Work Life Balance for Working Mums: How To Manage Your Free Time More Effectively
Your first response as a busy working mum on reading the title of this article may have been to snort derisively whilst sniggering "free time, what on earth is that?" If this is the case then do read on, following the tips included may just give you the illusive free time that you crave.
Work Life Balance for Working Mums
As a working mum, your needs often fall way down in the pecking order of prioritisation, meaning that any free time that you may have had scheduled, is often cancelled or postponed to deal with the latest emergency.
1. Get a wall calendar. Write on it every appointment, deadline, birthday and night out. Not just yours but every member of the family's. This will enable you to see, at a glance, how the day ahead should pan out, affording you no surprises, especially when it comes to the evening childcare rota. It is a too oft occurring situation that as one parent is getting ready for their much looked forward to night out, that the partner rings form work with those dreaded words, "you do remember that I'm out with clients tonight, don't you?". The handy wall calendar will help avoid such instances, as long as everyone takes responsibility for writing their own plans on there.
Work Life Balance for Working Mums
2. Separate the urgent from the important tasks. Some of the items on a working mum's seemingly endless list of 'things to do' crave immediate attention - calls to return, forms to fill out. Make a clear delineation in your mind between those things that feel like they need doing right now and things that are actually important that do require immediate attention. By making this distinction you should find yourself with a more manageable list, freeing up your time.
3. Add relaxing to your things to do list. It's as simple as that. Make relaxing a job, a chore that you absolutely must do. Not only that, make it an important task. Think of it in these terms. If you don't look after your own wellbeing, then you aren't in the optimum position to look after your family. So do it for them - go and make relaxing a priority.
Work Life Balance for Working Mums
4. Stick to your social plans. By the time you've come home from work, made tea and got the kids to bed, the last thing that working mums feel like doing is heading out for a meal or a catch up with friends. It's not that you don't know that the night will be a great way to feel like yourself again, or that you won't have loads of fun; it's just that the sofa has a way of seducing you in a way that no other piece of furniture will ever be able to. It appeals to your need for sitting, quietly, in front of a big box. Ignore the temptation, jump up and slap your own cheeks in a motivating fashion. Once you're out there you'll feel great and you'll be so pleased you made the effort.