Joinsupermoms

The holiday is over, we’re back to work and soon in full swing. No matter how many times we set out to balance career and personal responsibilities, one always seems to get more attention than the other. In fact, some argue that you don’t balance work life, you manage it, with each one getting competing attention depending on the level of urgency at a given time.

One thing is sure, we have our professional responsibilities – our work, and our personal responsibilities – our life, and sometimes the two intertwine in ways we cannot clearly split. Here are five ways I manage my work-life responsibilities as a not-so-super supermom.

Set flexible boundaries: While it’s important to clearly define your work hours and stick to them, you can’t always ignore work emails or work-related tasks outside of these hours. In fact, in some cases, that would be just plain irresponsible.

Particularly if you’re an executive or in a managerial position, you need to be able to distinguish a work emergency and attend to it promptly even outside work hours. This does not mean sacrificing personal time. Rather, learn to take advantage of down times at work to relax and refuel in a personal space you create. That way, when a work emergency comes up even in personal time, you don’t feel drained or exasperated.

Every day at work is not a busy day. Carve personal time out of these work “downtimes”. Take a day or two off, come in later, or get off earlier where possible. In that time, make sure you’re doing something personally meaningful to yourself, breakfast with a friend, a private moment with yourself or even paying off sleep debt all count.

Prioritize and Delegate: Identify the work tasks and personal tasks that are most important. Next, arrange them in order of priority. Distinguish between tasks you absolutely must do yourself and those that can be delegated. Never shy away from delegating tasks, and when possible, reach out to your support system for help.

The objective is to lighten your workload and prevent burnout. So, think about making out time, perhaps even during work downtimes, to train those you delegate so they know how best to carry out the tasks.

Also think about how technology can help you. Use applications, calendars and organisational tools where available to help you better organise and execute your tasks.

Take Regular Breaks: These are different from the snippets you take off during work downtimes. Here, I am referring to regular breaks during the most stressful work hours. These could be a 15-minute coffee break, a 10-minute bathroom break, a 5-minute break to get some air or 2-minutes to chat with or call a loved one or friend. Make each break count.

If you choose to spend your break time alone, which I strongly recommend, do a routine stretch or lie flat on your back and meditate. I even listen to an afrobeat song and dance every now and then. This is proven to enhance productivity and reduce stress. Short breaks also are known to help recharge your creativity and improve overall energy levels.

Above all, never skimp on your statutory break: your allocated vacation time. Take it, spend the time with family, upskill, work on your retirement plan or just discover a new city and culture.

Communicate your needs and limitations: Keep the doors of communication with your colleagues and superiors open. Let everyone know what you’re able to do in terms of skills, tasks and deadlines. Be able to negotiate crucial deliverables and deadlines. Be open about workload and how much of it you can realistically manage and of course be responsible: respect the deliverables and deadlines you negotiate for yourself.

While no one is indispensable, when you give in quality work and respect deadlines, managers and colleagues can set realistic expectations and are more likely to want to plan their responsibilities around you. This leads to a healthier work environment.

Practice healthy lifestyle habits: A healthy lifestyle is holistic. It involves incorporating regular exercise, proper nutrition, and sufficient sleep into your daily routine. Start with planning your meals, then proceed to a routine of physical exercise that you enjoy and that complements your work schedule. This could include walking, cycling, dancing, swimming, or a game you’ve always wanted to learn.

It’s very important to work your diet and physical activity into your normal daily routines so that a work or personal event doesn’t disrupt your effort. For that reason, I find it useful to get my main physical exercise routine done early in the morning. But that’s just a personal preference.

If you have a stable schedule that allows you fit physical exercise into later in the day, that’s fine or you could even combine both time options. The important thing is to be consistent, eat right and get enough sleep.

Balancing work and personal life involve managing work and personal interactions so that while each may overlap, none suffers dramatically because of the other.

The modern supermom has to be able to juggle each responsibility being flexible, learning to prioritize and delegate, developing open communication skills and overall practicing healthy eating and exercise habits.