I was recently asked to contribute to a piece Celeste Coffman put together for working moms. The pearls of wisdom she gleaned from professionals who have chosen to serve this audience really created a valuable collection of ideas!
Here’s what I shared:
“What gets scheduled gets done” is a phrase I repeat often to my private coaching clients. In practice, this means that ALL the little tasks swimming around in our heads need to make a soft landing somewhere on our calendars. From writing the big presentation to filling out the field trip permission slip, from updating your will with an attorney to booking a hotel for your next trip, every blessed thing takes time! While you may be used to keeping it all in your head, the act of putting pen to paper or using an app to transfer each task from its spot on your running to do list to its very own block of time on your calendar makes all the difference. It helps you set realistic expectations for what you can accomplish each day and most importantly, it ensures that each task will actually get done!
With Celeste’s permission I’m sharing her post and the full list of 25 tips with you here today. I hope you’ll find something that inspires you!
Once I went to a conference, and I gave my elevator pitch to this guy beside me in the buffet line:
“Since married women statistically perform 85% of domestic and childcare responsibilities even when they work outside the home, I help women create and maintain realistic routines for organization and stress management.”
I took a breath and reached into my pocket for the stack of business cards I just knew he’d ask for. Unfortunately, he didn’t ask.
He blithely replied, “Yeah, I’m not buying it. What about single dads who tackle 100% of the responsibilities?”
Ouch.
After spending several more hours with this guy, I grew to really like him. He had a moving backstory about being a single dad, and we still keep up, to this day.
What the encounter taught me is this:
Whether you’re a working mom, a working dad, a stay-at-home mom or a single parent — The struggle is real.
I’ll admit that while I’m really great at organizing certain aspects of my life, I need a lot of work in other areas. For example, meal planning. It’s a struggle for me and I often put off trips to the grocery store because I hate it so much. So what happens after a few days? My fridge is bare and meal planning really gets hard.
Do you feel me?
So, to that end, I reached out to some amazing bloggers for tips on organizing all the chaos that comes with being a working mama. Instead of a bunch of little Pinterest links about the best way to fold a t-shirt, these ladies really stepped up to the plate!
The common denominator was the need to strategize our roles as working moms because there’s always going to be way too much to do.
I think you’re going to love this list!
