goodness delivered straight to their door! This is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have the time to go to farmers market regularly. Personally, I don’t use a CSA because far mar is my happy place and i really enjoy taking my kids there each week. But CSAs are a great option.
Instacart is an easy way to get groceries delivered from the store. Truth be told, I’ve never used Instacart but I do know some people who swear by it. Again, if you don’t have the time (or don’t want to spend your limited free time at the store), try getting your stuff delivered. This could be especially helpful during early postpartum! But of course you won’t have to worry about that because you already did your postpartum food prep. :)
Want more ways to automate? Download my FREE Daily Checklists for a Healthy Pregnancy. Print it out and pin it to your fridge to make those daily selfcare steps easy!
What types of things are you automating these days, mama?
Got any favorite services or apps that make life easier? Please share below!
This page contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you choose to make a purchase. It should go without saying, but just in case, I only ever recommend products that I whole heartedly believe in, that I use in my own personal life, and that I would recommend to my best friend. I hope these resources are helpful to you!