If you are a working parent “driving on empty,” you are not alone, according to the CEO of a specialty coaching and advisory firm focused on working parents. With all the changes taking place in September and offices entering the “new normal,” many working parents report feeling depleted. It is time to refuel. 

“Let’s get you out from under that disempowered, ground-down feeling,” Daisy Dowling writes in Harvard Business Review, offering strategies to working parents to help them recharge. 

• Note Your Accomplishments. Give yourself credit for your achievements at home and work since March 2020. Jot down your professional accomplishments along with things like planning and making meals for your family.  

• Find Your “Point of Control.” “To face what’s coming at home and career-wise,” Dowling writes, “you need that palpable personal sense of being ‘on it’.” She recommends finding your “Point of Control.” “This is a single, small part of your life that you have complete authority over, that you can engage with easily and often, and that provides a disproportionate boost to your overall sense of wellbeing,” explains Dowling, pointing to things like exercise, hobbies, even a daily cup of coffee as ways to feel more grounded. 

• Mentor Another Working Parent. “When you share your talent, experience, and knowledge with other people, you immediately feel more generous and capable—and at this point in the pandemic, those feelings are worth their weight in gold,” Dowling writes. She suggests offering advice to a new working parent.  

Want more strategies? Read Dowlings’ article, “6 Strategies for Exhausted Working Parents.”