Do you need the perfect system for prioritising and remembering vital jobs?  As a Mum running a business from home I find that life can sometimes get complicated.  Putting tasks down in black and white can often make it easier to prioritise.  Even after much research and many bits of electronic gadgetry I have yet to find the single perfect tool that prioritises, updates and reminds about every area of my life without wasting hours plugging the information in! But I have found or devised a system that works for most areas of my life.

Whenever I tell people that I work from home I am often told how lucky I must be. People who have never worked from home since they were given homework as a school pupil then (uninvited) describe the image they have of my normal working day. This fantasy normally involves me waking up then sitting upright in bed casually tapping away on a laptop while devoting most of my energies to watching daytime television.

I have learnt many things since becoming a mother.  One of the very first things I learnt was to treasure sleep.

When you're a child there is an abundance of sleep and people are always trying to make you go to sleep or saying you need to have more of it even if you don't want it.  I remember long summer evenings lying in my bed trying to go to sleep even though it was still light outside and I could hear my father mowing the lawn. My children are in the phase of trying every trick they know to avoid actually going to bed, from “just one more story please Mummy” to asking the babysitter when she is tucking them up at night if she would like them to show her where the coffee is kept!

Work and family are both central to our way of life and finding ways to keep them in harmony can often be difficult. Today, many families are dual-income, so the dynamic of the traditional home has been effectively set on its ear. No longer is it expected that a woman will sit at home and take care of the children and household. Research suggests that when children are added to a family, men and women gravitate towards a more traditional division of the workload, with tasks being delegated by gender rather than according to the individual’s interests or abilities.

Life is always busy.  Keeping some level of sanity is about finding the comfortable balance in all areas of your life. Is your workload becoming overwhelming and taking over your life?

Look at your routines for both home and work. Are you trying to do too much? It is so easy to feel you must do everything.

Mums who have to juggle family and work know only too well how stress-ridden a working mother's day can be. Fortunately, there are ways a busy mother can tame her chaotic schedule and tick all the boxes on her to-do list without breaking too much of a sweat.

1. Focus on accomplishing the task at hand. It is important for a working mum to stay focused and veer away from distractions if she wants to get everything done before turning in at night. When at the office, the only thing that should claim her attention is the task at hand. If she is trying to finish something, she should not let her mind drift; planning dinner can wait until later. Without distractions, an individual becomes more effective and will be able to complete each of her tasks on time. A clear head is needed before tackling a project so that she can finish it without hitting any snag that can delay her progress.

Guilt-free 'me time'. It ranks right up there with non fattening ice cream and a man that puts the toilet seat down, ideal but impossible in the real world. But is it really? Some things are out of our control, like getting hubby to drop the lid, but as fantastic as it sounds guilt-free 'me time' can be yours. Read on for tips on how you can take a little time back for you.

Award-winning author Clare Mulley won the hearts of the nation with her debut biography of Save the Children founder Eglantyne Jebb. It was awarded the Daily Mail Biographers Club prize and was described as a ‘truly brilliant book’ by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. But in an exclusive article with Motivating Mum, the mum-of-three reveals the difficulties she faced juggling life as a writer and a parent.

Motherhood - in all its wonderful complexities - seems to be the story of my life. When I had my first child I decided I wanted to work part-time from home, so I left my job as a fundraiser at the charity Save the Children and started researching the life of the charity’s founder, the wonderfully named Eglantyne Jebb. The plan was to quickly produce a best-selling biography. I had no idea what I was taking on. 

As a child it was always impressed on me how precious time is and how quickly it goes by.  As an adult I am finding this out for myself more and more!  We live in a fast paced world and our lives are always busy busy.  We have so many time and labour saving gadgets but still we have no time!

With such a packed to-do list prioritisation is very important, although sometimes for me this can get blurred.  Life changes and so therefore do your priorities.  At one time in my life I would get so involved in a project that all other things in life would be put on hold.  Nowadays family is by my biggest priority and everything I do must fit around my family first and foremost.

Time management not your forte?  Always chasing your tail?  Mum, business owner and time management guru, Sarah Sadler of Organised Mum, shares her tips and advice on how to make the most of your day.

Unfortunately for those of us who work and have a family there’s no getting round the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day!  As a working mother it can be a struggle to fit in work and family commitments and feel that we are devoting enough time and attention to each area of our lives.

However, by taking a proactive approach to what needs to be done and applying some simply time management techniques, working mothers can regain control and achieve a balance between their work and family lives.