In the last year, I have been living this crazy mad life where I slept only 3-4 hours every day and then caught up with perhaps 7-8 hours on 1-2 nights every week. There was a domino effect from that, of course. First of all, I read that I could actually just DIE from lack of sleep. My hormones were not functioning well and my immune system was low. Secondly, I was hell moody and the kids bore the brunt of it. Thirdly, I had so many commitments that I just could not say no to, but they were killing me.
Now is the turning point of my life.
I was lucky in that the Charity that I used to work for let me go graciously once they found a succession. I was also lucky that the Parenting Website I write for has given me the leniency to slack a bit. But you know what? I’m still shit busy……….I don’t have the time to check all my personal emails, nor even facebook messages (yes, yes….complete time-waster, but people actually contact me via FB). In any case, I was losing control so I decided to draw up a time management plan for busy working moms like myself.
In a week, there are 168 hours (24 x 7). What I did was to draw up a table with all my daily activity time slots on the left and days of the week on top. My categories were:-
Sleeping (Last night I had 2 hours….*sigh*)
Eating (Some allowances made for dining out but otherwise, I only have enough time to drink my meals)
Showering (Super snappy but thorough)
Getting Dressed (Only for Work Meetings and if I don’t want to be recognised)
Driving (A bloody calculated 10 hours!!! Seriously would consider hiring a driver!!!)
Working (The MUST DO)
Family Time with Kids
One on One time with T1 (5 hours)
One on One time with T2 (5 hours)
Exercise (3 hours per week)
Groceries
Cooking (Less these days as my Helper learns more dishes)
Organising and Planning (Very important)
Household
Waiting (Whenever I have to wait, I will attempt multi-tasking)
Blogging (5 hours)
Me Time (Non-existent. Yet.)
Husband Time (Only one hour allocated for him each week. He doesn’t have time for me anyway!)
Reading
Friends (I see my friends maybe once a quarter? No kidding.)
Wasting Time (this includes FACEBOOK and random WhatsApp messages about industrialized powered batteries for vibrators etc)
Miscellanous
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I then had a column for what is ideal and then below the days of the week columns, I’d add in my actual hours spent on each task to assess where really my time was going. The reality of it is, there wasn’t enough time. Period. But it is nevertheless an interesting exercise to start balancing your life and ensuring that you get the best quality out of it!
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Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin is a former Design Architect turned Multi-Million Dollar Digital Entrepreneur. She sets out to prove to all that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.
Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past and doubled her salary 5 times over 5 organisations but has grown THREE BUSINESSES to 7 FIGURES within an 8 year period. She now shows others EXACTLY HOW after retiring her own husband from employment. He is now the official dog walker, family driver, chef and THE BEST FATHER to their two girls and THE BEST HUSBAND to the woman who CHOSE HIM!
Mamapumpkin is the girl who has nothing but fights for everything including YOU. She is idealistic in her desire to put unbelievable amounts of money and extrardinary happiness into the lives of good people so we can change the world together believing in happiness for ALL. She strives to impact lives authentically wanting to reduce poverty cycles and enable quality education for all and always supports the voiceless. She believes we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.
A beautiful life without limits.
If you wish to learn how to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave to take action. Mamapumpkin's purpose is to build people. Her gift is to help them UNCOVER their HIDDEN GIFTS. She operates fairly and always leaves an impression. You either love her or not and she is alright either way.
She is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything with anyone, as she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.
You have an amazing schedule there. it is challenging being a working mom.
I have to say your 2 girls are really pretty. I have not seen any pics of your husband but i can say they inherited your good looks.
I take my hat off to you. I don’t know how you survive with so little sleep. I need a good sleep every night at least 7-8 hours, else I am unable to function properly. Hope you get time to enjoy life and breath.
do u hv too much on your plate?
No point planning if you’re not going to put the planning into action. Take charge!
and you still got time to work all these out on worksheet wor…not so bad after all!