Womenlines takes pleasure to welcome Patent Specialist Pooja Bhatia from India as a guest contributor at Womenlines.In this article, Pooja is sharing about her unique learning as a working mom this year. These lessons can be helpful in resolving working mom struggles everyday, in managing their time well and also attending to their kids better way.
Pooja is passionate about simplification of the technology transfer process and innovation management. A staunch supporter of women entrepreneurs and a recipient of Powerful Women in IP India 2021, Global Women in Leadership 2021, and runner-up to Women Power Impact Creator 2021.
What did I learn as a Working Mom this Year:
Since this end of the year, I am recapping 2021 and posting on achievements, mistakes, learnings and whom I am thankful for. This is one of the posts on my experience as a working mother with a child of under 2 age.
Till Ira, my daughter was 6 months, it was still easy to get things done, however, as soon as she was mobile, and on top of it curious, I had to bring in changes in my perspective and strategy to get more done. Am sharing my tips with the hope it will be useful for other working mothers.
Perspective:
1. It is good to have a routine but be prepared to throw out the routine you have had so far. Now it’s the baby’ routine accordingly to which you have to carve out your routine.
2. Choose your priorities wisely, stick to them and don’t think about the other stuff. This way you can strike a balance between work and home. Most importantly be in the moment that you are and enjoy it as moments slip away quickly.
3. Plan, plan and plan but if some things at the end of the day don’t go as per your plan don’t fret, still pat yourself on your back for achieving whatever you have done.
4. Involve your partner, see how happy they would be to help.
Strategy:
5. As I knew planning was essential for me, I used to plan a week creating a square, with each part focusing on work, household chores, baby stuff and my time or personal work. Each day I would check all emails to be in a position to modify the to-do list before I started the work.
6. I was looking for motivation stuff on how to manage work better along with my under 2 aged kid, I came across an article where the author suggested doing everything in 10 mins. I thought it is just not possible. So I started with 15 minutes slots, since I had the list ready, I would put on the timer, and try to complete things within 15 mins. Later I realized it is easier to work if I have grouped or created blocks of things. For this, I broke a big task into smaller tasks. It did help me in speeding up things but instead of reducing it to 10 mins, I made it into 20 min work. That way I was more focused.
Now I didn’t only try it while doing i-TTO work, I also implemented it in doing household chores too. 10 mins of work and 20 mins to play with Ira, as 20 mins was the max I could keep her engaged.
7. Grow your support network. On one hand, I had my mom, Aai(mother-in-law), sisters, friends, even my team members whom I reached out to, but I also joined groups created by mothers on different platforms. You get to know a lot of stuff and tricks. But again listen to all, use the tricks that you find useful, try some tricks if those don’t won’t work, modify and retry. Else move on.
8. Walk time became my calling/podcast time. I and Ira would go out for a walk, she in a stroller, and me with my headphones and phone listening to some podcast or any video. My latest list has podcasts on Tech transfer offices covered by Lisa Mueller, Motivation by Neeraja Ganesh, Content from Aspire For Her.
Though it was a challenge managing two babies at the same time-Innovation-Technology Transfer Office Foundation for Innovation Technology Transfer and my daughter I am thankful to both for making me a better me.
Sharing is caring, share your tricks and tips in comments for managing your time or getting things done as a mother to a young child.
Pooja Bhatia heads the Innovation-Technology Transfer Office (i-TTO) at the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) which is a regional tech transfer office set up at FITT with support from the National Biopharma Mission, a joint project of the Government of India and World Bank.
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Also Read: Patent Specialist Pooja Bhatia Simplifying Technology Transfer Process and Innovation Management
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