I know the research is out there saying that you can’t multitask anymore. I’ve heard it, I’ve read it. And I mostly agree, but there are some exceptions.
I have found that with activities that I consider mindless, I can listen to and work on two completely unrelated things. Grab your headphones, ladies! Here are three examples of how I combine me time with household tasks that I’m responsible for.
p.s. please please please, don’t read this and think that I’m boxing women into the house. I am all about strong women and breaking the stereotype of what a woman’s role is in the family structure. I work a full time job and live the mom life. And my husband and I have an awesome balance when it comes to parenting and responsibilities. It just so happens that the way Jeff and I split up our household activities I do more of the cleaning in the house vs. out of the house.
Listen to podcasts while meal prepping
I admit, I am a podcast addict. I can’t remember the last day that I did not listen to a podcast. And I’ll admit that sometimes I get annoyed when I’m through all of the new episodes of my go-tos, but there’s always the archives to dig into!
I think the key to this one working is to reserve the podcasts that you want to take notes on for another time. I like to reserve my business, productivity, and wellness podcasts for when I’m have a bit more attention. When I’m meal prepping (usually Sundays when Hayes is napping). I listen to my “just for fun” type podcasts like Armchair Expert and NPR’s How I Built This. I have found that I can’t keep a recipe on track and pay attention to the science behind intermittent fasting.
I’ll be sharing a list of all of my favorite podcast soon—stay tuned!
Watch tv shows while folding laundry
Out of all of the things that I need to be doing to keep our house from feeling like a complete disaster, folding the laundry is one of my least favorite. So one day I propped up my phone with my popsocket, put it on the folding table that’s above our washer + dryer and I got to folding. Time flew by and my laundry was done.
In all honesty I don’t watch a lot of TV because by the time I’m ready to at night it’s like 9pm and I’d rather go to bed—anyone else feel this way?—so watching TV while doing laundry makes that annoying task feel a bit more like a luxury.
My go to shows lately have been: Shark Tank (on Hulu), The Good Wife (on Prime), and The Bachelorette (on Hulu), which I have been watching with a bunch of coworkers—highly entertaining season. I am probably missing some good shows, let me know what you’re watching!
Listen to Audible while cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming the carpet
I love (loved?) reading books. And I still do read something (not on a device) before I go to bed on most days. But I’m pretty lame and I usually don’t get but a few pages in before I’m closing up the book and asleep. At that rate I’ll probably read a book a year.
I started listening to Audible and it’s been so fantastic! I’m pretty much reading all of the books that I am recommended . Listening to books is the the most likely way for me to get through a book these days and it’s totally because I can do it while doing other things. Same rule applies here as it does with podcasts—it’s best to listen to fun reads, uncomplicated, and not note-taking-worthy books while cleaning.
My recent fun reads: Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies. I’m so bummed that I don’t have HBO because I would love to watch Big Little Lies now that I’ve read the book.
p.s. The Big Little Lies audiobook has Australian accents, which makes it even better to listen to.