We often don’t get things done or accomplish our goals because of poor time management. We’re running out the door only to turn back around because we forgot our purse, and now we’re late. All of this could be avoided if we just planned our time better. We’ll be talking about four easy ways to manage your time better and eliminate unnecessary stress in our lives.
Start With the Most Important Thing
We often mismanage our time because we’re trying to do too many things at once. Micromanaging isn’t successful because we aren’t giving our full attention to what truly needs to be done. Focus on figuring out your top priority of where to focus your energy. Are you typically late getting your kids to school activities? Do you need to clean your house because there is a month’s worth of dust causing you to sneeze nonstop? Is your laundry so backed up that you can’t find clean underwear? Identify the top need in your life and put it first. I know you have more than one thing to do, but again, we need to prioritize by importance and check one item off at a time. This focus will allow you to be more successful because you’ll slowly chip away at your stressors instead of just juggling them and pretending you’re actually tackling the problem.
Make a Schedule
Now that you’ve chosen what the most important task is for you to complete, we need to find a way to schedule it. If you find that you’re always late getting to activities, focus on adding these events to your calendar that you check regularly. If an event starts at 6:00, put it in for 5:45 and make a note of the actual time it starts in case someone else who isn’t chronically late will be attending and needs the actual start time (such as a game, concert, etc.). By doing this, you will plan to get out the door earlier because you think it starts earlier than it actually does. Then if you are late, you still have a buffer. I always say, you’re late if you’re not early. Showing up late to things adds another layer of stress because you could be walking into a crowded room, an event that already started, or maybe you’re even late for work regularly. This can be more serious as this may end up with you losing your job for chronically not showing up at your start time.
If cleaning is your focus, think of your week and find chunks of time you have available. You don’t need to clean your whole house at one time. Perhaps you choose to dust on Mondays and then do bathrooms on Wednesdays because the kids don’t have as many activities. Also, think about delegating tasks to your family. If this isn’t something you do, check out my book. It has all of the strategies you need to get your whole family involved around the house from age two and up. The household is a home for everyone, so the sooner you teach them how to contribute to its care, the happier you’ll be, and they’ll be learning lifelong skills for a happy and functional adulthood.
If laundry is your goal, decide a schedule when you’ll do laundry first. Do you wash your clothes with your spouse’s? Do your kids put their clothes together? Do you have a set designation for towels so everyone’s go in one place? Or does everyone do their own laundry? No matter how you do laundry, you need to schedule the loads in the calendar. This ensures that everyone has a designated time to do their laundry. If your daughter is scheduled for Thursday, no one else can claim the washing machine. If you do towels on Tuesday, make sure everyone knows so you’re not battling with a full dryer.
Household chore schedules should be made according to all of the other activities going on in everyone’s lives. If your son has off activities on Tuesday, designate that day to his chores. If the weekend is the only time you’re available to wash sheets, put it in the calendar. If everyone knows their tasks and times, this will prevent arguing and procrastinating to finish things because someone else was tying up a resource you needed.
If you don’t currently have a family calendar or aren’t loving your current system, check out my editable one here.
Backwards Plan
After identifying what you need to get done and planning when you’ll do it, you need to work backward to figure out how much time you’ll need to set aside. If you’re always running late, backwards plan on how long it takes to get there, making sure everyone has shoes on and goes to the bathroom, and you have any resources you need for the event. For instance, if you are always late getting your child to basketball practice that starts at 6:00 PM, think about how long it will take you to get there in the worst case scenario. If the gym is 15 minutes away, plan to leave your house at 5:30. This means you will arrive at 5:45 if all things go as planned. If there’s traffic, this time gives you a buffer. It’s always better to arrive early with time to spare than rush around and be late. Rushing around not only raises your blood pressure, but it also raises the chances of you getting in an accident. If you’re leaving at 5:30, be sure your child is dressed for practice, has water filled, has their basketball and sneakers and went to the bathroom at 5:15. This gives 15 minutes to finish those last minute things they may have forgotten. By backwards planning, you prevent rushing and eliminate that unnecessary stress.
If your activity is cleaning bathrooms, think about how many bathrooms you have and how long each bathroom takes you to clean. Let’s say you have a powder room, a master bathroom with a tub and shower, and a kids bathroom with a shower. That would probably take at least an hour. When you’re planning your chores in your calendar, make sure you allotted for this much time and don’t have to be somewhere else or you may not get your chores done, which causes another stressor.
Use Timers and Alarms
Finally, if you are really struggling with remembering to complete chores, get laundry out of the washer, or leave the house at a certain time, consider using timers and alarms. My family utilizes alarms any time they are doing laundry. It’s easy to put items in a washing machine and walk away, forgetting you were doing the wash. If you set a timer, you’ll have a reminder when it’s done and can move it to the dryer immediately when the timer goes off. Not only does this keep you on top of your tasks, but if someone else also has laundry day scheduled, you aren’t holding them up from doing their chores.
If you have to pick up your child from a practice at 8:00 PM and know you need to leave the house at 7:30, be sure you set an alarm at 7:25. This will give you five minutes to get your shoes on and go to the bathroom if necessary while still leaving the house on time. With the technology we have now on our phones, you can have alarms that are recurring on the days you need them. Our house is a big fan of using an Alexa. We can tell it to set timers for our daily tasks while being hands-free. Check out my blog on other reasons we love this product!
Time management doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It just takes some planning and forward thinking. By choosing your most important tasks that need to be done first, putting them in your calendar to ensure you don’t miss them, planning backwards to ensure you have enough time to finish your task or get where you’re going, and using timers and alarms to keep you on task, you will find all of these will significantly lower your stress level and have you becoming more productive in no time.
As always, I’m here to support you on your journey of creating beauty and order in a chaotic world. Feel free to check out my other resources on my website shop, sign up for our mailing list (which you’ll get a free 4 week meal planner with recipes), or contact me if you’re interested in support with personalized consultation. Don’t forget to pollinate joy to others who may find this blog helpful so I can continue to make content for you and others. Take care.
