Do type-A-moms need their own time management system?
Apparently they do, according to Lisa Douglas of the type-a-mom blog.
She’s written an interesting post diagnosing the needs of this particular group of women, and has come up wtih an approach that is tailored to their specific situation. Given that they are “type-A” people, they have lots of goals, an abundance of energy to accomplish them and a propensity to become over-stressed. She clearly has figured out her target audience:
We’re Type-A Moms. We’ve got practices, PTA meetings, and bake sales going on. Your child has to learn the Cub Scout motto tonight, dinner is on the stove, and your toddler needs her diaper changed, all while locating an errant shoe. Need I go on? With all that we tackle, and not being able to magically add hours to the day, we need a plan, STAT.
I guess this would constitute an important first step — understanding the group or the individual that the time management system is being designed for. This might explain why she didn’t just regurgitate a bunch of points from the nearest book on the topic,and instead, did what every good designer does and started from a thorough understanding of the situation.
Unfortunately, I don’t have access to Part II of the article, as I am trying to figure out how to register on the site in order to see it. But I like the thinking she’s doing so far, and her targeted advice.
I cannot imagine that a woman who decides to have a child, and to stay home to be a full-time mom, could continue to use the typical corporate planning tools e.g. (Blackberry, computer, internet, intranet) in exactly the same way. It’s more likely that the way they structure their system would have to change to fit the new circumstances, and this might be true of anyone who makes such an all-encompassing shift in their daily lifestyle. This change in tools would be just one way they would have to change their time management system.
It’s great Time Management 2.0 thinking.
The link to part 1 can be found here: Time Management Strategies for the Busy Mom Part 1
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