Ladies, I know I’m not alone when I say that it would be great if we could all escape to a beautiful, sunny, Covid-free bubble somewhere. Not having to be constantly bombarded with everything that goes along with this pandemic sounds like pure bliss.
The truth is that this pandemic has affected every single aspect of our lives. From working to parenting, grocery shopping to socialising, in-person human contact and so much more.
Another truth which has been cited in various articles is that, during this pandemic, women’s workloads have increased significantly.
Prior to the pandemic, studies have shown that women completed the bulk of unpaid care work, i.e. looking after children, caring for the elderly and the ill, cooking, cleaning, and the likes. This unpaid work was done over and above their normal jobs within the economic workforce.
With the onset of the pandemic, women’s unpaid workloads have dramatically increased. Throw in home schooling and an increased care load due to illness from the pandemic – where is the time to do all of this and earn a living as well?
So in this new world of ours, how do we as women stay on top of everything? Because, let’s face it – if we’re all over the place, so are our families.
Answer: Get Organised!
Here are 7 tips to help keep you sane!
1. Make it visual
Bottom line: If you can’t actually see what you need to do, you’re going to forget it.
It’s easy to swipe away a reminder on your phone as it pops up while you’re in a Zoom meeting. How many times have you overslept because you hit that snooze button a few times too many? Exactly.
So, yes, technology is wonderful and all, but you cannot rely on it as your sole means of organisation. If you really want to become organised, you have to physically write it down. As in, pen and paper.
- Write it down in a diary: The bigger, the better. Now, here’s the catch – Don’t close it! If you close it, trust me, you’ll forget to open it and miss out on a myriad of things that needed to be done. So leave it open on your desk, so that you can easily see what needs to be done.
- Get a desk calendar: If you don’t like diaries, get one of these. Bonus if you can get one that can be stuck up against the wall or onto a notice board where you can see it clearly.
- Get a white board: These are extremely versatile as you will be able to write something down as quickly as it pops into your mind. Since white boards can be easily cleaned, you will literally be able to re-use and make use of it every day of the week when needed.
- Put it on your phone calendar: Okay, I know I just said not to rely on technology. But if you put your appointments into your phone calendar in addition to writing it down in a diary or calendar, it wouldn’t hurt.
- Colour code: Assign a colour to each person and each area in your life. For example: red for your son, green for your daughter, blue for your hubby, work meetings and tasks in yellow, household chores in brown, etc.
In this way, you can easily see which of your kids has science assignment due, who has a work meeting, etc. without the added chore of going into your back-up organisers for clarity.
2. Do time-blocking
Instead of organising your life by the hour (or half hour), as per many diary time slots, why not time-block instead?
Having your life planned out in thirty-minute increments can be quite daunting. For example: 06h00 – Get up and shower; 06h30 – Have breakfast; 07h00 – wake up the kids.
Well, what if one of the kids decide to wake up on their own at 06h00 and demand breakfast straight away? It throws out your entire morning and possibly entire day out as well. And we certainly don’t want to be more stressed out.
Instead, why not block out chunks of time with tasks that are related. For example:
06h00 to 08h00: Get ready – This includes your entire family, plus breakfast for everyone
08h00 to 10h00: Kids academics (if they’re still home)
10h00 to 12h00: Reports / proposals / contact clients
12h00 to 13h00: Lunch
13h00 to 15h00: Meetings / plan works tasks for next day
15h00 to 18h00: Cook dinner / household tasks / family dinner
And so forth. You could set an alarm for the end of each time block so you know when to move on to the next one.
It will make you feel less rushed and more on top of things.
3. Get ready the night before
This is an old one, but a good one. If there is anything that can be done the night before, do it. You’ll be amazed at how much time, stress and arguments it saves. A few things you could do:
- Setting out cereal bowls and boxes.
- Deciding what you and your kids will wear the next day and set it out.
- Shower the night before.
- Make sure the kids school bags and masks are ready to go.
- If the kids are back at school, pack lunches the night before.
- If they’re still home, plan what they’ll have for lunch ahead of time.
Which brings me to my next tip.
4. Do meal planning
O. M. G. This is a life saver! Never again will you be standing in front of your fridge at 5pm trying to decide what to make for your 5:30pm dinner.
Plan out your meals at least one week ahead. This allows enough time for online grocery shopping and delivery (because those slots fill up fast!).
You could do a basic plan – just planning dinners for a week. Or you could plan out breakfast, lunches and dinners for a week. Either way, by knowing exactly what you’ll be having for dinner the following night, you’ll be able to plan ahead the night before.
Remember, you could also slot in a night for take-outs, or something easy like frozen pizzas that can just be popped into the oven.
5. Set time aside to do your planning
This is a crucial step in getting organised.
Some people say that planning your week on a Monday morning is great. Personally, when Monday comes around, I like to know what’s happening. So my tip would be to plan and prep on a Sunday evening or sometime during the day when it’s quiet.
Get out all your planning tools: your diaries, calendars, phones, stationery and school and work to-do lists – and plot everything out.
Why not pop in your earphones and put on some easy listening music, while you’re at it.
6. Allow for deviations
As the saying goes, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
The truth is that, even if you’ve planned everything to the tee, things might still not go accordingly. In such a situation, don’t freak out. Always allow for deviations. If today didn’t go quite as expected, tweak your plan and start afresh the next day.
Remember, use your planning as a guide. It is not cast in stone.
7. Book out time for yourself
And when you’re doing your all-important planning sessions, please don’t forget to book out at least 1 hour for yourself each night. Time to read books, watch Netflix, eat chocolates, have a bubble bath or anything that makes you feel like your best self.
We hope that you’ve found these tips valuable. There are many other ways of getting organised. Why not try these seven to start off with and customise your own organisation hacks from there.
Happy organising and happy Women’s Month!
