Time Management Mama Book Review

When I first started reading Time Management Mama by Sarah Korhnak and Beth Anne Schwamberger, I didn’t expect to be surprised. I have piles of time management books stacked throughout our house: in the bedroom, in the office, in the family room, and *ahem* in the bathroom. And I’ve read ALL of them. To be honest, I expected that this one would be like the other hundreds of time management books that I’ve all ready read…. It’s not. Here’s my Time Management Mama Book Review!

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Time Management Mama Book Review

After reading Time Management Mama: Making Use of the Margins to Pursue Your Passions cover to cover in less than 2 days and rereading it multiple times since, this book has become my go-to time management resource!

Why?

I’m so glad you asked. 🙂

It’s By Moms for Moms

This is not your father’s or your husband’s time management book. This book is written BY moms FOR moms. Like so many of us, Sarah Korhnak and Beth Anne Schwamberger are women leading multi-faceted lives full of children, family, housework, AND a passion for their business.

An Emotional Component

I laughed and LOLed. I cried and smiled and nodded my head in agreement. And I scribbled A LOT of notes (which is a very emotional experience for me). #ImJustWeirdThatWay

It’s Funny

I don’t know about you, but most of the time management books I’ve read make me feel stressed, incompetent, and just plain depressed.

Not Time Management Mama!

It’s funny and full of stories, jokes, and just a touch of sass!

The Gift of Hope

I actually felt HOPE while and after reading Time Management Mama. When I finished it I sat, slightly stunned with a goofy smile on my face, feeling excited about the changes I could make to my time management techniques and my life.

“Life Management Mama”

This book should be called “LIFE Management Mama.”

In the three weeks since I read it and applied the ideas and techniques, I’ve completely changed my life for the better. At a time when it normally falls apart (summer break)!

UPDATE January 2018: I’m STILL using these techniques to fine tune my priorities and my passions, and to better manage the valuable time I have to work on my business!

A Gorgeous Planner, Oh My

These ladies had me at “planner.”

BTW, I LOLed again when I watched these adorable kiddos! 🙂

Learn more about the The Brilliant Business Planner here.

I “Know” These Ladies

Okay, I don’t really know them. We aren’t close, personal friends, but I spend many precious hours each week on their Brilliant Business Moms site listening to podcasts, reading posts, hearing stories. I feel like I know them. That’s a heck of a lot more than I can say for most of the authors of my other time management books.

If you own a business, you should check out Brilliant Business Moms. #Seriously

Powerful Action Items

After reading this book, I walked away with powerful action items that I was able to implement immediately.

I’ll share a few. Don’t worry! I won’t give it all away.

#1 ~ “Good is the enemy of best.”

I read these six works over and over and over again, because I knew they would be important to me. And, oh, how right I was!

I now know why I’ve been doing everything halfway….

Why nothing is finished….

And why I’m constantly frustrated and overwhelmed and lying on the floor in a puddle of tears!

It’s because “good is the enemy of best.”

#2 ~ Finding my top passions and goals.

This is intimately tied to #1 above. If good is the enemy of best, then I need to know which pursuits I want to give my best. For me, it’s my family, our finances, making our home a haven, creating a daily exercise habit, and publishing killer content to my blog.

#3 ~ Don’t waste small blocks of time.

I’m always frustrated because I crave a 5-6 hour work day in which to get all of my to dos done and to really focus on my big projects and dreams.

Well, guess what? That just isn’t going happen!

This book helped me wake up and take a nice, long sniff of reality. I have kids, a husband, dogs, friends, family, never-ending piles of laundry, a messy house, ongoing chauffeur duties, and a day job. I’m NEVER going to have 5 or 6 hours to dedicate to a project or a goal. And now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

So, now I know that if I want to realize my goals and dreams, then I have to be the “best” at productively using my 10 or 15 minute blocks.

#4 ~ Dedicate big time blocks to a big dream.

My big dream is to write a successful, helpful, and informative blog. So, when Hubs leaves in the morning at 6 am AND after I do at least 15 minutes of yoga, I hit the office and work that blog like a crazy woman.

Final Thoughts

If you are knee-deep in motherhood with small children crying, making messes, and needing, please, please read this book!

I SO wish this book had been available when my children were young. It was a challenging time. One I’d never give up, but challenging all the same. I felt lonely, isolated, overwhelmed, and depressed.

But if I could have gotten my hands on the hefty dose of hope and inspiration that Time Management Mama gave me, things would have been different: more positive, more focused. I could have looked beyond the day-to-day blur and the exhaustion and realized that “mom” was (and is) what I want to be “best” at.

Time Management Mama Book Review