The Time-Saving Mom: How to Juggle a Lot, Enjoy Your Life, and Accomplish What Matters Most

Not your typical time management book – principle based, practical and encouraging!
I too easily get to feeling overwhelmed and feeling like I don’t have enough time to do everything that is important to me and then I let overwhelm cause me to stagnate and become even less productive. In The Time-Saving Mom, The author, Crystal Paine provides some great ideas that are simple and practical to apply and customize. Her simple 4-step system and 6×2 Priority System really helps hone in on what is important. As Crystal says in her book, “ It is not about hustling harder or being a productivity queen; it’s about wrapping your time and energy and life around those things that really make a difference.” That definitely resonates with me. I want to focus my time on not what ‘feels’ important, but on what truly will make a difference in my life and the lives of those around me. Too often I have an all or nothing mindset. Crystal helped me re-frame my thinking about not having enough time and how I choose to spend my time.I have read other time management books, but don’t always feel like they are realistic or easy to apply. I love that Crystal gives some insight into how crazy busy her life is and how the system she has in place helps her manage the chaos to focus on important relationships in her life and still maintain a successful business without sacrificing health. The proof is in the pudding in that she clearly does apply the principles to her own life in meaningful ways maintaining a spiritual life, a marriage and a thriving business while also raising teens, fostering kids, adopting a baby with special needs along with two additional kids of her own (a toddler and a newborn) in recent years. Crystal comes across as a very down to earth, very real mom who gets tired and exhausted like the rest of us. Learning of how much she has on her plate, I am in awe of how much she manages and thus I am excited at the possibilities of applying her principles to my own life.The first step in the process is prayer. Now hold up, don’t turn away if you are not a believer. You can definitely still benefit from applying her ideas and could begin the day with reflection and spirituality in another manner, although I highly recommend a prayerful relationship with God. This is a Christian author so there is prayer throughout the book. For me, as a Christian, I especially love that the first step in her system begins with prayer, prayer to start the day, and prayer throughout the day. Too often we underestimate the power of prayer in our lives, thinking we don’t have time for it. It is amazing how much how the manner in which I start my day will affect the tone of the day and how staying anchored in prayer throughout the day can invigorate the soul.Not only does Crystal provide a practical approach to time management, as added bonuses, Crystal includes some tips in each section from her readers and worksheets at the end of the book to make it easy to implement the ideas right away. I find all of this to be very helpful.As to her writing style, I would say that Crystal’s writing is an inviting, friendly, not preachy but down to earth, in the trenches with you style. Her writing is the same as I have found I can expect from her blog and Instagram posts where what you see is what you get with no pretense.I don’t give 5 stars very easily, but because of the writing style and the the fact that I find the information very useful and encouraging and the book is one I plan to re-read, I believe it deserves 5 stars. I highly recommend.

Practical, inspirational, encouraging!
First of all: I have read every one of Crystal’s books and she has never failed to offer up the MOST practical, actionable, realistic advice on whatever topic she’s covering. I don’t even question before pre-ordering her books, because I know they will be quietly, unassumingly life-changing. “The Time Saving Mom” is another book in this wonderful lineup.Crystal shares her life on Instagram and leaves many people (me included!) scratching our heads, wondering how on EARTH she does it all, and so cheerfully?! This book lays it all out, and it’s refreshingly simple! Most of the time-management books I’ve read have been so philosophical and/ or flowery that they’ve left me thinking, within the first few chapters, that I’m going to have to read the material over and over to begin to process everything it’s saying. “Time-Saving Mom” is different! It’s simple enough that a busy mom can process and personalize and run with the information right away and begin to take her life back. Crystal coaches on how to decide for YOU what matters most and how to let go of extras…. how to feel okay saying no. She shares simple and practical methods for organizing the jobs remaining once you get your priorities straight, and then encourages and equips you with printables and worksheets to run with your life and your plan. I will return to this book for the motivation it provides, but I don’t feel like my whole brain has required an overhaul to even get on the same page with the author. This author is succeeding in the trenches in the areas that matter most to her, and she’s willing to bring us along and make us believe that we can be just as successful in our own areas of priority.Crystal is unashamedly Christian, and this book points every mom back to God and His power to equip her for the tasks He’s put before her. Still, I think even an unbeliever could find MUCH to help with time management in this book.If you need to get your swirling thoughts in order and figure out how to move forward with confidence in your life, this book will hold your hand along a short path to finding your way, then cheer for you as you take off. You won’t regret this read!

This is the best time-management book I’ve ever read (and I’ve read quite a few!). What makes this book stand out to me is that it doesn’t just present strategies for managing our time (though it does do that); it also addresses how we think about our time, the attitude we adopt toward it. Case in point: the very first “strategy” the author describes in this book is praying over our days, entrusting them to God and acknowledging our dependence on Him. This step alone has made SUCH a difference in my days. When I started reading this book, I had a 6-week-old baby and was too overwhelmed by new motherhood to work on any of the other strategies in the book. Praying over my day, however, helped me recognize my need for God and therefore release the self-imposed pressure to handle everything perfectly. It has been so helpful to consider each task and event of my day and to consciously choose to release any anxiety I may be feeling over that area in favour of trusting God instead.Make no mistake, though: this book is intensely practical. The author wrote this book during a challenging pregnancy while parenting 5 other children, including one with severe special needs. Her experience proves that the strategies she describes work even in the busiest of seasons. In my own experience, I am finding that these strategies are easy to implement in the cracks of time I manage to snatch in between caring for my baby. I don’t need hours of time to put into practice what I’m reading in this book—which is good, since in this season of life I often don’t have more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time!While this book is aimed at moms, I’m convinced it would be helpful for someone in any life stage. Personally, I wish I could have implemented these strategies before having my baby; I would have been so much more productive and less stressed! Having said that, what I love about this book is that these strategies are simple enough and actionable enough that instead of feeling completely overwhelmed by how much less organized I am than I’d like to be, I feel so much hope that I can make progress even though I have very little time outside of caring for my baby.When I started reading this book, I felt anxious and overwhelmed. I couldn’t see how I could juggle caring for a baby, tending to my home, and making time for relationships and self-care. Now, because of this book, I have hope that it’s possible to live a full life without being stressed out all the time, and I have a practical, actionable path to get there.