Balancing home and work can be difficult during busy seasons. There are things you can do to help make life easier and things that you should stop doing at least temporarily until you’re out of the season. Below I’ve listed out what is working for me, some of which are basic stuff and others may seem slightly unhinged.
Chores:
I am keeping it simple at home. I’m not doing any deep cleaning during this time. I’m only doing the chores that make daily life easier. If you’re not able to get some of this done, it’s OK. Also, remember to reach out to members of your household to help with these chores if possible. I’m on the side that chores should be shared by the whole family.
- Do a load of laundry and put away daily.
- Load dishwasher and put away daily.
- Clean up pots and pans from cooking daily.
- Wipe down counters and kitchen table daily.
- Take trash out regularly.
- Declutter mail as it comes in so that I don’t have a pile to deal with later. Anything that I need to address, I just put in a folder for when I have time to get to it.
- Keep vehicle picked up as much as possible. I try to remember to remove any trash out of my car daily and anything that needs to go back into the house. It just makes me feel better knowing my vehicle is in decent shape and not acting as another storage of clutter.
- I’m not doing anything extra in my yard that I must maintain. I’m not planting flowers or anything that I must remember to water. I’m lucky enough that I have a husband and child that can keep up with mowing and weed eating but that’s all we’re going to be doing in the yard.
Other:
- Check emails regularly that come in for your child and family (not just your work email), to help with avoiding activities or tasks sneaking up on you last minute.
- Say no to the parent sign-ups and functions at the school during work hours. If you feel like you need to contribute or attend, do it the simplest way that makes sense for you. When my child was younger, I went to a handful of class parties but more often than not I did not go.
- Say no to plans that would crater you. I.e. coffee or dinner with friends when you are at your max with family and work responsibilities. Sometimes there literally is not enough time in the day to do it all. Focus on the priorities. As time frees up, you can do more extracurricular activities. Your friends and family will understand.
- Plan out meals for 1-2 days at a time and not the whole week. Meal planning for a whole week can be overwhelming. I usually will just always make sure I have an idea of dinner for the next day and we make it happen one way or the other. I do not want to spend hours in the kitchen planning for multiple meals. This works for some people, but it does not work for me. Also, no elaborate meals are allowed! Keep it simple. Bonus points if you catch stretch the meal out to cover a couple of days.
- Keep a calendar for work and keep a calendar for personal. Put everything on the calendars so that you don’t forget something. Juggling it in your brain is hard work! I use a paper calendar for both, and it has worked great for me.
- Keep lists for gifts for birthdays and holidays so that you’re not overwhelmed to figure it out at the last minute. Always keep an eye out for ideas. It makes it so much easier when it comes time to shopping for the gift. I waste less time when I know what I want to get someone.
- Almost all of my bills are set to auto pay.
- Lastly, think of at least one thing you can do for yourself each day that brings joy to you. It can be as simple as taking a walk, reading a few chapters of a book, or watching your favorite show.
