Working Moms Easy Life Hacks to

Reclaim your time

Karabo Moloko

www.unleashinstitute.com

As a working mom, especially with school-going age children, daily life can feel like you are being chased by a 40-ton truck. If you slip, you will be crushed. You constantly moving from one urgent thing to another, never quite getting to grips with everything on your plate. For many of us, balancing the ever-increasing demands of work and maintaining a stable happy family, feels like an unattainable dream.

There is no point feeling sorry for yourself, wishing it will all go away is a futile exercise. You have to start doing things differently. Its time you employed easy to implement strategies, that eliminate frustrations and help you gain control of your dynamic world.

I'm excited to tell you there are strategies you can implement to optimize your time. There easy life hacks that can transform your life and save you that much needed hour or two in your day.

Here are four strategies that other high achiever working moms like yourself have implemented to reclaim their time and peace of mind. I challenge you to select one, implement it for a month and see how much stress you reduce in your day.

1# ORDER HOME-COOKED MEALS ONLINE

I'm in awe at how many working moms still have to rush home after a long day of meetings to prepare a healthy balanced meal for their family. At times work commitments can run longer than planned and fast food becomes the reluctant choice.

A strategy that saved me when things got busy, was ordering home delivered fresh cooked meals. You just pick food from the menu; the food is freshly prepared and then delivered just in time for dinner. This way your family eats delicious, home-cooked healthy meals and you save yourself an hour of slaving away in the kitchen.

www.unleashinstitute.com

There several service providers close to you, search online and find the one that cooks food your family loves. You might have to try a few options to find what tastes good to you. Start with one night a week, for example, Mondays were always hectic for me.

2# ORDER GROCERIES ONLINE

There is nothing more frustrating in the mornings than to discover that you have run out of supplies to make lunch. This always seems to happen when you busy at work and just not getting time to go grocery shopping.

Ordering groceries online has been a liberating discovery. You take 10 minutes just before you sleep, place your order, and tomorrow it's delivered. No more looking for stores that are open late at night or sending someone who inevitably gets the wrong order. Peace of mind is priceless.

3# PLAN A WEEKLY DATE NIGHT OR DATE BREAKFAST WITH YOUR PARTNER

This might sound like a weird suggestion in the context of optimizing your time. Hear me out... When you are very busy, the first relationship to be neglected is quality time with your partners. Of course, they know the pressure you under, they must understand.

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I have realized that this is one of the most critical relationships if you want to get more done. It can be an enabler or hold you back in more ways than you can count. We, unfortunately, push time with our partner to the back burner when we get busy. Yet, when we don't give it time, we waste even more time in arguments, stress and unnecessary disagreements. Investing weekly quality time for a quick check-in can significantly optimize your week.

4# 'JUST SAY NO'

As working moms, we constantly requested to attend to many different demands. Whether it’s taking on a new portfolio at work, sitting on the school PTA, going out with the girls, the list is endless. Because we often can't make it, out of guilt we say yes, in hope that we will find a way to make it work. You and I know, it will never work. We end up disappointing those we love.

Next time you asked to add one more thing to your already inundated schedule - 'just say no'! Your 'no', will be less painful than agreeing and then not honoring your word. 'Say no' to requests that leave you running from one event to the other. Stop agreeing to attend to errands on opposite sides of town. Limits the number of activities you squeeze in one weekend. 'No' is a complete sentence

Karabo Moloko CEO on unLeash Institute DISRUPTIVE THINKER | INNOVATOR | ENTREPRENEUR Karabo has a BCom from UCT, Certified PMP and Executive Programmes from Insead and Oxford University. Karabo has climbed the corporate ladder, become Vice President at Sasol. She is now CEO on unleash Institute and Director of CoLAB Project Implementation.