Working parents are used to juggling responsibilities and believe they can handle everything on their plates. But amid this health crisis, many are reaching their breaking points, given remote schooling and the elimination of routines. This list of time management tips is designed to help you avoid burnout.
Despite feeling overwhelmed, it can be hard to let go of that sense of control and consider the possible gains when asking someone for help or letting go of doing everything.
Parents may know what’s best for their families. But even I have to be reminded to let go of the idea that I can do everything. With two young kids and a spouse who’s a pilot, I’ve learned a lot about time management and not getting overwhelmed. My time management tips to help working parents during COVID-19 generally revolve around these basic goals:
Ask yourself what your time is worth and which tasks are most urgent. Some people are obsessed with email. The first thing many people do in the morning is check and respond to emails. By doing so, you may be letting others dictate what’s most important for your day.
Is responding to others’ needs truly the most urgent need of the workday? If not, can you sort those emails in a folder to be checked later?
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If you’re feeling overwhelmed, can you ask for help? It may be hard, but one key thing to remember is that by doing so, you may be also giving someone else a future lifeline to come to you if they need help one day. Just be sure you return the favor.
If you have a partner or spouse who’s trying to juggle a job and parenting alongside you, have a meeting each week. Even if it’s just sitting down at 9 on a Sunday night and discussing your priorities for the week, try to plan the same way you would with your team. And then you can clarify who will be responsible for X, Y, and Z.
Because my husband is a pilot, we make sure that we’re always on top of his schedule, because he has to have a certain amount of sleep before he flies. For other couples, the scheduling might not be as regimented, but it’s still important to set expectations so no one feels overburdened.
Strategizing is huge, and so is figuring out which tools work best for you. It took some trial and error for my husband and me to figure out what kind of process and tools worked for us, since he does everything from his iPad and phone. Unlike me, he hates sitting down at a computer.
While I loved one particular work management software to organize our household tasks, it didn’t work so well for my husband. So today, we use another program for anything that has to do with our kids and the household, including doctor’s appointments, maintenance, and bills. Meanwhile, tasks to prepare for my husband’s deployment live in another collaborative cloud platform.
I think everybody should have a home management system. It might not necessarily be the tools my family uses, but my household is chaos if we’re not managing it in some way. Do some research to see what works best for your household.
Over the years, my team and I have built a catalogue of best practices to share with our clients. One of the things we teach is time blocking.
Before the health crisis, people were either at home with their families or at an office working. Suddenly, they struggled as they tried to work at the kitchen table with kids running around. You need to block off time for your highest priorities and ask your household to respect those boundaries.
More than 60% of execs around the world are working from home with family responsibilities due to COVID-19. In the U.S., parents make up 32% of the workforce. The absence of childcare and schools isn't a parent problem. It's two locomotives racing toward one another on a single track. Companies need to start thinking now about how to avert disaster.
First and foremost, you have to have a dedicated workspace. For instance, my kids know that if I’m in my office with the door shut, somebody has to be bleeding for the door to be opened. But work boundaries are something you have to teach your family.
While my husband and I are both perfectionists, one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned as we try to organize our household is to be flexible with our time. We know that things won’t go exactly as planned, so we try to stay in constant communication.
Be graceful with yourself. Beating yourself up during the middle of a pandemic is not going to do any good for you or those around you.
That also means giving yourself breaks when you’re time blocking. This can be anything in the realm of self-care, such as getting outside and taking a walk for 20 minutes or taking a break to snuggle your kids.
Take time to get out of your pajamas, get dressed, and take care of you mentally. You can’t fill everybody else’s cup if you’re not filling yours every day.
