What makes our lives easier is how we manage our time as it is our most important resource. When it comes to housewives, especially moms, they are expected to remain ‘on call’ 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even when a 24-hour day comes to an end, their never-ending chores do not. Their day is literally not 24-hour!
This seems exhausting and taxing, as the burden they bear grows heavier with each task that they have to put off until the next day. The mental toll this takes often becomes evident in their behaviour, which may become characterized by mood swings and irritability, devoid of excitement, and as a result, the goal of a peaceful life becomes more and more elusive with each passing day.
So, what's the best course of action? How could the housewives do their regular activities and chores with ease while still maintaining their vigour? How do they manage a stress-free daily routine? The answer is ‘time management’. It prevents procrastination and allows you to work more efficiently. Here are some suggestions for how daily tasks might be completed efficiently while still leaving time for you to catch your breath and enjoy life.
Plan Your Day in Advance
The best gift you can offer yourself is to plan and prepare for the day ahead of time. First and foremost, it provides you with a clear picture of what you have to do. Setting objectives ahead of time can help you strategize how to complete your tasks. All of our energies and efforts are immediately focused on precise objectives, thus saving time spent on running from pillar to post trying to figure out how to complete a task.
Limit Multitasking
Psychological studies have shown that multitasking while doing your day’s work does not make you more efficient. In fact, the opposite is often true. Multitasking causes you to lose focus and easily get distracted, adding to your stress, which inevitably hampers your productivity. You also lose time when switching from one task to another, which may lead to disrupting your time allocation and schedule. So, whenever you find yourself multitasking, stop and sit quietly for a minute.
Delegate – Get Help from Others
Let's face it, we all have limitations on our capacities and energy. Picking up chores that are urgent or require our undivided attention and delegating the rest is a wise move. You cannot miss a parent-teacher meeting to check on your child's progress, whereas you could easily delegate the dishwashing to a house helper. Delegating a few of your responsibilities to your husband, children, other family members, or help is perfectly alright. This not only splits your responsibilities, but it also keeps you calm, concentrated, and focused on the more important tasks.
Eat the Frog
Mark Twain said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
It is all about prioritizing. Each day has its own sense of urgency. If you make a habit of prioritizing your tasks, urgency becomes priority, saving time and effort. Prioritize your tasks according to what you need to get done and when. Prioritizing tasks helps you stay focused and complete them in the time allotted. Prioritizing ‘must-do’ tasks could help you finish the day on a positive note. Group your tasks: important vs. unimportant, urgent vs. not urgent, difficult vs. easy. What you find the most important, urgent or difficult should be completed first. This would relieve you of a big weight and provide you with the motivation to complete the rest of the day's tasks. Another thing you can do is to “chunk” your tasks together by commonalities so that you can easily switch from one to the next when you actually get down to completing them.
Focus and Block Distractions
Notifications, phone calls and text messages, e-mails, it all pulls your attention away from your work. So put away your phone, and turn off email and social media notifications. But the best way is to concentrate and do what you have to do. It’s worth it to limit your presence on social media to the minimum because it takes a lot of your time and doesn’t bring much value into your life.
Take Regular Breaks
Take regular breaks. Go for a walk, grab a cup of coffee, listen to music, flip through a magazine, or do something not related to your chores to give your brain a break so that it can refresh and then refocus and give you a significant productivity boost. Working without breaks may bring more harm than good.
Stay Healthy
The care and attention you give yourself is an important investment of time. Scheduling time for self-care helps you rejuvenate physically and mentally, enabling you to accomplish tasks more quickly and easily. Exercising is a great way to energize yourself, relieve you of stress and help clear your mind of negative thoughts, which only make your chores more difficult to complete. Put on your running shoes and go for a jog! You will see how much regular exercise can help in mastering time management.
Be sure to monitor your screen time as a part of your digital wellbeing, setting boundaries to stay healthy. Set a time each night to shut off all digital devices to give your mind time to relax; this can also help improve your sleep schedule and gear you up for the next day’s excitement.
Set a Time Limit
Each chore should have a set time limit for its completion. Allocate time for your tasks and set a timer. This improves productivity by keeping you focused on the task at hand and not allowing for distraction. You become fully dedicated to the task and give it your undivided attention and energy. It boosts your productivity and gives you a sense of accomplishment when you get it done in time.
Maintain a Morning Routine
If you wake up in the morning and make a bed or exercise, you’re on the right track. But if the first thing you do is checking social media, you’re doing it wrong. Having a morning routine will pump you up for the rest of the day. A good morning routine will set you in the right mood and motivate you to work and lend the day a sense of direction. Try from such small things as making your bed, then having a healthy breakfast, and leave social media for the end of the day.
Reward Yourself
Reward yourself for time management successes. Take time to recognize that you have accomplished a major task before moving on to the next activity. This will motivate you to get more done. As you check off items on your ‘to-do’ list, you can see that you are making progress. This helps you avoid feeling stressed out with worry about whether you’re getting things done.
Whether you’re a full-time housewife or a working woman, finding ways to manage your time is vital to living a balanced life. Effective time management gives you extra time to spend on yourself and your loved ones. Mastering time management will set you up for success in all areas of your life and will help you avoid stress and anxiety. HH
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