How To Cope With Day To Day Tasks When Your Schedule Is Full

**In Collaboration** 

All academics can relate to the fact that everyday tasks seem to just pass us by. When focusing on a project, be it a PhD, an academic paper, or planning a class, the chores of daily life seem to go unnoticed – or rather, wilfully ignored. If you can relate to this feeling, then read on to find out just how you can cope with day to day tasks when your schedule is jam packed. At the end of the day, all these chores – bills to pay, home improvements to begin, meals to cook – are essential to our wellbeing, but are difficult to fit in around a busy academic schedule. 

So how can you cope with day to day tasks when your head and schedule are full of academic commitments? Here are three tips.

1. Outsource Some Of Your Chores

Often, humble academic types feel embarrassed by something as simple as hiring a cleaner. After all, high-powered businessmen all have cleaners who take their most basic chores off their hands, but for some reason there is stigma attached to such things in academic circles. Yet if you are an extremely busy academic doing crucial work, there is no shame in outsourcing some of your chores to a professional. For very little money, you can hire a cleaner to give your home a once-over every week and take this chore off your hands. You’re hardly eating off gold plates or commissioning an army of beauticians to do your makeup in the morning – you deserve to live a stress-free life, and a cleaner could help you with this. 

Similarly, instead of trying to DIY your home improvement, perhaps it is time to outsource this to a local plumber, handyman or electrician. In order to focus on your work, it’s crucial that you prioritise it. 

1. Make Your Food Choices Simpler and Healthier

If you struggle to muster the motivation to cook a healthy dinner every night, you are not alone. However, using simple food packaging companies such as Hello Fresh, you could have a healthy dinner every night without having to do too much work. If packaged meals aren’t for you, using sites like Mob Kitchen and Bon Appetit can help you find amazing, healthy recipes from every cuisine, without having to create them yourself. These range from slow-cooking recipes which take hours to make, to quick, ten-minute dinners which are delicious and simple. 

1. Making Lists

Ah, the list. An old-fashioned friend of organisation that never disappoints. If you are someone who struggles to organise your time outside of work, make weekly lists of tasks which must be completed on certain days. These are satisfying to tick off, and make sure that you never miss an important bill payment, appointment or social event. Everyone’s a winner!

In conclusion: there’s no shame in asking for help when it comes to tackling daily chores. Do what suits your life and routine, which might mean outsourcing some of your responsibilities, setting reminders, making lists, and revolutionising your cooking for healthy, quick options every day.