People close to me are very well aware of my continuous ranting,
“I don’t have time to complete what all I desire to perform.”,
“even twenty-four hours seem less to me”,
“I need to work on my schedule better”, etc.
Time management is an invariable issue with me. Not that I am a terrible planner, in fact, I am described as a ruthless planner and also termed as a time table even a clock!
The other day a friend told me, “why are you organized? Just allow it to lose, detach yourself”
I nothing but looked at him, expressionless, although felt like gripping his shoulders, shake him hard and scream, I-AM-A-WORK-FROM-HOME-MOM-MOTHER-OF-TWO-BOYS-AND-A-DOG-I-HAVE-TO-LOOK-AT-EVERY-MINUTE-DETAIL-IF-I-MISS-ANY-THEN-WILL-YOU-COME-AND-TAKE-OVER?
Nevertheless, while I was juggling with all these thoughts this morning while on my training run, I made up my mind to give a considerable thought on my time management.
I primarily don’t get the luxury to sip my tea and glance at the newspaper but today I did. After turning a few pages I came across an article and my eyes popped out, it read- “Mother, Runner, Champ”.
(check this link;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/supriya-nair/mother-runner-champ/articleshow/67761882.cms)
No brownie points for guessing why? 🙂
I read through the whole article and sat stunned and dismayed.
35 year old, Jasmin Paris won the Spine race of 432 km ultra running challenge. What makes it special is that she, in addition, is a mother of a 14-month-old baby. In her three days of running challenge, she slept for five hours and stopped barely to eat and express milk. Less was written about her routine but it did mention that she is a professional runner and gets up at 5 am to train hard before she gets on her professional and personal duties.
Stunned?
I was, and I am still tremendously inspired. My current expression is –Wow!!
I next looked at myself and thought what I am complaining of?
I have help at home, and my children are big enough to manage stuff, I am not a breastfeeding mother, I enjoy the liberty to manage my work and travel hours and days, my entire ecosystem is in place, yet I am complaining that I can’t manage my time?
Utter shame on me.
Well, after giving birth to children our routine changes dramatically.
For me, my days are always arduous. Right from the morning, each activity has to be timed. I have to schedule my training in such a way that I don’t miss out on the plan, use of the productive hours until the boys are in the school, finish major calls and work until then, once they are back the dynamics of the house changes. Fight, argue, discuss, shout, school work, classes, meals, stroll for Tango, cooking instructions, menu decision and the list is endless. It does get exhausting but then there is no way out.
Each one of us receives twenty-four hours in a day but how we manage and plan generates the difference.
I am in total awe of this mother who did not give up on her training even while she is breastfeeding.
Our priorities, lifestyle, the way of living, thought process, body strength changes drastically after having children, it is therefore easy to produce excuses and not follow a routine because it is doesn’t take much to be lazy. It takes an effort and a whole lot of will to stand up, plan and execute. We as a mother also get into the guilt zone very quickly, at times on our own and sometimes forced by society and family. I give constant reminders to myself that, I am trying to do my best, I do commit mistakes but under any given condition, I am not deterring from my parental duty.
I follow some strategies to generate the maximum from a day,
* Plan the day in advance
* Write down meals menu of the week and lunch boxes every Sunday eve(I fret over this.)
*Write down every single thing to be done the night before
*Swap the training routines if need be but ensure you don’t miss out any (refers to who are into endurance sports)
*Prioritise the to-do list
*Gracefully quit the social circle that doesn’t add value to your life
*Instruct children to arrange bags etc. the night before
*Get children into the habit of setting the alarm and getting up on their own
*Set children‘s routine as well
*Get some time for yourself before you retire for the day
*Finish major tasks like shopping, grocery during the week so that you have enough family time during the weekend
*If you miss out on some tasks then just take a deep breath and relax(this is for me.)
We all have situations to tackle and our own set of worries too but if this mother of a toddler can do then we all can do it too.
Grit, discipline, consistency; that’s all we require to move any mountain!
Right now, I want to scream the loudest.
How’s the Josh,?
Very high!!
