5 tips to help reduce the invisible load

The invisible load of life that often falls on the shoulders of women or mothers has been brought to people’s consciousness thanks to more and more women sharing the mammoth task of simply living adult life day to day. While great strides are being made in this sector, burnout amongst parents of both sexes is still prevalent due to this invisible load and the hectic nature of life, whether you’re a parent or not.

So, if you want to reduce your workload, remove some of the mental load from your life, and reduce burnout and excessive stress, these tips can help you unload the cognitive load and make your life easier.

Joint calendars

If you’re in a two-or-more-person i.e. with kids or other family members living with you-household, an excellent option for you to consider is to merge your calendars, whether you use physical or digital ones. Family calendars can be helpful in this instance. This allows all parties to enter functions and tasks so everyone is aware and can take joint responsibility instead of leaving it to the other person. This way, you can devise a schedule for everyone and prompt those connected to be more considerate of the other’s schedules to take over the reins and share the load.

Communicate

One of the main reasons the invisible load remains invisible is because it’s not shared. It can benefit everyone to openly share the mental load so the other person is privy to what is happening in your head and the work you are managing. While in a perfect world, this shouldn’t need to be discussed, and both parties should be equal in knowing what needs to be done, society has proven this isn’t the case. So take a minute to express yourself clearly and calmly, and be open with what you are feeling and what you’re dealing with so you can put plans in place to divide the load more evenly to reduce stress and make life easier all around.

Life hacks

Knowing when you need to make changes and “hack” your life can enable you to have a better quality of life and not drown in your responsibilities. This can be doing things like hiring cleaning services to take care of the chores around the house so you can do other things on your to-do list, or just take some time off. It can be using meal delivery services to have meals delivered so you’re not thinking about what you’re cooking for dinner every night. What will make things easier depends entirely on your needs, lifestyle, and family dynamics. But knowing what is available to you and what you can do can be a step in the right direction.

Time outs

Taking time out can be highly beneficial to your mental health. Whether you inform your partner and/or kids of your intention to be “off duty” for a short period so they need to fend for themselves, or you simply inform them you will no longer be responsible for specific tasks or duties, taking a timeout can reduce the workload and boost your mental health.

How you achieve this is entirely up to you: whether you take a weekend away to recharge, or set a regular time each day for “alone time” or simply announce you’re taking the day off from duties once in a while, make sure you etch out some time for yourself when possible to help you recharge and reduce the risk of burnout.

Delegate

An excellent idea for those with multiple people at home is to involve everyone in the mental load. The reality is if you keep doing everything without asking for help, your spouse/ kids won’t know or think to take this pressure off you. So write down all the daily functions or tasks you take care of that others in your household might not be aware of. Whether it’s ordering the food for meals, unloading the dishwasher, keeping track of the toothpaste running out, knowing when different kids’ clubs are on, or dentist appointments that need booking, put everything on post-it notes, for example. Then, you can delegate some of these tasks to others.

It might be that your teenagers need to be in charge of their sports kits and snacks and drinks for said clubs. They need to be responsible for getting their kits ready before each session, ensuring they have clean kits, even if that means they simply need to put them in the washing basket! The more you can get others to do, the less you need to think about overall.