Do you ever wonder how do moms find time for themselves within their crazy schedule? Well, many people do wonder how working moms manage to create time that they can use as “me time”. However it is hard for working moms to just find this time without creating and allocating time for it.
Being a working mom means that you have double major commitments that all take your time and limit chances of having time for yourself. Both motherhood and work demands and takes both energy and time away from you . It hence becomes very easy for your life to revolve just around the two, with little or no time at all for yourself.
With such kind of a routine, it’s no surprise most working moms are irritable, tired or impatient most of the time. But you can change it, both for your sake, as well as your family and your job by creating more time for yourself.
Please stop thinking that your job, partner or kids comes first. It may sound cruel but no they don’t! They are important, yes but your priority is YOU. You won’t be any good to your family or job if you are restless, sleep-deprived or easily irritated.
This is one of the many reasons why moms should take time for themselves. Any value you are to your job or child (ren) is because you have invested enough time in yourself. So how do you get this precious time from juggling between motherhood and work? Through consistency, persistence and discipline.
It is hard yes but nothing that planning, time management and scheduling can’t help you achieve. In this post am sharing tips and strategies that I have tested & used myself to create and get that important time for myself away from my work and my family.
In this post…
Strategy 1: Establish Healthy Sleep Habits
Strategy 2: Set Reasonable Work Hours and Boundaries
Strategy 3: Set Reasonable Daily Goals
Strategy 4: Have Limits and Boundaries
Strategy 5: Schedule a Daily Me-Time
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 the following day. The worst start to any day is waking up sleep-deprived and not well-rested. The doctors, with good reasons, have always recommended at least 8 hours of sleep.
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.
Look at it from this angle, getting enough sleep is one of the best tips for working moms to save time and also create time for themselves. If you are not well-rested, your day will just drag along with nothing much accomplished, and of course no quality time for yourself to show for it at the end of the day.
Read: A Healthy Sleep Routine for Moms who Work Night Shift
To ensure that you are getting enough sleep, establish an effective bedtime schedule to ensure it leaves you with some “me time”. Let says you schedule to be in bed by 10pm latest and 5 am earliest.
Establish a bedtime schedule for your kids as well. You can further use this to your advantage. Try to get more time for yourself, by sleeping late or waking up earlier than your kid(s) by one hour.
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. This is a very good and effective way of spending your me-time at home.
2: Set Reasonable Work Hours that Respects your “Me Time”
Balancing between work and family is a trick many working moms are still learning.Unfortunately, your personal time continues to suffer until you set reasonable work hours. Even if you run your own business, set work hours that are not taking too much of your personal time.
When you have your work time expectations managed, you can easily find time for yourself. You can be sure that lacking work hours boundaries eats into the time you could have for yourself and vice versa. You just find yourself to be just a working mom with no time for yourself.
To strike this balance and create time for yourself as a working mom, you need to set reasonable work hours and work goals. Whether you are running your own business or you are employed, you can only do so much in a day and let the rest be your personal time that your use to recharge.
Setting working hours boundaries to create time for yourself is simple but your must be disciplined and consistent. If your job is 9-5, then stick to those hours and don’t extend else you will lose your “me time”. Setting work hours boundaries right will also avoid inconveniences such as your boss calling you in for work during odd hours.
Reserve nights and weekends exclusively for your family & yourself and you are on your way to making time for yourself as a mom.
Read: How to Set and Enforce Boundaries at Work
3: Set Reasonable Daily Goals
Organization and planning is the key to success in whatever field you are in. Most women improve their productivity by setting daily family goals. But as a mom looking for some time to herself, only set realistic daily goals. 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. Doing so is a very important thing for creating your own time as a working mom.
Remember that if your time demands in a day are too much, you should consider talking to your employer about options such as working from home, freelance consulting or working part-time. These options are crucial in helping reclaim or create enough time for yourself.
Also some moms I know have taken the leap and changed careers to ensure their jobs were not getting into the way of their family and personal time. The move have now guaranteed them adequate personal time.
Read: A Guide to Create a Career Plan
4: Prioritise 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 hand 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.
An organized working mom schedule is what you need to ensure you stick to your boundaries. Learn to set boundaries and stick to your schedule.
Read: How to Avoid And Recover from Burn out
5: Schedule and Normalise a Daily Me-Time
Me-time is time for yourself, absent from other people, with no interruptions and no responsibilities. This is the element that makes it “me time”. “Me-time” is hence almost elusive for a working mom. I have talked to many working moms who claimed” I don’t have me-time”.
So how do you get me-time as a mom? If you follow the above guidelines, you will find that you now know how to get me time as a mom and create a free hour or two to yourself daily.
You can now schedule this into some me-time slot every day. 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. This is a very good and effective way of spending your me time at home.
Read: How to Get Alone Time from the Office
Useful Tips for Creating your “Me Time”
- Let go of perfection – it does not exist. Do only what 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
- Listen to your body – mood triggers will let you know when to sit back and take a break
- Great me-time ideas and activities for moms including reading, craft designing, listening to podcasts and getting a massage among others
- There are no limits to how much “me time’ you can have. Take as much time as your body and mind needs as is reasonable to do
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