At the end of a busy workday, there is nothing like a home-cooked meal to nourish your body and soul. A Johns Hopkins Study proved what we all intuitively know, the more you eat at home–the healthier your diet, and your budget!
But getting a home-cooked dinner on the table every night can take enormous effort. Even if you enjoy cooking. A participant in a recent workshop shared that he and his wife make homemade meals every weeknight. They love the cooking and the food they make, but by the end of the whole process, they're exhausted. And during the work week, this was really taking its toll.
As a group, we pulled out our power time management tool, The 4 D’s, and applied them to this challenge. I’ve written about the 4 D’s (Delete, Delay, Diminish, and Delegate) before…in summary, they are four actions you can take to streamline any task that is taking more time or energy than you have.
What I like about the 4 D’s is they challenge our automatic thinking about how to approach any task. And it’s often helpful to have someone apply the 4 D’s with us because we often don’t have enough objectivity to see new ways of doing things on our own.
Here’s how the group applied the 4 D’s to brainstorm solutions for this challenge. The ideas were abundant, creative, and practical.
Delete
The group asked….What would happen if you just don't cook homemade food during the workweek? Maybe right now, your jobs are too demanding, and it takes too much of a toll on you and your family to make meals from scratch after work. Instead, you could find a source for healthy prepared meals at a food market, or assemble fresh meals from prepared foods that are no-cook. Delete may not be an option that you like, or you would even choose. That said, delete is one tangible, measurable option to consider. Ask yourself, “Can we delete this and only do homemade food on the weekends?” Maybe you only delete home cooking from 2 nights, and on the other nights, you cook double and eat leftovers on alternate nights.
Delay
In this scenario, you could make your own food, but not during the workweek. Instead, you might batch cook on the weekends and then stock the fridge and freezer. Then, all you have to do at the end of your long workdays is heat up your home-cooked meals. In this option you still get the food prepared how you want, but the food is on the table quickly, and cleaning up is easier with no dirty pots and pans. Less work, less exhaustion, and you still eat home-cooked food.
Diminish
Challenge yourself to find a more efficient way to get the cooking done so it doesn't take so much energy and time. Identify a handful of recipes specifically for weeknights that are tasty, but have very few ingredients and can be cooked in 20 minutes or less. Consider one-pot meals or sheet pan meals. These recipes are quick and easy to assemble. They don’t take too much energy and cleanup is a breeze. You still have home-cooked food, but diminishing the effort it takes on weeknights.
Delegate
This couple already shares the cooking, but they could look for opportunities to divide and conquer the workload. If you have kids in the house, involve them in the cooking. It’s probably going to be a bit messier, but it also becomes quality family time. Someone in the group offered another great suggestion. That couple divides the labor by having one partner choose and cook the main course, and the other partner chooses and makes the side dishes. Having one aspect of the meal to focus on lightened the mental and physical load for each person, making their weeknight dinners much easier to pull off.
The 4 D's are your friend for any chore that is taking more time or energy than you really have. Doing things differently takes practice, and you may find some D’s harder than others. But once you get the hang of it—you will experience the liberating feeling of being able to right-size your tasks and put a little more time and energy in your pocket.