How Many Hats Are You Wearing? Let Multi-Tasking Help!
Article about: cooking, empowerment, Family, job, multi-tasking, responsibilities, working mom
There must have been an opening for waking up the sun because your alarm clock goes off before the sun comes up! Six days a week, you’re out of bed and into your morning routine, if you can call it that, of doing this, that and the other. It always seems there’s so much to do and so little time. You find yourself thoroughly exhausted some 18 hours later when your day ends and as you fall tiredly into bed and asleep, you wonder if this is how most people handle their responsibilities.
Take it from me, it doesn’t have to be that way! If you are like many women today, you were many hats of responsibility. Being a mother alone is a great responsibility. Raising a child is the only full-time job where the benefits are unmatched and so is the pay! However, being a parent is one of the most rewarding experiences period. So how do you balance a child, work, school, a social life, church, community involvement and all of the other responsibilities? The answer is simple: multi-tasking.
One of the best and most efficient ways to multi-task is to invest in a magnetized erasable/reusable calendar for your refrigerator and a pocket-sized date-book to carry with you. Trust me, you will still have plenty of room for those gorgeous works of art and good grades on the refrigerator front. Keep a dry-erase marker and eraser attached to the calendar. Take an hour or less on Sunday evening and fill in the week ahead. Recurring events throughout the month can be filled in for the entire month at the beginning of the month. Be sure to leave space on each day for adding things. Synchronize your date-book and calendar. These two record/date keeping instruments can lay the foundation for excellent multi-tasking.
Now, start simple. If you’re a coffee drinker, invest in an automatic coffee maker that can be set up and programmed the night before. Coffee can brew while you’re showering. Look, you’re already multi-tasking! The successful multi-tasker doesn’t have to do everything alone either so empower your spouse and children to help you multi-task. One way to engage the cooperation of children is to make it into a game. For example, you normally come home and help your child change into play clothes. Why not make it a clothes changing race? Have an invisible starting line at the door and it’s ready, set, go, where everyone races to their room, gets changes and puts away clothes. The winner must not only change their clothes but also put away the ones they take off whether it is the closet, hamper, or drawer. Remember, the idea here is multi-tasking. Getting a little exercise by running around putting away your clothes doesn’t hurt either, right? And empowering your child to learn the discipline of putting away their own clothes frees you from having to do it and teaches them a good habit. Let your child win to encourage participation but also win yourself sometimes to keep the competitive edge alive. Prizes can be hugs and kisses or, check this out: loser can prepare a lite snack (cookies and milk, crackers and cheese or something similar) which is another way of multi-tasking!
Are ideas starting to come to mind about how multi-tasking can simplify your life? The ways are virtually limitless. Most working moms know that preparing a home-cooked meal is better than eating out. But most working moms will also often tell you that by the time they leave work, pick up the kids and the dry cleaning and take the kids to soccer practice, they’re exhausted! Meal time doesn’t have to be a stress time for the multi-tasker. Set aside some time at the beginning of the week, possibly Sunday after you’ve filled in the calendar. Create a simple list of meals for 5 days. This will cover the entire week. One dish meals are great and can be re-heated easily. When you’re waiting in the grocery line next time, check out some of the quick and easy cookbooks on the shelves near the checkout.
Compile your grocery list with all of the items you need then invest in a few hours to prepare the meals for the week ahead of time. Divide the meals in to small containers or zip-lock bags and freeze. The morning you plan to have a particular meal, remove it from the freezer and place it on the shelf in the refrigerator. By the time you come home, it will be unthawed but not room temperature. Reheat in the microwave and serve. That’s it!
Learning to multi-task begins with understanding that you do have many responsibilities and others who rely on you to complete those responsibilities. Multi-tasking means you value your health and understand the necessity of having time to rest and rejuvenate yourself so that you can continue to meet the expectations of others and those you set for yourself. Multi-tasking does not mean you have to work harder, just smarter. So, go ahead and try it. Let multi-tasking help you simplify your life and balance all those hats in perfect order!
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