“Mommy” PM

I like planning and loves to see when things get executed perfectly according to my plans. I am not talking about 7 figures related Engineering project works. It’s about  the 4 people household project I am referring to. Being a working mom it’s a bigger challenge trying to balance house hold work and office. What I have learnt over the years is that task will be easier if your planning is well done. Be it grocery shopping, meal planning or cooking, everything can be made easier. And the strategy behind that is a well-designed plan. Am I sounding like a design Engineer. Well I am one of them so I can’t put together a post without those techie terms. OK, Enough of Engineering crap. Let’s get back to my post.

How I start and execute. Below are some key tactics that helped me succeed as “Mommy” Program manager.

1.      To start I always plan my weekly lunch and dinner by Friday of the previous week. Do you remember that Yawn we experience on Thursday/Friday afternoon during the work day? What do you do. I usually take a walk or get coffee or go to a colleague’s desk for a conversation. But if I am taking a walk, I make my brain work on what items to cook for the upcoming week. After returning to desk I put down those in to a sticky note and along with the required items and slide in to my phone. This way I know what to shop once I hit the grocery store. Believe me it saves a lot of time vs when you glaze at the shelves and start thinking about recipes.

2.      Over the weekend, I usually spend 1 hour or so chopping down the vegetables for the weekend/weekday cooking. I chop and store them in Ziplocs. What vegetable can be done this way? Onions, Asparagus, okra, cauliflower, cabbage, Zucchini, Yellow squash, Bell peppers. Indian vegetables like drumstick and all gourds can also be chopped and stored. These chopped vegetables will be good and ready to use until the Friday/Saturday of next week. If there are any vegetables I don’t use I will freeze them for later too. And remember to recycle Ziplocs after the usage.  Less environmental impact!

3.      As I said earlier major task in the weekly plan would be occupied by cooking meals. Eating nutritious and at home is important for a healthy body (As well as soul). But working full time has a set of challenges when you try to put lunch/dinner given limited time. What I do is have the lunches(Curry/vegetable) ready over the weekend. I will make sure to have carb cooked every evening so that we can quickly pack our lunch for the next day.

4.      Since cooking lunches gets completed over the weekend the only hassle is with dinners during the weeknights. I have the chopped vegetables handy which will make my job easier. And also I prefer to have easy option like soup, salad, panini, pasta or flatbread for weeknight dinner. If I plan to cook pasta for a weeknight I will make sure to have the pasta boiled and ready to go previous day or sometimes over the weekend. For salad I will always chop lettuce, broccoli or cucumber over the weekend.

5.      Apart from meals small chores are the ones that consume my evening time. Since I stay close to my work place(10-15 minutes drive), I use that privilege. If I don’t have lunch meeting or meetings around lunch time I make sure to go home for lunch. I usually do this at least 2/3 times in a week. Since driving back and forth is only 20-25 minutes, I still have 35-40 minutes in my hand. How do I use that time apart from eating lunch. I complete small chores like unloading dishwasher, doing some dishes, setting up things for next day or running laundry. By the time I reach home picking the two little one it is usually around 5.30ish and having the above chores completed will save at least 30 minutes of my time during the evening. It helps me in spending quality time with the family.

6.      During winter months I do my grocery shopping on Friday and leave items in my car trunk. Having subzero temperatures will not allow the purchased items spoil and saves my some time for the weekend.

7.      I always make sure to set things up ready for the next day morning so that I don’t scramble or spend time fishing for a cardigan or kids socks. It includes my clothes/accessories, kids clothes, stuff needed if kids have any sports activity that evening or snack for the kids when I pick them.

 I think each one of us have few tips that make us succeed in our roles. No wonder why women are good program managers/project managers. It’s all this planning they do at home help them succeed at work also. Kudos to all those women!!!!