Work Week Strategies

To help get your ducks lined up for next week, today, Nataly Kogan of Work It, Mom! shares five tips to help working moms achieve a little more calm going into - and during - the work week. My favorite is #5 (the ultimate goal being to reduce the number of dreaded to-dos).

“As I was going through the Sunday night routine of getting ready for the week I was inspired to share some of the small things I do to make my crazy life as a working mom a bit easier.

I write everything down. You’ll never find me without some type of notebook and pen. I have tons of them. I have notebooks for BIG ideas, a notebook for my daily to-do list, a daily working notebook to jot down ideas, directions, and later to-dos I come up with, a small notebook in my purse to write down something I need to remember if I am away from my desk, a notebook in the kitchen for the shopping list… Yes, I’m a bit obsessive, but writing things down helps me remember them, and more than that, to have comfort in the fact that I know if something is important, I must have written it down… somewhere.

I continuously declutter. I try to not keep things we don’t need and reduce the amount of paperwork in the house. My recent rule is to only touch a piece of mail once and then decide whether it’s to be recycled, put in the bills folder, or filed.

I try to schedule one day per week without meetings. This isn’t always possible, but I aim for it. Having one day to be in my office and to be fully 100% productive gives me the chance to complete projects that take a lot of time and concentration and is also a great cushion in case I am behind on calls, emails, or other to-dos for the week. Just knowing that I have this day makes me less anxious.

I cook Monday and Tuesday dinners on Sunday night. My goal is to get this done by 8pm on Sunday so that my husband and I can also hang out and watch a movie before the crazy work week begins. So far, I’ve reached this time goal just a few times, but even if I’m cooking at 10pm on Sunday, having dinner ready the day before makes the beginning of the week much less stressful. (Often Sunday night cooking involves my true life savior – the slow cooker. If you’ve not discovered this working mother’s helper yet, do it. NOW!)

I try to do a few things I dread early in the day. The phone call I don’t want to make, the contract I don’t want to work on, the email I can’t figure out how to write… I try to do at least one unpleasant and nagging task early in each day. That way, it doesn’t hang over me and make me anxious and less productive during the day.”

For more from Nataly, hop over and visit her at the Work It, Mom! blog.

Image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net