How Working Parents Can Feel Less Overwhelmed and More in Control

As a working parent, your to-do list is overwhelming. Research shows that most working parents feel stressed, tired, and rushed, but the problem isn’t in their time management skills, organizational system, or work ethic — it’s in how human brains are wired. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed with so much to do and so many demands on you. But there’s good news: There are simple and effective techniques for taming the overwhelmedness, things any working parent can do, starting today, to feel more competent, calm, and in control, and to start shrinking that task list permanently: identify the long-term, positive outcome you’re working toward by determining a specific picture of future success; regularly do a “calendar audit” and eliminate 5% of the items in it; and keep a “got it done” list. As a working parent, anxiety about all the demands on you is inevitable, but you can short-circuit it with some simple techniques and become more confident and in control.