5 Steps to Prepare a Working Mom's Calendar
Effective Work-Life Organization for an Employed Mother
Nov 15, 2009
It’s not easy being a working mother. On top off all her work deadlines she is still expected to carry out her wifely duties and her child care duties. Life might not seem fair for a working mother, but that’s the life she chose. The best thing about modern technology is all the tools are at a working mother’s beck and call. The secret to a bit of organization and time for herself is all in a calendar. Below are some tips to help any working mom build her own working mom calendar.
Keep Just One Calendar
It doesn’t help to have separate calendars for the different aspects of a mom's life life. A working mother might have two calendars: one for work and one for home. Everyone only has one life to live, so a working mother is no exception. It will greatly help her if she gets to see her schedule in one integrated calendar.
She needs to see her life beyond her nine-to-five job and really appreciate how much of her time goes to any activity. This will also help her figure out her priorities and how they play out in her calendar. For example, if she promised herself that she would spend more time with her kids, seeing the activities she has set aside on her calendar for her kids will help her evaluate if she is really physically putting in the hours to this commitment.
Subscribe to a Scheduled Message Sending Site
An example of this is Sendible.com. One of the benefits of modern technology is the access to a chuck load of tools to help a mother schedule her time and help her do her tasks. Having an automated scheduler like Sendible will allow her to send out birthday greetings to friends and family without physically checking a diary every day.
Sendible also allows the user to post messages on Facebook walls and send emails on certain scheduled dates. This will remove a lot of worries and “Did I greet so and so?” moments in a mother’s life. When she can’t afford to forget things, at least she can now schedule things for herself.
Schedule Appointments for Important Tasks at Home
Meetings aren’t the only important appointments a working mother should block off on her calendar. She should block off vacations (whether planned or actually scheduled already as an actual vacation leave), parent-teacher meetings, and actual chores that take up her time like buying gifts or going to the bank. Scheduling some tasks as if they are really meetings or appointments will help a working mother prioritize them and give them value as something that’s equally worthy of her time as a work-related task.
Have Emergency Contacts and Procedures Near the Calendar
No one can plan an emergency. However, the best thing that a working mother can do is to prepare for one. She can put all emergency contact details, numbers, and procedures in a handy place that’s accessible by the entire family (like the family refrigerator). She should also have these details in her calendar file at work, for her own easy access.
The list of important information should include the names and contact numbers of doctors, specialists and family members as well as other vital information like life insurance and medical care providers together with the policy numbers.
Synchronize Calendars
Aside from keeping just one schedule and set of appointments, it wouldn’t hurt to have this calendar accessible on different devices. A lot of cell phones nowadays have a calendar function. While some executive moms will rely on their assistants, they won’t always have their assistants on call when they're at home with the kids or on vacation. So it would help if a working mom has a virtual assistant with her, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a cell phone.
A cell phone is particularly handy because of its size. A working mom can stow it in her purse or have it always near her for instant updates on her calendar. She just needs to make sure that the information on her cell phone is synchronized with her calendar at work.
A working mom has the double task of being effective at work and at home. While this might seem insurmountable, some organization and a single calendar can help her face her challenges. She just needs to make sure she maintains only one calendar that’s synchronized across different devices, subscribe to one of the many different scheduling tools available online, set physical appointments for important tasks and have all her emergency contacts and procedures handy.
Find this article useful? Read other work-related articles such as Finding Your Career Passion and Seven Easy Steps For Meditation At Work.
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