Time Management Tips for Busy Parents

Are there just not enough hours in the day for homework, after school activities, dinner and family time? Are mornings really tough to get through? If you are finding it difficult to get through everything you need to do in a day, then a revamp of your time management approach may be in order. Find time management processes that work for you and pass these on to your students. They also need to find constructive ways to manage their time effectively.

Know what you are dealing with

Start by examining what you spend time on in a day. Knowing how you are spending your time will help you to find time-wasters and deal with them. If you spend time each morning getting your students dressed, you may want them to pick outfits the night before and pack their school bags too.

Planning is everything

Make sure that everyone is ready for the new school day before bed and take stock of what you need to do in the coming week, month and semester. Knowing what is coming will prevent last-minute panic and you will be able to use spare time to prepare.

Make sure everyone else knows what’s coming up in the week, what their responsibilities are and what is expected of them. Having structure will mean you aren’t solely responsible for everything.

Delegate

It may just be simpler to do things yourself, but you need to start delegating tasks and chores to everyone in the home. This teaches your students how to be responsible for tasks and that when they don’t fulfill their responsibilities, there are consequences for everyone.

Tidy up

Do you spend an inordinate amount of time looking for lost items? Keeping it tidy and making sure that everyone knows where things are meant to go is a great way to prevent wasting time looking for things.

Don’t multitask

Being a parent means you are probably always doing ten things at once. While this may be effective at times when you are doing tasks that don’t require your attention, it can have disastrous consequences. When you are doing ten things at once, you are doing ten things badly. This may mean that you will have to come back and do many of these tasks again. Try to focus when you have important things to do and just do one at a time. Do them once; do them right.

Just say no

Don’t take on too much. If you have a busy schedule, you don’t want to take on new tasks. Learning to say no will be a great asset to your time management.

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