Dealing With Job Stress Post Pregnancy
Created By Sophie Brading On 3 June, 2009
List All Expert Tips :
Added By Sophie Brading On June 3, 2009, 2:45 am
Country: UK
My Experience: Visit http://happyyoucoaching.blogspot.com for more useful articles and exercises that you can use to improve your life and inspiring stories to help motivate you and further your personal development.Start Making Positive Changes today! Please visit http://www.HappyYouCoaching.co.uk for more information on Life Coaching and complete the contact form to claim a Free Telephone Life Coaching Session.
Description:
If you're a working mum and feeling weighed down by the stress of raising children these are tips written to help you with the aim of getting time back on your side and your sanity back.
Working a full time job, bringing up a family and on top of this having a busy lifestyle is demanding – here are the best of the tried and tested tips for working mums on how to bring calm and some sparkle back into your life once again.
Tip 1 - Make time for YOU!
You must make time for you. The cliché that is “me” time. It might seem difficult when you are working and have children but it’s so important.
If you don't believe you ought to or deserve to, then do it for your children because you really do deserve it. It helps you stay calmer and keeps you sane.
If you are happy, the children are much more likely to be happy.
Ask yourself - what would you really like to do that you haven't been doing?
Allow yourself the chance to breathe and be you. Whether it's through exercising, reading or simply listening to music, you need these things in your life to help ground and inspire you and allow you to grow and be happy.
If it’s difficult to get some “me” time, here are some ideas to consider. Get up a little earlier or stay up later. If you are better in the morning, set your alarm half hour to an hour before the rest of the household gets up and enjoy some reading, a quiet cup of coffee or even some yoga stretches or meditation. If you are a night owl, take some time out after the children go to bed. Are your children up late? If your children are under 9 and they are up after 8:30pm, then they are probably up too late. If your child is still taking a nap and then full of energy at 9pm, then maybe it's time to drop that nap! If not, start their bed time routine earlier and let your children have some “quiet time” for a half hour if they can\'t sleep right away. Encourage them to listen to calming music, an audio-book or even better to read their own book in bed while you do something similar.
Another tip would be to learn to be ruthless and say “No”. Sometimes it’s easy to over commit ourselves. You really don't have to do everything.
Tip 2 - Build a strong support system
Family and friends can be your backbone and if you don't have good people around you to support you- family and friends who can help you out. Stop right now and go out there and find it.
There are countless numbers of groups and organizations – filled with great people looking for friends.
Start by looking on the web for groups near you, go to the library and build up your interests outside of work. Think of hobbies you can start that include the children. Go out there, talk to people at the park, outside the school, at the local swimming pool.
People are out there looking for friends, just the same as you.
Make an effort to make friends at work, maybe those people with families and with similar interests and values as you – suggest meeting up outside of work, with the kids, or arrange a baby sitter and go out for a drink or a meal. You could even organise a get together at yours over a weekend – invite friends of friends, neighbours, work colleagues. Take some time to look for friends, smile loads and take a genuine interest in those around you and in no time at all you’ll soon start to build a good circle of friends to share your life with.
Treat people the way you want to be treated and you really can’t fail but to begin making true friends. Friends that will be there to support and encourage you when you are thrown the challenges and help you celebrate during the good times.
Tip 3 - Be Grateful
I know this sounds strange but it's so important to be grateful. When you arrive home from work, frazzled and feel like screaming at your partner or the children for the slightest thing and you're feeling really sorry for yourself, then that's the best time to start feeling grateful and the best way to do this is to start a Gratitude Diary or a spiral notebook will be fine.
The technique is to write a list of 10 things that you are grateful or thankful for, every single day. It can be the little or big things. You will feel the benefits of this exercise immediately but if you keep it up, it soon becomes a useful tool to help you keep you positive when life is tough!
Life can be so hectic and there are many days when it’s easy to miss the good things that have happened and focus on the bad. When you are keeping a gratitude diary it makes you reflect on the positive side of life. Things all of a sudden don’t seem as bad.
My view is, Life is certainly challenging, tough and demanding but at the same time Life is filled with so much beauty. There are infinite opportunities out there to experience whatever we desire, countless chances to create valuable, new products and services and endless opportunities to learn and grow.
The big question is - what are you focussing on?
You can choose to dwell on the experiences that make you sad or you can focus on the happy times– the more you really understand this and appreciate how this works the better your life will become!
For further reading on this subject I recommend The Secret by Rhonda Byrne along with the beautifully bound Gratitude Journal.
