9 Ways for Mom’s Time Management
Author: Shannon Miller Lifestyle
Where are my keys?
- Did you feed the dog?
- Go find your shoes.
- Do you need a jacket?
- Get your lunch box.
- Where are my keys?
- Yes, I have a meeting after work today.
- Did we ice the cupcakes for the school function?
- Where are my keys?
- Brush your teeth!
- What did you do with Mommy’s phone?
- WHERE ARE MY KEYS?
Sound familiar?
Moms are responsible for everything from making sure the kids get their homework done, to the housework, to meetings, to appointments, to finances, to being the shuttle. Every day. So, where is your peace?
Our answer is to get all of these responsibilities in order with Time management organization. And maybe a little meditation…
Here are some ways to cope – Time Management organization for Moms:
1. The family calendar: Start with a white board calendar or a high tech family calendar on Cozi. Keeping family activities and events on a Google Calendar is quick and easy as well, and you can sync on phones or computers and have it anywhere! The whole family has to agree to put their functions on the board, and then the shuttling responsibilities are doled (if there is more than one driver).
2. Chores or time board: Get a white board for chores and divide them by what they are capable of per age. Your high schooler can do the dishes and laundry. Your kindergartener can feed the dog. Your two year old can put toys away. Each person takes responsibility and if not? Well, there should be a responsibility consequence, whether it be a financial or privilege loss.
3. Every day is a schedule. There has to be a get up time, breakfast time, school ride time, exercise time, homework time, and responsibilities time. Stick as closely as you can to your schedule every day; it will really help.
4. Make food in advance. If you are not home an hour or more before dinner time, then plan to make your meals in advance. Crock pot recipes are easy for work days, as well as 10 minute recipes. Many women choose to do the heavy cooking on Sunday and pre-portion the meals for the week. But eating out every night? That’s for the birds. It hurts the wallet and the waist line. Plan your meals for health first. If you make lunches, make them also in advance. Kids like simple snack bags or boxes with nuts, cheese, yogurt, fruit, and dip-able vegetables.
5. Shop with a list. Again, get your Cozi list. Everyone in the family will have access to the list and can help out when they make it to the store.
6. Make responsibilities easy. Use the Fly Lady Secrets for simple plans to only do a couple of responsibilities each day.
7. Make exercise part of your schedule. This may mean getting up before the rest of your family. That may be hard at first, but you may find that the hour you have to yourself at the beginning of the day to focus on YOU is the hour to really recharge yourself. Quit making excuses!
8. Take mini breaks. You cannot go whole-hog all day long without the brain going into overdrive. Plan on little breaks where you can have some quiet, read some in a book or magazine, or visit one of your favorite websites.
9. Meditate. A few minutes of quiet meditation resets the brain. Where in our busy lives, the brain tends to go into overdrive. Meditation slows everything down and allows the brain to refocus. In fact, when you meditate, you may find that you have a few extra minutes in your day, simply because you can organize your thoughts better.
Do you have another way that helps you manage your busy Mom time?
Please add your time management helpful idea as a comment to this article, so we can share it with other readers. Thank you!