Parents for Change

As Parents for Change, you must balance your time between many important endeavors: your partner, your kids, your community, your passion, YOU.  How do you do it when we all ONLY have 24 hours a day?  Any successful Parent for Change is always on the lookout for new time-saving tips and ideas. Here are a few of my favorites.... I hope you'll add to the list in the comments:)

1) Regularly brainstorm and write down your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals and priorities. On the surface, this may seem like an unnecessary use of your time, but I promise you will be more productive if you prioritize what needs to get done! The frequency necessary to do this will vary greatly from person to person but generally you should plan on visiting your goals and priorities at least monthly. Some parents find planners and pdas helpful. As a homeschooling mom, my favorite weekly and monthly planner is from Five in A Row. A great online goal tool can be found at Goal For It. Also, I find my best goal-setting and prioritizing occurs outside of my day-to-day life. At least yearly, my DH sends me off for a night or two to recharge and refocus!

2) Combine Renewal/Relaxation time with mindless chores that need to get done. For example, I usually fold laundry (again a ridiculous chore that takes forever with a big household) while watching a favorite television show, a cherished relaxation activity that I rarely have time for. Also, I'm an avid reader but would never have time to do just that. So I read when taking a bath, going to the bathroom, and nursing the little ones to sleep.

3) Prep as many meals together as possible.  Some families will have a freezer Sunday where they prepare several meals for the week or month and then freeze them. My routine includes prepping dinner during either breakfast or lunch.  I'm also a huge fan of the crockpot.   All Recipes has a great assortment of crockpot recipes.

4) I hate creating my grocery list. Planning out meals and creating a list takes FOREVER! To cut this out of my weekly time commitments I use a combinationof these tips:

• Have DH prepare the list
• Use a service like Saving Dinner to plan meals and create menu lists
• Design a regular 2 week menu with only one or two surprise dinners so that the list stays roughly the same from week to week. The other benefit to this approach is that it is easy to teach your older children how to prepare and make some of these regular dinners, which can be another huge timesaver:)

5) Maintain a regular household routine, including chores for everyone.  This is probably my hardest, but most necessary, time-saving tip.  I am not a schedule type person - I like to have the flexibility to wing it.  BUT, if we don't have a regular routine, chores don't get done (unless I do them - which I refuse to do), which stresses me out, and makes me cranky and less productive. Routines also create regular time in my week for community and my passion/work.  Routine is even more important if you homeschool because otherwise there is NO way you could meet all your weekly, monthly and  yearly goals.  Obviously everyone has to find a routine that meets their family's needs, but to get you started here is a glimpse of our weekday routine:

Wake-9 am Morning chores & Breakfast

9am-12pm School

12-12:30 Lunch

12:30 Joey nap, older kids play quietly/finish homework/rest and mom work

3 pm Snack  & outside (mom might get to keep working)

5 pm evening chores

6 pm dinner

8:30 Kids ready for bed & in their rooms

Now remember that I'm not crazy about routines so at least once a week we'll totally scrap it, for fun field trips downtown, for park days, if one of the kids has a soccer or softball game, etc.  But having a routine still helps give the kids a general expectation for the day:)

6) Build/find creative childcare arrangements.  There are two schools of thought  for parents who want to accomplish other endeavors, whether it be professional or community.  Most parenting and business resources claim that you have to have "work" time without the kids, by finding out-of-the-home child care or hiring a babysitter/nanny.  Although I respect this approach, it has never worked for me because of my parenting style and financial limitations.  Instead, I have created work time by arranging our daily routine accordingly and supplementing that approach with mother's helpers and exchanging care with friends. Look for an upcoming blog with more specifics on creative child care arrangements. I'd also love to share ideas from other parents who have used the first approach (child care/babysitter) so please contact me (kari@ourrealvillage.com) if you'd like to share!

What tips for time management would you like to share?