Tip 4 - Avoid Time Wasters
Time wasters are the little things that consume your time unnecessarily and are arguably the single greatest sticking point to successful time management. The challenge is they are often tricky to recognize because they can be so trivial.
Here are just a few time wasters:
a) Distractions - When you’re at home have times where you set up your environment so that there aren’t any distractions that will disturb you. Take your phone of the hook when you are having quality time with the children, have set times where you check and respond to e-mails and phone calls. The internet can also be a huge distraction - watch how much time you spend unnecessarily \"surfing” or chatting and playing on social networking websites.
b) Lack of planning – as the saying goes “If you fail to plan and you plan to fail”. As said previously, file paperwork properly, keep a diary, write your to-do list. Basically, you need to be organized to use your time effectively.
c) Procrastination – try not to put things off – If you keep putting things off you will miss all the best opportunities in life and not get a lot done. Set yourself inspiring goals and work towards them.
d) Delegation - are there tasks in your day that are not a good use of your time? If so, try to delegate them.
These and other time wasters are probably eating into your time, so try to identify these and any others and get rid of them.
This exercise should assist you in your first steps towards successful time management. Take little steps towards becoming more organised and as you continue to take more steps you will move closer and closer to your goals and find yourself with all the time you need for the things you want to do.
Tip 5 - Get organised
A good question to ask yourself would be - what arrangements can you introduce to make being at work all day and managing the home and family easier for you?
How much time to you spend shopping? You could save huge amounts of time and money by ordering online and having your food and other products you need delivered directly to your door, even to your kitchen in some cases – this could maybe ordered during your lunch break. There are so many services available to you to save you time and money – make some time to search them out.
Another great way of organising yourself, especially when you are a working mum, is to write a To-Do list. Add to it when you think of something that you need to do and tick it off once you have completed a task. Your To-Do list really will be your life saver. Whether you use an electronic organiser or a spiral notepad, list everything you need to get done. It’s amazing how good it feels when you tick things off the list.
Take time out to organise your household – especially your paperwork. If you can’t find what you need more or less instantly you’re wasting valuable time. Organise papers, files and so on so that you know where everything is at all times. The test would be to give someone instructions to someone to find something over the phone; would you be able to tell them exactly where it is?
A great tip for working Mum’s is that it’s a huge time saver to cook two meals at a time, eat one and then freeze the other. It’s no more difficult to cook a double batch than a single batch. Also, make packed lunches when cooking dinner is a great idea – this saves loads of time!
The best thing to do is discover what works for you and stick to it!
Description:
If you're a working mum and feeling weighed down by the stress of raising children these are tips written to help you with the aim of getting time back on your side and your sanity back.
Working a full time job, bringing up a family and on top of this having a busy lifestyle is demanding – here are the best of the tried and tested tips for working mums on how to bring calm and some sparkle back into your life once again.
Tip 1 - Make time for YOU!
You must make time for you. The cliché that is “me” time. It might seem difficult when you are working and have children but it’s so important.
If you don't believe you ought to or deserve to, then do it for your children because you really do deserve it. It helps you stay calmer and keeps you sane.
If you are happy, the children are much more likely to be happy.
Ask yourself - what would you really like to do that you haven't been doing?
Allow yourself the chance to breathe and be you. Whether it's through exercising, reading or simply listening to music, you need these things in your life to help ground and inspire you and allow you to grow and be happy.
If it’s difficult to get some “me” time, here are some ideas to consider. Get up a little earlier or stay up later. If you are better in the morning, set your alarm half hour to an hour before the rest of the household gets up and enjoy some reading, a quiet cup of coffee or even some yoga stretches or meditation. If you are a night owl, take some time out after the children go to bed. Are your children up late? If your children are under 9 and they are up after 8:30pm, then they are probably up too late. If your child is still taking a nap and then full of energy at 9pm, then maybe it's time to drop that nap! If not, start their bed time routine earlier and let your children have some “quiet time” for a half hour if they can\'t sleep right away. Encourage them to listen to calming music, an audio-book or even better to read their own book in bed while you do something similar.
Another tip would be to learn to be ruthless and say “No”. Sometimes it’s easy to over commit ourselves. You really don't have to do everything.
Tip 2 - Build a strong support system
Family and friends can be your backbone and if you don't have good people around you to support you- family and friends who can help you out. Stop right now and go out there and find it.
There are countless numbers of groups and organizations – filled with great people looking for friends.
