Working the night shift has key challenges especially that prevents a thriving work-life balance for moms. It is hard to be available for your kids/family, friends and still have time for yourself.
What may help is effective time management, which is crucial for optimal efficiency, and effectiveness of all your plans. Below are simple ways you can succeed to manage your time optimally and have a thriving and fulfilling all-around life.
How Night Shift Moms can Manage their Time Better
1. Schedule and Plan for Tasks
When you do not have a plan, and you are working night shift, chances are you are highly likely to miss out on many things. Therefore you need to be more deliberate about planning for your time to meet your needs since your availability is irregular. If you want to spend time with your friends, you need to plan and schedule it in your timetable.
It is hard for you to have those unplanned impromptu activities and outings since you are working at night. While most if not all your friends are sleeping or when you are sleeping the others are working. However, make sure the schedule is as practical and consistent as possible.
2. Create a Consistent Routine
You are more likely to stick to your plan when you have a routine in place. A routine is crucial in effective time management because it helps in instilling discipline, especially when working night shift.
When you have an order (and a reason) to do what you are doing, you will easily follow through. Similarly, you will have the discipline of engaging in objective activities once they have become part of your routine.
To optimally use your time, create a routine with activities incorporating work, family, friends, and self elements. Depending on when your night shifts start and end you should create a routine of the things that you need to be doing regularly to have a balanced and thriving life.
For instance, your daily routine after work can include breakfast with family, self-care, bedtime, work, etc. Other routine activities may be weekly such as weekly lunch with your partner, or weekend nights with friends among others.
3. Outsource Time Consuming Services
In addition to office work, moms also have to do housekeeping. There is always some cleaning to do, meals to prepare, laundry to run and items to be shopped among other things. All these are crucial tasks but unfortunately, they demand a lot of time on your already squeezed daytime.
Most of these tasks can only be done during the day yet on the other hand, this is the time that you spend sleeping. Add this to the dreaded daycare drop-off and pickups and the time they take up. Daycare drops off and pick-ups can be a real nightmare, especially if the daycare is way out of your neighborhood.
Read: Making Daycare Drop off and Pick up Easier for Working Moms
Most working moms trick themselves by foregoing sleep to do housekeeping. Remember that you still need at least 8 hours of sleep just like the mom working day shift. It is not recommended and a solution to this situation is to outsource these services and errands. some of the things you should outsource include
- Housekeeping; You can hire a house help who generally manages your home by doing all these tasks and errands for you.
- Meal services: Either a personal chef in charge of making your meal or occasionally order out so that you can save some time
- Laundry cleaning: If you have a washing machine, you can manage to make bulk laundry. However if you do not hire someone to com to do your laundry or take your clothes to a laundry mat.
- Cleaning; There will be cleaning to do in your house. Given your night shift schedule you can only manage to simple and spot cleaning. For deep and thorough cleaning hire out professional cleaning because it is very time intensive
- Daycare drop-off and pick-up. The to and from between daycare , home and office will use too much of your time. If available use services that will pick your child in the morning and drop them in the evening.
- Childcare. Do not attempt to care for your child because you work night and is free during the day. You day time is meant for you to sleep and re-energize not run around caring for your child. It is not ideal for you to try and sleep with a toddler demanding your attention all the time.
- There are many childcare options you can go for such as hiring a nanny, or other home-based child care services and enrolling your child in daycare.
- By far daycare is the more ideal option for moms working at night as they are affordable and convenient. It really helps you to have quality and uninterrupted sleep.
- Do not feel guilt for sending kids to daycare while you sleep as it is only the way you will be useful to them later. For better flexibility, you can have the baby in daycare half day and spend the rest of the afternoon with them when you are well-rested.
Outsourcing these services will directly save you time during the day that you get time to sleep and enjoy time with family and friends later. It is a secret for moms working night shift with guaranteed results.
Read :Top Services to outsource to Save Time
4. Work Remotely for More Time Flexibility
If your work type allows it, ask your employer to have you work from home. Even if you still work on night shift, it will greatly help, even if you will be needed to report to the office physically a few days a week.
Working from home means that you can save on those commute hours too and for that, you can use them with your friends and family. Working remotely is especially a big time saver for moms working night shifts as it saves lots of time at both peaks of the daytime mornings and evenings.
The options has other perks too as you are always there when your kids go to sleep, wake up and even drop them off at daycare before going in for your sleep. It also means you can have an early dinner with your partner before you start off working. You can even use the morning hour for a run or workout with your friends which further enhances your social life.
All these are made possible by working remotely, which enhances your balance of friends, family, and self to live a very happy and fulfilling life. As such it is a very important way for night shift moms to manage their time.
Read: How to be Effective Working from Home
5. Maximize the Time on Long Days Off
See if you can have all your shifts in a row so that you can have off days in a row as well. Depending on the nature of your job, you can even have 3-4 days off in a row in a week. It sounds like a mini-vacation to many working moms and you should optimize every minute constructively on things that matter to you, your family, and your friends too.
They are the days to call on and hang out with your friends, days to spend at the park with the kids, days for that special dinner with your partner, or even days to splurge on a spa day.
Ensure you schedule and have a plan for such long days off to enhance your life before your work week starts again. Doing so will help you easily manage your time.
6. Be Flexible With your Sleep Pattern
You should always prioritize self-care and a good sleep schedule while you are working the night shift. You should never sacrifice your sleep time for time to spend with family or friends. If you do, you will realize that the quality of the interactions you have and the quality of the time you spend together is poor.
Be a little flexible on when you get your sleep but not the amount and quality of sleep that you get. What you can do is try to sleep around the time there are no activities running that you do not want to miss and be up when these activities are running. It is especially important for those activities you have no control over their timing but would not want to miss them either.
For instance, if you have an event/activity in the morning, you can head out first to the event and sleep in later. If you have things to do in the afternoon, you can sleep immediately after you get from work to give free time in the afternoon for these events/activities.
Read: How to have a Healthy Sleep Pattern while Working Night Shift
Working night shift may not be an ideal work arrangement in the long run for many moms. Some can hack it while others suffer miserably from the effect it has on their life. While you may be able to manage it in the short run, you need a better work arrangement plan for future that will make you have a more fulfilling life as a career woman, mother, and spouse.
Therefore work on a plan for the future where you have a schedule that allows you to be there for your child/family and friends. Knowing that you are taking concrete steps to make that happen even if it takes a few years is something that will make you feel better.
Tips on Adjusting to Night Shift
Different people takes different time to adjust and switch from day shift to night shift. Some moms can take only a week while others take even 2 months to finally adjust to the night shift routine.
On average you need 2 weeks to one month for fully make the transition. To make the adjustment easier and faster, practice the following;
- Take time to adjust your sleep rhythm. You may find it difficult to sleep during the day and be up at night. Be patient with yourself.
- Focus on getting quality and interrupted sleep everyday to give you the energy you need for work
- Create the ideal sleep environment. Silence your phone, wear blinds and eliminate noise
- Be gradual in introducing routines to ensure consistency and sustainability
- Ensure you balance work, family and social life to improve the quality of your life.
- Eat healthy, the right diet and avoid too much alcohol and caffeine as they may affect your sleep
- Create time for exercise- it helps improve your emotional strength
