Hi I'm Suzy, the host of Run Lift Mom!

Run Lift Mom is an audio podcast uplifting women and guiding mothers through their fitness journey. Episodes feature expert interviews in the topics of running, strength training, and motherhood.

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How to Be Productive From Your Phone as a SAHM

Here’s how to be productive from your phone as a SAHM. Note these tips work whether you have a part time passion project like Aloette or are just a Mom in survival mode:

I’m a Mom of 4 including triplets and, per my tax returns the last 3 years, have created a part time income out of thin air in the spare moments of my day.

Pssst- I’m going to give you some tough love first, the address the social media part if you do business there.

1: Turn OFF (almost) all notifications

Notifications are uncontrolled interruptions from your real goals. They prevent you from ever getting into a flow state. You should be in control of what you do and when — not your phone. I’m going to refer to this over and over as “your phone is a tool, not a boss.”

Open the Apple Settings App, then go to the Notifications Section. You’re going to need to get good at opening the Settings app, so learn to find this icon:

Image for post — No badges, almost all notifications off. See below for exceptions.

Go app by app, turning off all notifications.

By the end, the vast majority of your apps should have a notifications setting that looks like this, i.e with no notifications:

Hold on- all of them?

There are only a very few reasons to leave notifications on for a particular app. Here are those reasons:

For all delivery apps, leave notifications on. These notifications are supposed to only come when you want them to, i.e. if you’re standing on the corner trying to get an Uber.
If you get very few text messages, turn off badging on your Messages app but leave banners on. Since you’re setting your phone up to have very few notifications, you’ll actually end up seeing most of your text messages on your home screen as they come in (previously, they were probably swamped by other notifications).
If you get lots of text messages, then turn off all notifications and treat text messages like an inbox that you only check at set intervals.

Leave notifications on for your calendar app. Not missing appointments is basically the entire point of a cell phone.
Leave notifications on for Maps and Google Maps. These apps only notify you when you’re actively getting directions.
Leave notifications on for phone calls. Although, consider turning them off and updating your voicemail to say that phone calls are not the best way to reach you. “You have reached my voicemail which means you tried to call me which means you are a dinosaur. Try me via text or email.” (I will send you a free enzyme peel if you actually do this)
For all the notifications that you left on, go back and make sure badges are turned off. Badges are the red dots with numbers in them that give you anxiety that there’s something important going on in that app.

2: Hide social media slot machines

‘Slot machine apps’ is a pejorative phrase to refer to apps that use variable rate rewards to try to trigger mindless and addictive behavior.

You saw the Netflix documentary, right?

These are virtual drugs and due to societal oversight, your dealer (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) is allowed to pose as a respectable member of society.

These are addictions. Even if you use them for business.

When your addictions are in the first screen of a folder, they’re still visibly calling out to you.

Instead, move your apps to the second screen of that folder, like so (the first screen has just one app, the second screen has the rest):

Once you have control (as measured by time back in your schedule!), you can reintroduce them.

3: What if social media is my business platform?

I can’t write something like this without acknowledging many of you do business primarily from your phone. Me too.

There’s a different in proactive and reactive mode, though. You need to batch your work, which means taking specific time segments and focusing all of your energy on one task.

I like Pomodoro technique, which is essentially is working in 20 minute increments, for batch work.

Most people will take a five minute break after that- as the thought is you stop being productive after 20 minutes- but Moms know 20 is probably all you have anyway!

You should make a list of things you can accomplish in 20 minutes.

If you want to do alleviate mental strain by following the steps above, you’ll batch. Here are some apps I recommend for that:

CinchShare is a no brainer for this if you work on Facebook.
Tailwind is ideal for bloggers or podcasters who use Pinterest to funnel website traffic. This one can also be used for Instagram.
HelloWoofy is a must for those who have a presence across multiple social media platforms, including TikTok or Google my Business.

Listen to more from the podcast:

Here are a couple of episodes from Run Lift Mom with great time saving strategies that will help you be productive from your phone as a SAHM:

Julia LeFaivre speaks specifically to working from home and staying productive. Total gems in this episode, including how to say no. The image above is actually from her episode and is a visual “show notes”!