Start by looking on the web for groups near you, go to the library and build up your interests outside of work. Think of hobbies you can start that include the children. Go out there, talk to people at the park, outside the school, at the local swimming pool.
People are out there looking for friends, just the same as you.
Make an effort to make friends at work, maybe those people with families and with similar interests and values as you – suggest meeting up outside of work, with the kids, or arrange a baby sitter and go out for a drink or a meal. You could even organise a get together at yours over a weekend – invite friends of friends, neighbours, work colleagues. Take some time to look for friends, smile loads and take a genuine interest in those around you and in no time at all you’ll soon start to build a good circle of friends to share your life with.
Treat people the way you want to be treated and you really can’t fail but to begin making true friends. Friends that will be there to support and encourage you when you are thrown the challenges and help you celebrate during the good times.
Tip 3 - Be Grateful
I know this sounds strange but it's so important to be grateful. When you arrive home from work, frazzled and feel like screaming at your partner or the children for the slightest thing and you're feeling really sorry for yourself, then that's the best time to start feeling grateful and the best way to do this is to start a Gratitude Diary or a spiral notebook will be fine.
The technique is to write a list of 10 things that you are grateful or thankful for, every single day. It can be the little or big things. You will feel the benefits of this exercise immediately but if you keep it up, it soon becomes a useful tool to help you keep you positive when life is tough!
Life can be so hectic and there are many days when it’s easy to miss the good things that have happened and focus on the bad. When you are keeping a gratitude diary it makes you reflect on the positive side of life. Things all of a sudden don’t seem as bad.
My view is, Life is certainly challenging, tough and demanding but at the same time Life is filled with so much beauty. There are infinite opportunities out there to experience whatever we desire, countless chances to create valuable, new products and services and endless opportunities to learn and grow.
The big question is - what are you focussing on?
You can choose to dwell on the experiences that make you sad or you can focus on the happy times– the more you really understand this and appreciate how this works the better your life will become!
For further reading on this subject I recommend The Secret by Rhonda Byrne along with the beautifully bound Gratitude Journal.
Tip 4 - Avoid Time Wasters
Time wasters are the little things that consume your time unnecessarily and are arguably the single greatest sticking point to successful time management. The challenge is they are often tricky to recognize because they can be so trivial.
Here are just a few time wasters:
a) Distractions - When you’re at home have times where you set up your environment so that there aren’t any distractions that will disturb you. Take your phone of the hook when you are having quality time with the children, have set times where you check and respond to e-mails and phone calls. The internet can also be a huge distraction - watch how much time you spend unnecessarily \"surfing” or chatting and playing on social networking websites.
b) Lack of planning – as the saying goes “If you fail to plan and you plan to fail”. As said previously, file paperwork properly, keep a diary, write your to-do list. Basically, you need to be organized to use your time effectively.
c) Procrastination – try not to put things off – If you keep putting things off you will miss all the best opportunities in life and not get a lot done. Set yourself inspiring goals and work towards them.
d) Delegation - are there tasks in your day that are not a good use of your time? If so, try to delegate them.
These and other time wasters are probably eating into your time, so try to identify these and any others and get rid of them.
This exercise should assist you in your first steps towards successful time management. Take little steps towards becoming more organised and as you continue to take more steps you will move closer and closer to your goals and find yourself with all the time you need for the things you want to do.
Tip 5 - Get organised
A good question to ask yourself would be - what arrangements can you introduce to make being at work all day and managing the home and family easier for you?
How much time to you spend shopping? You could save huge amounts of time and money by ordering online and having your food and other products you need delivered directly to your door, even to your kitchen in some cases – this could maybe ordered during your lunch break. There are so many services available to you to save you time and money – make some time to search them out.
Another great way of organising yourself, especially when you are a working mum, is to write a To-Do list. Add to it when you think of something that you need to do and tick it off once you have completed a task. Your To-Do list really will be your life saver. Whether you use an electronic organiser or a spiral notepad, list everything you need to get done. It’s amazing how good it feels when you tick things off the list.
Take time out to organise your household – especially your paperwork. If you can’t find what you need more or less instantly you’re wasting valuable time. Organise papers, files and so on so that you know where everything is at all times. The test would be to give someone instructions to someone to find something over the phone; would you be able to tell them exactly where it is?
A great tip for working Mum’s is that it’s a huge time saver to cook two meals at a time, eat one and then freeze the other. It’s no more difficult to cook a double batch than a single batch. Also, make packed lunches when cooking dinner is a great idea – this saves loads of time!
The best thing to do is discover what works for you and stick to it!