Improving Families Time Management

Every mom struggles with getting their family out the door for an appointment. Or getting everyone to sit at the table at dinner time. Here are some tips to improve your family’s time management:

* Don’t forget to consider your travel time, prep time, clean up time, waiting time
* Make adjustments when you have to, you can’t be everywhere at once
* The goal is to get it done, not make it perfect
* Keep it simple, give two choices instead of asking “what do you want ____”
* Set limits on things like television, video games, and phone chatter … for everyone in the household. Eliminates arguing and gets everyone doing other things
* Deal with things as they happen, (the mail came, sort it now instead of waiting until later – also eliminates clutter that you would have to clean up later)
* Follow routines and schedules, such as getting up at the same time and leaving at the same time daily…create a pattern/routine get home, do your homework, 30 minutes to watch tv/play game/read, dinner, get a bath, quiet time, bedtime
* Plan ahead for holidays and weekends with activities and things to do. These are the most chaotic times, even if you do something spontaneous instead at least you had a plan ready! You can always use the plan for the following weekend
* Get involved in a car pool to get kids where they need to go, school, soccer, baseball, football … sharing these tasks save you and someone else time and gas money!
* Give everyone their own alarm clock instead of being the “mom clock” and explain the consequences of not being up and ready to leave on time
* Minimize distractions (putting video games and televisions in cabinets that close does wonders in a household)

Avoid the Avoiding Habit and Find More Time and Less Stress

Procrastination can creep in and easily become a habit. Once it does, it erodes your capacity to function effectively. But it can be a hard habit to break.  However, with some honest self-assessment and an organized and attainable plan of attack, it can be overcome successfully.
Be gentle with yourself when you decide to try and kick the procrastination habit.  It may be so ingrained that you don’t fully recognize all the ways you actually procrastinate. Start out by taking a large or complicated task and breaking it down into smaller parts that you can accomplish easier.  It’s important to bear in mind that the most difficult or complex tasks are simply just a series of smaller jobs.
Make a verbal commitment to someone else about improving your time management skills and your desire to avoid procrastinating. Allow others to become involved in your efforts by reviewing your progress, helping you set deadlines or evaluating your results can be very helpful.  This will most likely create a commitment on your part to fulfill the expectations they’ve set for you.
Sit down and map out a plan to manage your time more effectively.  When a deadline is looming, make sure you allot time each day to work on the project so it doesn’t sneak up on you in the final hours or days.  Learn to ask for help when you’re feeling overwhelmed or overworked.
Reward yourself for good behavior and accomplished goals. Don’t wait until you’ve accomplished the ultimate goal, but reward yourself for your successes along the way.  Make sure the reward is something you like to do.  Treat yourself to the newest book by your favorite author and take the time to read it.  Indulge in bubble baths or relaxing music.  If you’ve gotten into the habit of working late, make sure you develop a new habit of going home on time each night.
By making a commitment to avoid the avoiding habit, you’ll soon be well on your way to finding more time and find yourself more relaxed and productive and less stressed in the process.

Do Your Children Need A Schedule?

You have probably seen images of families on television where the children have their own schedules, full of activities from piano lessons to karate, and where even “play dates” are scheduled weeks in advance.

While most families do not have that type of lifestyle, it is still a good idea to keep your children on a schedule.  This is especially true for younger children, as toddlers need routines in order to feel secure in their environment.

If you have a toddler, you may want to start with something simple, such as a night time routine to get your child used to following a schedule.  An example would be bathing your child after dinner, putting on pajamas, reading a story, and going to bed.

Once they get the hang of that routine, you can start a morning routine, which could include getting dressed, eating breakfast, and playing with toys and going out to run the day’s errands.  When your child understands that routine, you can move on to an afternoon routine and then a dinner routine.

Your child doesn’t need to be a toddler in order to appreciate a routine.  Children of all ages can benefit from having some sort of schedule.  If you have elementary school age children, you can start establishing a routine of getting home from school, having them eat a snack as you go over any papers that they brought home that day, helping them with their homework, and then having playtime while you make dinner.

If you have kids in middle school or high school, they may need their own planners to help them organize their homework, after school activities, and social life.  This is a great time to start teaching them about scheduling, setting goals and defining priorities.  These lessons will help them immensely when they get to college.

