Today's Tuesday Tip comes from a fabulous survey conducted by Real Simple about how women spend their time and what we can do to reclaim some free time for ourselves. Check out the slide show for some eye-opening results. It's like they personally asked me the questions - I couldn't believe how the results fit me to a T. So today's tip is as much for me as it is for you:
Delegate household/family responsibilities and schedule free time for yourself!
I am extremely guilty of not doing either one of these very well, but I am trying to get better and hope many of you will too. Since becoming a mom almost 10 months ago, my life has been amazingly enriched by this new role and my wonderful little girl, but I also often feel like my life has become one long (read endless) to-do list of childcare and household chores. The days that I work here at Organizing Boston often feel like a break - ha, ha. That was one of the most interesting findings of the survey - for most of us, it's not our jobs that are causing our time woes...it's our homes and families, which isn't to say that we don't love them both. I think that's part of the problem. We care so much about our role in caring for our families and homes that we let them take over completely. I am slowly realizing that the household and family to-do lists are (or can be) endless, so the solution is not to wait to do something fun until all the chores are done. If my husband reads this, he'll say that he told me that a LONG time ago :) Two things busy women can do to make themselves happier (as the survey results prove) are to delegate, delegate, delegate and use your calendar for 'me time' appointments.
So true! I really struggle with asking for help because of the roles my husband and I have defined for ourselves, I feel like I shouldn't ask for help because my job is keeping up the home while his job is at the office, but my job doesn't get weekends or nights off and sometimes I wouldn't mind a little help.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you! The job of 'mom/home manager' never ends. I'm trying to get better at asking for help...hopefully that will get easier with practice ;) We deserve a break too!
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