Three cheers for those busy Moms. Child care and taking care of the household duties are huge chores in themselves. You may also have a career going, where you work for yourself or a company. If that is the case, you need time blocking. Although this is called time blocking for Mom, that doesn't mean partners don't do the same thing. The birth mother may stay home the first year and then switch off with their partner. In that case, read through the section and see how it applies to your household.
What’s Happening?
You need to be clear on what the weekly tasks are. This includes not only what you do in the house but outside as well. For example, a large part of your weekly tasks may be prepping the little one for kindergarten, so they have a head start.
It could include daily excursions to the library for books if you believe a handheld book will spark your child's creativity more than an e-reader.
Write down all the tasks that come to mind.
What’s The Flow Baby?
When you have a very young child, it is going to take more work to realize how your day flows entirely. Your child may not have any regular eating or napping periods. Some children won't nap at all, so you have to be more creative in your time blocking.
Those who have a napper in the house might have an extra hour in the morning and then again in the afternoon.
Success leaves clues, and this means you can model the success of others. Many Moms who use time blocking report that they do not use short-time units such as ½ hour or full hour.
Instead, they block out more significant portions. For example, if you have a child that typically naps for longer than one hour, you can block that time out to work on the most important tasks of your work at home job.
For those making homecare the full-time job, that means you have a large time block for the task that takes you the longest. It could be meal prep for the week, or cleaning is a huge task if you have a large family.
When we did the example of a person who sets up new retail stores, we broke the units into much smaller and more detailed time blocks.
The day of a busy Mom would be quite different, and it is best to sit down with pen and paper while imagining a typical day and then a whole week.
It is necessary to look at saving time with all that you do. That means deciding when the grocery store is almost empty, and you can go through quickly.
When do you prefer to exercise? Are you a night owl or an early riser? Each Mom will need to find their rhythm and what works best for them. For example, some Moms who have work to do find that they can get more done between 9 pm and 2 am. They are fine with 5 to 6 hours of sleep.
For a busy Mom, it would be better to break your time blocks into something like this:
Early morning before the kids (if you are a night owl, you would adjust this and put in what you need to do when you have “quiet time.”
- Time with the kids
- School drop off
- Work time
- Exercise and light lunch
- Work time before school ends
- Time with the kids
- Dinner
- Work time while kids watch television or do homework
- Family time
- Personal care and time blocking for tomorrow
We discussed batching previously, and here, a Mom needs to be very creative. You could look at the “work time before school ends.” This could be batched with any phone calls you need to make.
For example, you are on your computer doing work, so dial up the insurance company to check on your claim. Typically you will be on hold. Put the phone on speaker and continue with work that is not deep work needing total concentration.
Remember, if you call your bank or credit card company, you may be on hold for ½ hr., so you can stay in workflow until the customer service rep comes on the line.
Learn more about Time Boxing by joining our Facebook Group
https://web.facebook.com/groups/everlastingcreators
