Taking care of your kids can be time-consuming alone. What more if you and your spouse are working parents? It’s another level of difficulty. The technique is to plan things to identify which tasks need to be prioritized and which ones can be accomplished later on. This blog will teach you how to manage your time effectively as working parents. Read the tips below:
1. A Calendar Is Your Friend
Having to remember tasks mentally is taxing on our part. They cause information overload, and they can be forgotten quickly. You need a digital or a paper calendar to help you remember tasks and occasions. If you are using the former, make sure to turn on the calendar notifications because there is a chance that you’ll forget because you still have to open the app, unlike a paper calendar where you can always take a glance at it anytime. However, if you are using the latter, you should display it in a space where you can always see it.
2. Establish a Routine That Works Best for Everyone
It’s difficult to forget a routine. Routines create a sense of order in the household when the rest of the day is in shambles. Set a time for waking up, dressing up, eating breakfast and dinner, and sleeping. A routine must also be set on weekends—bonding with the family, watching movies, etc. Routines are important because they reduce your decision-making throughout the day.
3. Share Household Tasks or Delegate
You can’t accomplish household tasks alone. That’s why you have to delegate them to the rest of the family. For example, you can be responsible for the cooking, your spouse for the washing of the dishes, your children for the cleaning, and so on. You’ll accomplish a lot more if you delegate household tasks instead of handling them alone. It’s also a great way for your children to learn household chores. You should also insist that the assignments are permanent so that it becomes routine for them.
4. Prioritize Tasks According to Their Importance
In a single day, you are faced with important tasks that need to be prioritized. For example, your toddler is about to start school—you need to gather all relevant documents to enroll them in the nearest preschool. Your second task can be doing laundry, your third can be cooking lunch, and so on. Accomplish the most important tasks to get them out of the way, then the least important ones can come last.
5. Accomplish Things Quickly
Time is of the essence, especially if you are a working parent. Establish a time frame for all the tasks that you need to accomplish. Act as if all of them are urgent to begin with. It will pressure you to finish them quickly so you can proceed with the other tasks. If you spend too much time on a single task, the other tasks will also be affected.
Get rid of distractions if you’re in the middle of something. Turn off the television and don’t use your phone because you can spend hours and hours on it and not notice anything. Concentrate on the task at hand.
6. Use a Meal Plan
Deciding on what to cook daily can take a huge chunk of your time. Create a weekly meal plan that works for the entire family. Plan nutritious meals that are quick to prepare. Ensure that the ingredients are ready the day before, then wake up early the next morning to prepare them. Weekly meal plans let you plot breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals—you can look for templates of them online.
Parents have a lot on their plate, and the only remedy to this is time management. Parents cannot function if they are overwhelmed with all the tasks at hand. Everything has to be planned and prepared ahead of time. From their work duties, household duties, to their parental duties, it’s enough to drive them mad if there is no sense of order in the household. And that sense of order is found in managing your time effectively.
There are 24 hours a day, and when you are a working parent, your work duties, household duties, and parental duties will merge, and the 24 hours won’t be enough. You need all the tools you will need—calendars, phones for reminders, and your spouse to help with the planning. You can encourage your children to help with the chores if they’re old enough to do them. Always remember that you don’t have to bear the brunt of it all alone. Ask for help when everything becomes too overwhelming.
