There is this recurring misconception about women being able to “do it all”. The truth is that whether we like it or not, even women struggle to multitask. Actually, multitasking is a myth.
Multitasking is single-tasking really fast, switching from one task to the other at a time. Honestly, multitasking is not even a thing. However, because of the pressure that we put on and outdated beliefs, we feel the pressure to be able to do different things at different times.
Due to this amount of pressure, it's important for us to reclaim our mental space. I used to be that woman, the one who will try to be available for everyone at any time.
As I almost ran myself to the ground, working 60 hours per week, I needed things to change. This is the reason why I worked hard to beat overworking and wrote a book called Reclaim Your Time Off.
I believe that everyone can spend a bit of time better understanding their boundaries, and find ways to reclaim some time for themselves. You can manage your time better. This is what I'm here for.
I want to give you three ways that you can reclaim your time for yourself, based on the three-step solution that I talk about in my book.
We’re going to look at three core aspects: simplify, delegate, and automate.
We're going to use these principles and apply them to some of the biggest obstacles that women encounter, especially when juggling family, work, social life, and anything in between.
Focus on less every day
A lot of women resonate with simplifying because we can find ways to lighten the load that we feel during any given day. However, especially as busy women, the biggest problem that we have in the first place, is putting our focus where matters the most. This is why, if you're looking to simplify your life, I recommend you try a very simple exercise.
Focus on one thing per day next week. You might have loads of things to do on any given day, I appreciate that. If you were to identify, on any given day, the one thing that you can do to get closer to whichever goal you have for yourself, what would that be?
Would it be exercising? Would it be helping your kids with homework? Respond to emails? Get back to clients?
There is always one thing that you can do to get you closer to your goal. Once you identify that, I want you to carve undistracted time for yourself and spend time with one task. That task might change every day, or it can be the same for the whole week. That is up to you.
The important thing is that you can make uninterrupted time for you to actually work on this task. Make sure that it's long enough for you to get into that flow - I would recommend 45 minutes or more.
You might be struggling with thinking about how can you actually get that uninterrupted distraction-free time.
Ask for help from your family
The second step is delegating - this is where you need to get comfortable with asking for help. I know that this might be a struggle for a lot of women. However, being able to understand which areas of your life you feel you don't have control over, will help to identify the help you need.
If you're struggling to make time, one hour a day, to focus on your specific goal, your kids are at home are distracting you, you can delegate one hour of childcare, or even lunchtime with the kids to your partner or a family member. If it's the housework that is driving you insane, have a conversation with flatmates/partner/family to help you out with that.
Another solution is to hire somebody and delegate it to them, but this might not be available for anyone. Master communication and ask for help from people around you - you can always offer some help in other ways in return.
Make the most of technology
The last thing you can do is automate. Look at all of your repetitive tasks, and identify the one thing that you can automate. Doing your weekly shop online, or setting direct debits for your bills, even tracking your period to help you work better with your energy levels.
Technology can help you create a more streamlined process when it comes to some of the repeating tasks that you do they need help with. Especially when it comes to work, there are so many tools that you can use to automate anything from weekly calls to booking meetings.
Find that one repetitive task you can find an alternative to, and look at tools and apps to help you make your life easier.
These are just three things that you can do to reclaim your time. Depending on your individual situation you might find that other hacks or techniques can work best. If you need any more help remember you can check out my book Reclaim Your Time Off that teaches you the solution to overworking, burnout and overwhelm.
If you can find a way to simplify delegate and automate in your life, you will be able to create your own definition of work-life balance.