The good news for all the mothers out there is: “There is no one right way to manage home and work”. The only magic formula that overarches everything else is spending quality time in both the places. Give it your best, trust yourself and enjoy every moment at home and in the workplace. Now let’s explore the five amazing techniques that are effective:
1. Making time for the family:
Making time for the family should be the priority for a parent. It can be quite challenging but it is the right of every child to get quality attention as a family. One effective technique is to sleep early and rise early. This not only gives enough time for the mothers to organize and plan for the day ahead, but they will be able to complete a lot of routine chores before the child wakes up.
2. Planning/ scheduling and spreading activities:
It is not uncommon to see working mothers running helter-skelter in the morning multitasking many routine chores. It will be useful for mothers to list down the tasks the previous day evening and wherever possible, complete the chores in advance. In addition to routine chores at home, most mothers have multiple tasks outside the home which can include buying groceries, bill payment, school meetings, etc. All these activities need to be prioritized, shared with the spouse, spread during the week or weekends.
3. Life-work balance:
It is stressful and is challenging to balance personal and work life. Most mothers are worrying about welfare of the child in the office and deliverables in the office when at home. Mothers should understand the two separate roles. In order to ensure full support and respect at the workplace mothers will have to complete the assigned work within the deadlines. In-between free time/ breaks should be used to check on the family and personal work. It is advised to keep personal work at bay from the workspace.
4. Learn to say “NO”:
Most women find it challenging to say “No” to a task even when they know that it is not possible given the existing commitments and time constraints. This is a syndrome that most working women develop in their early careers because most of them think that saying no will impact their career. Taking up more work (especially unplanned work) will add to the stress levels and will completely disrupt the schedules both in the workplace and at home.
5. Call for Help:
Mothers should not think that they are superhumans. They are not. They cannot do everything on their own both at home and in the workplace. Micromanagement is a perfect recipe for disaster and will directly impact on health and relationships at home and in the workplace. The key here is to learn to call for help. Working mothers need to understand that certain tasks will have to be delegated, this applies both at home and in the workplace. At home the women have to call for help from the spouse or other family members. At work from the co-workers.
Easier said than done, it is a challenging task to balance the two worlds which are equally demanding. Most mothers are capable of taking care of the two roles. However, a lot will depend on acquiring new skills to manage the two worlds. Let’s not forget that it is equally important for a lady to celebrate the successes in the new phase in her life i.e. a mother and a successful working woman.
