TIME MANAGEMENT FOR THE WORKING MOTHER

Every mother is faced with the ultimate challenge: you're working, raising your kids, and addressing an endless list of domestic chores. What you need is a daily schedule that will allow you to balance your unique set of priorities and responsibilities. No two people have precisely the same idea of what constitutes perfect time management. The final determinant is simply whether your relationship with time is a happy one that enables you to meet your professional obligations, enjoy the company of those you love, and take good care of your most important asset-your health.

While there is no standard plan for managing your time, there are some basic guidelines that can be applied to a wide variety of circumstances. Follow these ten steps for busy mothers and you may find a little more time in each day.

1. Forward Planning. Planning is the fundamental building block of time management. What you must remember is that the plan you create must be a plan you can implement. This means being accurate about the day-to-day realities of your work and other responsibilities; allowing for the usual interruptions, delays and crises.

2. Prioritize. Decide on the activities most important to you and which you can live without. These can be tough choices, but not making them deprives you of the time you need to really enjoy your life. Once you've set your priorities, do not add a new activity unless you decide against carrying out one. If you put in extra hours on the job regularly, or bring home unfinished paperwork, you may need to discuss your workload with your boss or explore other career options.

3. Track your progress. All major projects require their own schedule, timeline, or timetable identifying the milestones on the way to completion. If you have set realistic target dates, your progress should match your plan. If unforeseen developments place you behind your projected dates, you can either alert your boss or client and set a revised completion date or take steps to hasten your progress and make up the lost time. (Always leave room on your schedule for work-in-progress updates.)

4. Delegate what you can. You are probably undertaking tasks that can be handled by others. Start with the routine, time-consuming jobs you know someone else can do. Recognize that teaching someone else the ropes will take a bit of time, and allow for a reasonable learning curve. The benefits to you however, in terms of increased time and decreased stress, will more than repay your efforts.

5. Learn to say "No". Almost everyone ends up working late or bringing work home once in a while. However, if you find yourself doing it more and more often, it may be time for you to start saying no, not only to others but also to yourself. Regular long working hours upsets the balance between work and leisure that is essential to your health and well-being.

6. Group tasks according to the skills required. In order to maximize your time, try to do the jobs requiring maximum concentration and peak efficiency when your attention and energy levels are highest. Likewise, try to schedule your routine, low-level tasks for times of the day when you find it hard to concentrate. The trick is to pinpoint your hours of peak performance and schedule your work accordingly.

7. Be adaptable. Always find, adapt, and apply efficient new techniques to the responsibilities you carry out. This will save you time and also cut down on your overall workload. In the process, you will project an image of efficiency and control. In fact, the longer you have been doing a job, the more it is to your credit to devise and explore improved techniques and streamlined procedures.

8. Manage big jobs smartly. It is easy to put off jobs of huge proportions. For example, spring-cleaning the house may appear to be a daunting task. However, if you manage the job smartly, you will move towards that goal in stages: select the room you will begin with, buy the essentials you need, and begin work on the curtains first for example. By breaking a big task into manageable steps, setting a timetable for doing each step, and chipping away at the project, you can accomplish almost anything-and with a lot less stress than by trying to do it all at once.

9. Leisure activities. The best time management plans encompass the whole of your life, rather than just your working hours. Don't leave it to chance that you'll spend a leisurely weekend with your kids, go on a date with your spouse or pursue a personal interest. Allocate time for family, friends, exercise, special interests, or special projects instead of just enjoying these essential elements with the remaining time you have left after the usual daily grind. Doing so will allow you to examine your present ratio of work to home and leisure time and help you restore the balance in your life.

10. Relax. Finally, learn to relax. Stress breeds stress. So don't let yourself stay so keyed up that you forget to smell the roses during the free time you have created for yourself.