How do I fit it all in?

A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends asked me how I fit it all in. So, I work full time, am a single mum to 2 teenagers, volunteer at our rugby club in a fairly time-consuming role and spend my spare time cooking, baking, running and Crossfitting.

I know when it’s written as a list, it looks a lot. However, is my house immaculately clean all the time? No. Do I do my gardening? No, I have a wonderful guy called Joe who does it. Do I cook from scratch every day? No.

Being a single parent

The number of things I fit in are no more than most other single mums. I prioritise the things I enjoy doing. For some of the things I don’t enjoy, I try to budget the money to pay someone else to do them. For others that I don’t believe are important, I do less often.

When I got divorced, it gave me the freedom to do the things that I want to do. I encourage others in the same position to think about the things that are important to them and then do them! As we move forward in our new lives, we have the ability to design our lives and prioritise.

Tips to fit it all in:

• Work is probably the one thing you can’t decide not to do. However, can there be some flexibility so that you can run/cycle/go to the gym/walk during your lunchbreak, before work or after work?
• Think about the time you have outside work and prioritise this time. For example, is it more important to you that you hoover or read to the kids?
• Are you doing things that you really don’t enjoy, such as cleaning, gardening, walking the dog? Could you afford to employ someone else to do them? You may not be able to do this straight away but you could plan for them from your next payrise.
• If there are things that you want to do but can’t find the time, think about whether you’re spending time sitting in front of the TV (not that there’s anything wrong with this) and decide which is your priority.

However you spend your time, make it a conscious decision, rather than assuming you don’t have time to do the things you love.

One last thing is that your friends are happy to help. It takes a lot for me to ask for help, ask any of my friends. When I do they don’t mind, in fact they like to help and they know I’ll always return the favour!

If you enjoyed reading this blog, I’m sure you will enjoy “How do I Design My New Life?”

If you would like to see how we might be able to help you to live the life you would really love, please contact me.

Tamsin Caine is a Chartered Financial Planner at Smart Divorce. She specialises in working with separating or divorcing clients to help them to understand how to divide their finances to move forward with their lives. If you would like to speak to Tamsin or find out more about how she can help, email her at Tamsin@smartdivorce.co.uk or call her on 07975 922766.