Time Management For Working Women

     As a working woman you are not only loaded with your career, but you likely have several domestic and family responsibilities as well, making every day a challenge. A little effort towards planning and organizing, with smart time management can help you balance both your home and your office. The key to utilize your time effectively is prioritizing. Following are a few useful tips on managing time for working women:

1. Prioritize 

Take time in the evening to plan and prioritize your day for tomorrow.  Planning ahead will help you to identify those critical tasks that need to be accomplished, before you get sucked into the hectic morning routine.  If possible, wake up early,  and start with those items you have prioritized the night before.  If you can accomplish the three most important tasks before the rest of the day gets started, you will feel accomplished all day.

2. Optimize your weekends

Planning ahead for the week, and accomplishing several tasks on the weekend is also a great way to reduce the hectic day to day activities.  Cooking smart by shopping and creating meals that can be simply cooked in the evening will save you time trying to decide what to eat and prepare.  Laying out clothes for you and/or the kids is a great way to reduce the panic on a hectic morning.  The weekends are also a great time to have a family meeting to review schedules and priorities for the week to avoid last minute scrambling.  Creating a standard list of “To Do’s” might help you quickly run through the tasks without having to try to remember things individually. 

3. Use your Resources

Don’t be afraid to hire help if it saves your sanity, it’s usually worth the cost.  The same way you would delegate at the office consider hiring individuals to help with housekeeping, cooking, or laundry.  Reducing this burden allows you to focus on the activities that are most important to you. Thinking about what tools you use at the office that help you be most productive, consider how you might be able to use similar tools at home.  Can you use tools like Google Calendar to share schedules with your spouse or babysitter, or Alexa to remind you to do certain activities at certain times? 

4. Multi-task Carefully

You can enhance your productivity by doing multiple tasks at a time, just be carful that you are focusing properly on what needs focus. While cooking listen to an ebook or podcast.  Have your device read your emails to you and respond while you are folding the laundry.  Multi-tasking not only saves time but also aids in completing the never-ending chores quickly, and making them more interesting.

5. Maintain Focus

You should not be concerned about your home when you are at office and vice versa.  The more you can maintain focus on the task at hand, the quicker you will be able to get them accomplished.  A few minutes of dedicated time with the children is much more meaningful than an hour when you are distracted.  Studies have also shown the complete focus on difficult tasks like writing, will help you to accomplish them more quickly and effectively. 

Women should be able to work and have a house and family, doing so successfully takes careful planning and preparation, and a little self forgiveness.  Most importantly, focus on what’s important to you and let go of the things that aren’t.  By doing this, you will find enjoyment instead of stress.