Whilst Stephen Covey may have outlined seven habits of effective people, especially from a business perspective, specific coaching for women can help us interpret these seven habits for single mums – mums who are able to overcome significant obstacles and become highly effective in their day-to-day living.

Some of these habits overlap or could be reinterpreted in a different fashion, but these principles should be adopted as soon as possible if you are new to being a single mum, or beginning to feel harried beyond belief.

Habit one – Master the clock.

We all have the same amount of time in a given day, but how we use it dictates how we will feel after the sun goes down. Will we feel that we have been productive and are thereby refreshed, or will we feel that we have been bouncing from pillar to post and still seem to have little achieved?

Those who fall into the first category are generally masters of time and have itemised what they need to do in any given day to get through. By taking baby steps and not looking too far ahead of yourself if you have a busy schedule, you can avoid the feeling that everything is so daunting and not compromise your chances.

Just dump everything out onto paper, all the tasks that you need to achieve on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis and marshal all this information together. Now may be the time to consider professional coaching to help you master this.

Habit number two – Be habitual.

Your highly effective timetable will be no good unless you get into the habit. When you start out you will probably have to initiate some triggers and have to set a goalpost to aim for as you progress, but through repetition you will achieve these mundane but necessary tasks and get them out of the way.

If you stick to your timetable and become used to doing these tasks, you will be able to achieve them in far less time and have lots of personal space available to you at the end of the day.

Habit three – Set up your voice-mail.

It is easy enough to set everything down to enjoy the latest gossip with the neighbour, but distractions are definitely your enemy.

The most effective businessmen or women do not allow themselves to be distracted by random phone calls and while you may not be able to employ the services of a personal secretary, you should ensure that you maintain your focus and don’t let your guard down to the temptations!

Habit number four – Plan for your rainy day.

You know that rainy days will come and that family issues will sometimes trump what is going on at work. Look after your personal days at work and only use them for emergency purposes. See if your schedule at work will allow you to play catch-up here or there, maybe working Saturday mornings or one evening per week, so that the inevitable issue at school for the kids can be addressed without it becoming a major concern.

While these rainy days may certainly throw your clock mastery out of sync, the highly effective single mum has planned in advance as best she can.

Habit number five – All about me.

It doesn’t matter how efficient or dedicated you are to what you have to do for your family and your work, if you don’t allow time for reinvigorating yourself, you will suffer.

There is a time for delegation, to get away from it all to recharge your batteries, so you can come back refreshed and be able to take it all on again.

Habit number six – Be fit.

Health is everything, for you and your family. Don’t turn your alarm clock off and snooze for 15 minutes at the expense of your daily walk on the treadmill. This absolutely must be at the top of the list of priorities and if you don’t do this, over a period of time efficiency will suffer and you will not be able to be as effective as you might otherwise have been.

Habit number seven – Scratch a back.

If you are smart, you will realise that while you may be able to manage as a single mum most of the time, there will be times when you must call in for help. If you have a network of friends, good acquaintances and other family members you can turn to, you should invest a little in this support group by planning time within your schedule to help them out first. Stephen Covey talked about how each party must “win” and this is what you’re investing in here. Help each one of your contacts by donating your resources or time and you will have kept your side of the “win-win” equation.

Yes, there’s a lot to it, but don’t despair. In this day and age, online life coaching can help you look even further into the seven habits and to prepare your action plan for your successful life ahead.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

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The prospect of returning to work after maternity leave or after quite a considerable absence can sometimes be very daunting. It can be so strange that you can feel almost as if you are removed, as if you have been on an extremely long holiday, for example.

It goes without saying of course that the time you have spent away has been anything but a relaxing time and you feel as if you have been working all the hours available, as it is! Nevertheless, it’s now time to get back to a career and you need to pay attention to your CV or r?sum?.

1. Be positive about the situation. You have a number of skills now that you did not have before. Just add them up — time management, new project management, multitasking and coping – all have improved significantly. When you have to manage a typical home and be responsible for bringing up a new arrival, you should not underestimate the skills that you are able to master and they should be added to your r?sum?.

2. Some specific coaching for women advocates that you should compose a “functional” r?sum? in this situation. In this way, your qualifications and skills are the subject of focus, rather than a listing of employers in chronological order. As such, you are definitely focusing on your experience and this should be stressed in the body of the document. List your employers without reference to dates and focus on your skills, experience and qualifications above all else.

3. Do not be apologetic when it comes to your maternity leave absence. Employers do not look badly upon somebody who has taken time off to be with their family as they have a lot more to worry about, such as staff without any motivation, or who are forced to stay home. Be prepared to defend your position as being very acceptable to society!

4. During your absence from full-time employment you may well have dedicated some time to extracurricular studies, maybe evening classes, voluntary work, etc. Don’t be afraid to put this on your r?sum? and hold it in a positive light. If nothing else, it shows that you’re able to multi-task the role of mother and home keeper with other interests and duties and this strengthens your position in a prospective employer’s eyes.

5. Show that you are in control of every situation by outlining your plan to manage that time off. In other words, it would be far better to say that you had initially planned to stay home with a newborn until a certain point in time, until he or she arrived at a certain age, for instance. This is far better than saying that you were prepared to stay at home until your child was ready, or to refer to some other nebulous plan. You need to show that you’re in control.

6. Do some research before you prepare to send out those r?sum?s. How long were you away for? Your research should reveal what has changed in a particular line of business. This might be the time to catch up on your specific education, even learn a new system operating procedure. Make sure that you include this on your r?sum?, as it will strengthen your position.

7. You may think that you need to rely on contacts that you made prior to your career break and that any references you include should be “business only,” but this is not the case. By networking and moving in your regular circles during your time away from work, you will have built up a good list of contacts who will be able to attest to your character, composition and reliability.

In our modern society, professional coaching advice from online life coaching experts can help you to focus on all that is positive in your life, so that you come up with a perfectly presentable r?sum?.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!