Tips for holiday multitasking

December 21, 2011

While grants for parents, college scholarships and other financial aid help moms who want to pursue a college education offset the costs associated with obtaining a degree, the busy holiday season may make it seem nearly impossible to fulfill all of your school, family and home responsibilities.

Mothers, no matter what stage of life they're in, are experienced at multitasking.

In fact, a recent study conducted by researchers from Michigan State University and Israel's Bar-Ilan University found that moms spend more time multitasking at home. Researchers followed 500 middle class families with two working parents for a period of two years. They found that women spent about 48.3 hours in the home multitasking per week, compared to men, who spent about 38.9 hours per week juggling household and child care duties.

"It is very clear that women are shouldering much more of the responsibilities of housework and childcare," study co-author Barbara Schneider told CBS News. "Working mothers are doing two activities at once more than two-fifths of the time they are awake, while working fathers are multitasking more than a third of their waking hours."

The holiday season is especially busy for multitasking moms. There are presents to buy, holiday cards to send, cookies to bake, parties to attend and, of course, final exams to study for and take. The everyday responsibilities of housework and child care don't magically disappear during this busy time, either.

Self magazine recently offered some tips for busy moms who are on multitasking overload these days.

The publication suggests prioritizing everything on your to-do list each week in order to find things that can be eliminated.

"Separate things into two categories: things you are doing because you want to, and things you are doing because you have to," Self advises.

Letting go of anger is also important. Instead of being mad that no one is helping you get all the things you've committed yourself to do done, do something about it. Buy cupcakes at the store instead of baking them yourself, send an email to your friends and family members to wish them a happy holiday season rather than sending a traditional holiday card or ask for help.

Finally, the magazine suggests avoiding multitasking to improve your chances of enjoying the holidays with your friends and family. After all, avoiding distractions may actually help make each and every event, tradition and holiday-related chore seem fun. And, that's how it should be!
 

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