Avoid Clutter Build Up

The biggest and easiest way to impact your home’s appearance is to eliminate clutter.  When items don’t get picked up or put in their proper place they can take over any house.  Sometimes, storage of our accumulated items becomes an issue.

Before you can reduce the items lying around making a home look cluttered you need to decide what is needed or wanted and what isn’t.  Once you’ve done that, if you still have a lot of items remaining without a place to put them storage for those items is going to be needed.  Go through each room and identify where extra storage space is needed.  Once you’ve decided where you need the storage space, it will be time to decide on what type of storage pieces to purchase.

Many storage solutions are available, everything from bookcases and chests to ottomans.  The room in which you need the storage in will somewhat dictate what type of storage you will need to purchase.  For living room storage consider an ottoman with built in storage, for a closet there are many options for organizing from hanging shelves to shoe storage. Is your storage in your bedroom limited?  Try under the bed storage pieces or nets that hang from the ceiling.  The nets are a great option for storing kids’ stuffed animals.

Now that you’ve got your storage it’s time to tackle de-cluttering your house.  Don’t feel like you have to de-clutter the entire house all at once.  Focus on one room at a time or if that is too overwhelming for you do one drawer at a time.  Start small and work your way up to the bigger things and you will find that you have de-cluttered the entire house.

Just a couple tips to help you accomplish your goal of de-cluttering and keeping it that way:

When sorting, make several piles: a keep pile, a sell pile, a giveaway pile and a trash pile.

Schedule a thirty minute clutter cleaning session once or twice a week; this will keep you from having to spend several days clutter cleaning once very few months.

Once you are done reading a newspaper or magazine dispose of it, either in a recycling box or in the trash.  If there happens to be an article you want to read later just clip the article.  It will take up much less space this way.  Post it somewhere you’ll see it such as a bulletin board so you’ll remember to read it and then get rid of it.

Put items away when you are done using them.  Leaving things on counters can pile up fast and make a room look messy and un-kept.

Each night go through each room in your home, place items that belong in that room but are out of place where they belong and place the items that are misplace in a large basket.  Then go through and place the items in the basket in the rooms they belong in.  It shouldn’t take long and it will help clutter stay at a minimum.

Make use of every minute.  If you happen to be on the phone, grab a sponge and wipe down the counters, fold laundry or take care of other quiet chores.  A hands free earpiece works great for this.  Allowing your hands to be free will give you the opportunity to be multi-tasker and keep your home clean and neat.

Use these tips and your home will be and stay free of clutter build up.

Time Management for Work at Home Moms

Moms that work outside the home can leave the office and focus on their family, and when they are at the office they can focus on their work.  Many a work at home moms have heard the line, “it must be easy to work from home” or “you have time to get everything done”, some people mistakenly believe that.  The people who make these types of comments don’t understand the challenges work at home moms face.  Work at home moms need to find a way to blend both of those worlds into the same four walls.

Here are just a few time management tips to help work at home mom blend both the work world and the home world together:

Set your business hours and stick to them.  Post your business hours for your clients and family members and as a reminder to yourself of when your work day is done.  When it’s closing time, do just that. Close the door to your office and enjoy family time.  Remember if you worked in an office away from home you’d leave at closing and any calls you need to make would wait till the next day.  Apply the same thinking to working at home.

Outsource administrative tasks to a virtual assistant.  Doing so will free up some time in your schedule allowing you time to market your business.

Limit the number of times you check your email inbox.  There is no need to check your email twenty times a day.  Check it every morning at the beginning of your day and say an hour so prior to your closing time.  This is also a great time saver.

Avoid surfing the net just for fun during working hours by unplugging your internet connection if you can.  Once, you’ve completed your task plug it back in.

Networking via the internet can be good for your business when kept in check.  Participating in forum or social networking group can consume a lot of valuable work time unless you limit the sites you visit and how much time you spend there.  Be selective and join just the ones you really like and can benefit you.

Enlist childcare help.  If you have small children at home during the day consider getting some help to watch over them while you work or if you are comfortable with the idea, a two days a week or a few hours daily of daycare.  This will allow you time to build up your business and your kids will remain taken care of.

Implementing the tips above will help you get more done during your business day and allow you the freedom to spend time with your family.

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