I am sure you feel that being a mother is the best gift of your life! No wonder you have come onto this article. 🙂
The journey of motherhood undoubtedly comes with its own share of ups and downs, with both good days and bad. If you hadn’t already realised, you were born a mother the same day your baby took birth! Since that day, you must have experienced a ton of excitement, nervousness, happiness and emotional overflows.
Lets face it, this motherhood can sometimes get a little bumpy. As a working mother myself, I am very familiar with these hiccups along the way. So I have decided to curate some of my personal (tried and tested) tricks, that can help you as well, to run the bus of motherhood a little more smoothly…
Darling, you need to turn into an early bird
Mornings can be chaotic with children at home. Why not add an extra hour of prep to your morning schedule and trust me, you will be free of major interruptions. Try to use your free morning hour to grab a cup of coffee calmly, or maybe tend to your flowers, or even do the laundry. You can choose to spread the breakfast and then go for a happy run before your little poppets are up!
Prepare a to-do list
This might sound cliche and so basic, but honestly, it’s something we ignore daily. Preparing a to-do list on a whiteboard or a paper pad can be your life saver, every single day! This list can consist of an unfinished school project, an empty refrigerator, mounting laundry, a friend’s get together, a party plan or even work meetings. Some of them might even conflict with each other, while they demand immediate attention simultaneously! So avoid things from piling. Try to be proactive by preparing a list of tasks and ticking or striking them away as you finish them. You can keep a fixed list of recurring tasks like grocery shopping, and get them done at a fixed time or on a fixed day of the week.
Turn off notifications on your phone
Turn off your notifications, not one or two but all of them! Mute all your social media beeps and delete the apps that you rarely use. Make it a habit to check important stuff like emails and SMSs from family or work, only when YOU want to. This might be hard towards the beginning, but it will yield results soon. Does that call for a little bit of sacrifice? Oh yes it does, but when you start reaping the benefits of this habit, you will surely be thankful for practicing it.
Prep the night before and catch some quality/beauty sleep
By the end of the day, you would probably feel exhausted. Still some quick preparations done at night can save you crucial time the next morning (especially on a weekday)!
- Pack your office or gym bag and the kids’ backpacks and place them at a spot by the main/exit door.
- Help the kiddos wrap up homework before dinner positively.
- Chop and prep vegetables or fruits, fix up lunch boxes or snacks partially, as you make dinner.
- On sundays, make it a habit to clean and organize the whole house as a family. This routine of decluttering the floor, putting away toys, stacking up books and crayons will lead to a stress-free work week!
While the tips I have listed above focus on the secrets of a productive mom (working or otherwise), I can vouch for the fact that these parenting hacks are useful for fathers, grandparents, older siblings and all other types of guardians too! Feel free to act on these pointers and also share them with your peers if you feel that they can really make a difference to your life.
In case you have a few tips of your own that you’d like to share, do write back to us!