As a working mom both motherhood and work demands and takes both energy and time away from you. The double commitments can take away all your time and limit chances of having time for yourself, with little or no time at all for yourself.
Despite the challenges, it is important to create time for yourself to refresh and re-energize. Without it you can be irritable, tired or impatient most of the time. Any value you are to your job or child (ren) is because you have invested enough time in yourself.
You won’t be any good to your family or job if you are restless, sleep-deprived or easily irritated. Your job, partner or kids dont comes first. They are important, yes but your priority is YOU first.
Through consistency, persistence and discipline when planning your day, managing your time and scheduling tasks, you can manage an hour or two for yourself, even if you work fulltime. Some other things you can practice include healthy sleep habits, setting reasonable work hours & boundaries, and daily goals.
Simple Guaranteed Ways for Working Moms to Create Me-Time
1: Establish Healthy Sleep Habits
First things first, you need enough sleep to adequately and efficiently handle your tasks for the following day. The worst start to any day is waking up sleep-deprived and not well-rested. It is therefore recommended that you have at least 8 hours of sleep, even if you work full-time.
So how does enough sleep help you create and have time for yourself? Well, it’s because sleep will rest and refresh both your mind and body. In that state, you will be more productive and efficient in your work. Needless to say, you will be right on schedule, no time-wasting and therefore can eventually have some time to yourself at the end of the day.
To ensure that you are getting enough sleep ensure you have an effective bedtime schedule you can follow through; for instance being in bed by 10pm latest and 5 am earliest.
Establish a bedtime schedule for your kids as well and further use this to your advantage. By sleeping late than them or waking up earlier than your kid(s) by one hour you can get yourself some free time to yourself.
For instance, you can put your baby or babies to bed at 9 am and sleep at 10 am which gives you one hour to yourself. Looking for such time opportunities is very important if working full time.
Read: A Healthy Sleep Routine for Moms who Work Night Shift
2: Set Reasonable Work Hours that Respects your “Me Time”
Balancing between work and family is a trick many full time working moms are still learning. Unfortunately, your personal time suffers when you do not have reasonable work hours. When you have your work time expectations managed, you can easily find time for yourself. Lacking work hours boundaries eats into the time you could have for yourself.
To strike this balance and create time for yourself, you need to set reasonable work hours and work goals. You can only do so much in a day and let the rest be your personal time that your use to recharge. Whether you are running your own business or you are employed, set work hours that are not taking too much of your personal time.
Setting working hours boundaries with however require discipline and consistency from you. If your job is 9-5, then stick to those hours and don’t extend. Reserve nights and weekends exclusively for your family & yourself and you are on your way to making time for yourself as a mom. Work hours boundaries right will also avoid inconveniences such as your boss calling you in for work during odd hours.
Read: How to Set and Enforce Boundaries at Work
3: Set Reasonable Daily Goals
Organization and planning by setting daily goals is the key to success in whatever field you are in. But as a mom and looking for some time to herself, you can only set realistic daily goals that you can achieve.
Your to-do-list will only be helpful if everything on it can be done adequately and within your set work hours. Anything too ambitious will only pressure you into putting in more hours that eventually eat into your personal time.
If you have too much on your plate, get help with some of your work. If it is housework and child care, get a nanny or house help to help you. If it is office work, delegate work to other members of your team.
If your time demands in a day are too much, you should consider talking to your employer about necessary options such as adding you more people on your team or adjusting your responsibilities.
Also if need be, change your employer or careers to ensure your work is not getting into the way of your family and personal time. I have a friend who hanged her career and the move have now guaranteed her adequate personal time.
Read: A Guide to Create a Career Plan
4: Prioritize your Commitments and Things-to-do
Work, whether at the office or at home can feel like there’s no end. The list of things that need doing by a working mom is endless. There is always shopping to do, meetings to amend, events to plan, emails to send, a trip to attend, visitors to hosts or clients to see.
With such a huge things-to-do list, and errands to handle you MUST choose what to let go of in order to free up some time for yourself. You can do by prioritizing your to-do-list items and letting some go, however hard it is.
If your life is fully booked to the brim, and not creating any time for your “me time”, then you are not doing any favour to your health. You do not need to attend every function or trip or administer every event invited to. If you are, you are eating in possible time you could have for self.
Look at your schedule and identify how many kids-related and work-related activities you have. Now identify the same for your personal related activities? Is there a big difference? Do you have fewer plans and time allocated for yourself? If yes, then you need to free up some of the other activities in order to get time to yourself.
Another great way that will help you free up time for yourself is by saying NO! This is actually one of the major time-savers for moms that are also great in helping create personal time. It is very hard to say no but you must be disciplined and persistent to do it.
Start by avoiding to take on duties for other people, especially if you are working in a team. Say NO because it will probably eat your personal time to do and you will not be able to recover that. That “Never mind, I will do it myself” is helping other people but instead hurting you by eating into your personal time.
Read: How to Avoid And Recover from Burn out
5: Schedule and Normalize a Daily Me-Time Routine
Me-time is time for yourself, absent from other people, with no interruptions and no responsibilities. Aim for a free hour or two to yourself daily. However there are no limits to how much “me time’ you can have. Take as much time as your body and mind needs and is reasonable to do
Pick your schedule ; which can be anytime during the day. Some moms prefer sleeping later or waking up early than everyone else by an hour to have their me-time. Personally I prefer the time I immediately get to the house from work.
Choose a time that is convenient for you. Keep your phone away, stay away from the internet, and avoid destructions. Lock the door if you have to. During this time you can just sit down, lie down, meditate, and practice yoga or anything that helps you refocus and refresh.
If you can make nature your friend- nature has the magic inspiring renewal and calmness effect in humans. Take a walk, bask in the sun, visit your home garden among others to get that calming effect. Other great me-time ideas and activities for moms including reading, craft designing, listening to podcasts and getting a massage among others.
Read: How to Get Alone Time from the Office
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