1st happy 2019! I hope your year is off to a great start & that you accomplish all you set out to do this year. I want to take a moment to talk about the struggle of the single Hawt mama is who are out here working hard hustlin their asses off providing a recen life for their family. I don't know why I thought it would get easier as my kid got older, the reality is that as they age they come with a whole new set of ideals trying to balance it is literally like tryin to balance a juggling act. and it's stressful. As we have progressed, I realize that the model I was using to work in our earlier days no longer works for every aspect of our life like it did. So, since June/July of last year I have been struggling back and forth against the fact that it is out dated. and, slowly tryin to figure out a new model to balance our lives more effectively. We have made some progress. But, I still find myself looking for a new model that works for us balancing work, school, and family life commitments. I think originally, I worked super hard to create a life that allowed my son to function in a multicultural environment that he would thrive in. It has been so amazing to watch his growth. Now, culturally, I am trying to figure out how to balance his identity in relationship to him growing up and being able to culturally navigate our community as well as mainstream society with effortless ease. It is a downright balancing act that I feel like gets more challenging the older he becomes. Anyway, here are a couple of steps I am taking to help carve out the new ideals & goals for worklfe balance.
1. Find ways to help save time, for example, if you are driving 1.5 hours to and from work, that's 3 hrs of your day, how can you readjust things in your life to use that time more effective? Moving may have to be an option. If you calculate that time it looks like this: 1 Week=15 Hours, 1 Month=60 Hours, 1 Yr=720 Hours/24=30 Days!!! So, that means of the 12 Months in this year, you would spend 1 Month sitting in traffic. WOW!! There has to be a better way. 2. Think very deeply about what you need as well as your family, and what small steps can you take to help you get there? If cooking & cleaning seems to become an enormous task now that work takes up so much time, can it be outsourced? There are several services that you can order a weeks worth of food and hire someone to come do those daily task for a very affordable rate weekly. Ordering food, also eliminates the time you would spend buying the ingriedents. It comes from the food service ready to cook so you would only have to cook the food. I know there Box, Plated etc. may be worth a try. 3. Have you spoken to your Manager about small things you can do for work life balance if you work an traditional 8-5? For example, flextime for working from home when needed to help with balance as a perk when you are performing well? This can be a huge stress release. And provide an extreme balance to being able to balance your commitments. I think this is a great start. It will definitely have to be developed as the year goes on. XOXO,
Rashida
Comments