Time management and caring for a family go hand in hand. Read these 9 time management hacks to help manage both more efficiently.
by Kimberly Pangaro
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As a parent, you know that managing your time every day, is an adventure. Between the never-ending job of keeping up with your kids and trying to get work done, it’s easy to feel like you have two full-time jobs with both in constant need of your full attention. There is no magic formula to find the perfect time management balance, but these 9 time management hacks will help you manage your life as a parent more efficiently!
#1 Create A Morning Routine For Your Family
Having a morning routine will help set the tone for each day. Each child should have a specific morning routine, along with responsibilities to help ensure the day runs a bit smoother. This may include tasks like getting dressed, making the bed, cleaning the room, preparing breakfast, making lunch, etc.
Creating routines not only helps to teach responsibility and frees up your busy schedule, but it also allows you to focus on your own morning rituals, helping you to start the day with more energy and productivity.
#2 Get More Done With Short Breaks
If you don’t have enough time to do everything in one sitting, take shorter breaks between tasks so that it feels like less work when compared to taking more extended breaks, which can lead people to procrastinate even more.
A popular method to do this is the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique is a time management and productivity method that has you work for 25 minutes, take a short break of five to three minutes, then repeat. This works because short breaks help you fight cognitive boredom and concentrate better, breaking up the work-break pattern to keep you motivated and get work done. Whether you need to get a big work project completed or finish a dozen house chores, the Pomodoro technique can be helpful.
#3 Set Up Your Day The Night Before
Being intentional with the way you spend your time every day will help you manage your roles as a parent, friend, brother, sister, and employee. Taking a few minutes every night to help plan out your to-do list for the next day can help you feel prepared and accurately plan out your time.
Schedule your day into different time slots depending on the priorities or tasks you need to get accomplished. Make sure to give yourself extra time to finish each activity, so you don’t feel overwhelmed between tasks. If something is unable to fit into your schedule, push it to another day.
#4 Say “No” More Often
Being a good parent means creating time for yourself and your family. Unfortunately, saying “yes” to everything that is asked of you can quickly lead to feeling drained, overworked, and leaving you unable to be the best parent possible.
If something doesn’t seem like it will benefit anyone in the long-term or if there are other people available who could take on this task– say no! You’ll feel better about saying yes when an opportunity arises where you know both you and your children would enjoy being involved with what’s happening next
#5 Hire Help As Needed
There are many things that need to be done throughout the day, but they don’t need to be done by you. Instead, hire someone to help you with these tasks if they are too time-consuming, physically demanding, or require a skill set that is not in your wheelhouse.
This can be as simple as hiring an occasional babysitter for date night or a cleaning service to keep your home clean. This will help you and your partner have more quality couple time together and less stress.
#6 Plan Your Meals In Advance
Meal planning is a quintessential tip to master time management for parents. It’s also one of the easiest to implement since it doesn’t require any outside help or additional purchases. You need some basic meal ingredients that can be used as staples in many different dishes. Try to have at least three recipes (or enough for two weeks) made up ahead of time on your calendar, so all you have to do each day is pick out what dish you want to make with those staple items.
If cooking isn’t your thing, consider hiring a personal chef. If that is too expensive for you, then order from HelloFresh. Either way, you’ll be prepared when hunger strikes!
#7 Give Every Item A Place In Your Home
Kids are notoriously messy and always seem to find the one toy that they’re looking for at any given moment. You can avoid this mess by putting everything in its proper place. Or as close to it as you can get it! Label shelves, baskets, and bins with pictures of what goes inside. Your kids will learn and remember where their toys go when they’re not playing with them.
By having a place for everything in your home, you’re less likely to find a pile of books on the floor or toys scattered all around. Say good-bye to a messy living room. This will save you time and energy from having to clean up.
#8 Give Yourself a Time Limit For Phone Calls And Email Responses
There are never enough hours in the day when you have kids at home that need attention 24/hours a day! It is possible to work more efficiently with some simple hacks. For example, try setting specific time limits for how long you’ll stay on any given call or to reply to emails.
Set a limit – 1 or 2 hours – to do this each day. Then, when the time runs out, stop yourself from trying to do more and move on to the other important tasks waiting for your attention.
#9 Commit To Time Off for Yourself
Feeling stressed and overworked? Take a day for yourself. Put your phone on silent. Do something that will make it impossible to be contacted by anyone – even if they try! Prioritize your own well-being because when we overextend ourselves in one area of life, the other areas suffer as a result.
In Conclusion
Those are the top time management hacks that have helped whip me into a time management guru. And as a mom of four, I really do understand the need to manage time better. Hopefully, these 9 tips will be an added value to your days.