It often feels like a mother’s work is never done. Between work and raising children, balancing responsibilities seems impossible. While you most likely won’t be able to get your days back entirely, there are things you can do to manage your time more effectively. With the right time management techniques, you can reduce your stress and may even reclaim a little time for yourself, too. With the following time management tips for moms, you can get more from the time you have while still managing to balance work and life as a parent.
Organize Your Schedule
Having a schedule is one of the most important parts of any time management strategy. Without a schedule, it can be easy to forget important tasks or meetings, and this can make it more difficult to balance responsibilities.
Set reminders on your calendar for future events and keep a daily checklist of all of the things you need to do before going home. You could even make this easier by using any number of time management apps on your phone.
Recognize Your Limits
Just because you can write all your activities into your schedule, that does not mean that you can accomplish them in a single day. It is good to set goals and be ambitious with what you can do. However, no one person can handle a busy career, prepare three family meals a day, get in their exercise routine, take the kids to all of their school events, and still have time to do some reading before bed. If you want to balance responsibilities effectively, you need to recognize your limits and prioritize the things that are most important.
Get Some Help
Managing and maintaining a household is not a one-person job. If everything is going to get done, you are going to need to enlist the help of your partner and get your kids to do chores. You could also ask them to brainstorm weekly dinner ideas so you don’t have to waste time guessing what everyone wants to eat.
You might be particular about the way you want things done, and it may be frustrating as your family learns the right way to complete tasks. It will, however, help you balance responsibilities. Along with that, it is a good way to teach your kids the skills they will need as they get older and more independent.
Expect the Unexpected
Having a schedule is a good start to time management, but you don’t want to jam every minute as if you are going to constantly be at peak productivity. As a parent, you should know that the unexpected is to be expected. People get stuck in traffic jams on their way home from work, moms need to care for sick children, and tasks often take longer than anticipated.
When you are planning your day, leave some room for the times when life doesn’t follow your plan.
Multitask When You Can
As a busy mom, multitasking might seem like the answer to many of your problems. Getting more than one thing done at a time is an attractive idea, but there is a downside to multitasking. It can actually be less efficient than doing one thing at a time, and it can also have an impact on the quality of your work.
However, that does not mean that you want to give it up altogether – you just need to know when it helps you balance responsibilities. The key is to take tasks that require a low cognitive load and pair them together. You can exercise while catching up on your favorite TV shows or read your emails as you eat breakfast. These types of tasks won’t take anything away from each other as you do them at the same time.
Make a Routine
Having a routine can save mental energy and make you more efficient. Your schedule might change from one day to the next, but you can build daily routines for different parts of the day. Set a morning routine to help you and your kids get out the door in less time. Set dinnertime routines to get your food prepared, on the table, and cleaned up. You could also set a bedtime routine to help you sleep better.
Take Care of Yourself
With a busy work schedule and the needs of your children, it can be easy to let self-care fall by the wayside. You already feel like you’re not meeting all of your obligations due to time constraints, so you decide that eating right, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep won’t fit in with your lifestyle.
This is an understandable way to look at a busy schedule, but you need to stay healthy if you are going to keep things on track. Furthermore, eating right, getting enough sleep, and exercising are all important for feeling good and having enough energy to take on your hectic schedule.
The life of a mother is always going to be busy, but there are things you can do to help balance responsibilites. With these time management tips, you can get to the things that matter the most without feeling like you have to push yourself to the limit every day.
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