Being a working professional is a challenge in itself. When you start working, you are excited to get all the personal space and financial freedom. But that freedom comes with more responsibilities. Most working professionals live independently in the cities, so they must juggle their office and household work. They often find themselves caught between the dilemma of pending office work and housework like cleaning, buying groceries, washing clothes, and so much more. Though you can buy your groceries online from an online grocery store, there are many other tasks that you need to manage while working full time. It can surely take a toll on your physical and mental health and lead to burnout. Thankfully you can avoid that stress by making minor changes to your lifestyle and habits. To help you do that, here are four effective tips for managing household chores as a working professional.
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Make to-do lists to avoid last-minute work.
As a working professional, you dedicate more time to your office work. You are more likely to lose track of time, and all your household chores keep piling on. To avoid that, you need to keep track of your tasks. Creating to-do lists is an effective way to know and list your daily tasks. You can allocate time to each task and avoid missing out on any work. You can also adjust the household work based on your office work, so even your office work doesn’t get affected, especially if you are working remotely.
Forming the habit of making to-do lists is an effective way to be more organised, disciplined and productive. You can get more things done by clearly defining what you need to do in a day. You can make the to-do list the previous night so you can start working on it as soon as you wake up. You can also make a to-do list when you have morning coffee or chai. In that way, you would be more aware of your schedule, making a list that’s more realistic and achievable.
Delegate work to other people in the house
Balancing your office work and household chores can be physically tiring and affect your mental health. There are hundreds of household chores, from sweeping, dusting, cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, toilets, bedrooms, balcony, cooking food, buying groceries, washing utensils, paying bills, and many more. It can be exhausting to do these chores on your own. But if you live with a partner, roommate or family, you can delegate the work to others. Once you list all the work, you can discuss it with other members and assign them to work based on their work schedules and capacities. Delegating work among everyone will give you more time to balance your office work and get more things done.
If you live alone and there are no people to delegate the work to, you can hire a domestic help to help with your household chores. That way, you can substantially reduce your physical and mental stress.
Set the days for chores
The lack of planning is one of the main reasons behind unproductivity, procrastination and pending work. Most people are more likely to procrastinate as they have too much on their plate. They end up keeping all the work pending and getting nothing done. But there is a way to get things done and still not feel overwhelmed or stressed. Dividing your household work across the days of the week can help you reduce stress and get things done.
Assigning a specific day for a particular household work can help you be more disciplined and avoid procrastinating. You can set a day for laundry, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the home, paying the bills, etc. By doing that, you won’t feel overwhelmed as you will have only one task assigned that day. It’s also important to understand that chores must be done every day and not on a particular day. For example, you should form a habit of washing your utensils after having lunch or dinner and not pile up all the utensils for the weekend, which is very unhygienic.
Shop groceries online
As a working professional, you may not get enough time to go to the supermarkets to buy weekly or monthly groceries. It would be impossible for you to go to the supermarket on weekdays through heavy traffic, spending hours looking for groceries, waiting in the checkout queue and carrying heavy shopping bags back home. The weekend is the only time you get to relax; you wouldn’t like to spend it buying groceries from the supermarket. You should use this time to do something you like, give time to a personal hobby or have a good time with friends. But there is an innovative way to do it – buying groceries from an online grocery store to save money and your precious weekend time.
But before you do that, there are some things you should do. First, make a list of grocery items you need to buy. It’s crucial to understand groceries are not limited to kitchen essentials like grains, lentils and spices. Your groceries include snacks, cleaning essentials, personal care items, cosmetics, common medicines, and many other things.
Look around your house and list the things about to run out. It’s also good to mention the grocery quantities depending on whether you shop your groceries weekly or monthly. Once you are done with your list, visit an online grocery shopping app, add the groceries to your cart and make the payment. You will receive all the groceries at your doorstep within an hour. That way, you’ll save a lot of time that you can use for doing something else that will help you relax and unwind – maybe a house party or a Netflix marathon.
Managing your household work while working a full-time job isn’t easy. It can exhaust you physically and mentally and lead to stress. Thankfully these simple tips can help you reduce stress by bringing more structure to your work and helping you manage your time and tasks. That way, you can strike the right balance between your professional life and household chores.
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