5 Tips to Improve Your Time Management

Homeschooling can be challenging if you're struggling to manage your time. Truth be told none of us can actual 'make time'; we can only manage it in better ways.  Every family has its own rhythm--thus what works for one may not work for another.  Here are some general tips that can help each of us.

1. Prioritize
Something we all know but don't always do. Identify the people, activities and tasks that you want to give yourself to each day, week, month. Here on my blog I've started a weekly practice of intention setting. In practicing this each week, it has become a habit and we typically complete everything on our lists by setting our priorities.  Find a time each day/week where you can set your priorities and give your time to that.

2. Eliminate Time-Wasters
Within each of our daily schedules we will find activities that simply waste the time we have.  Some common time-wasters include TV, email, Facebook, Pinterest, blogs, books, magazines, and talking on the phone. None of these things are bad yet they can become distractions when we should be doing something else and eat up our time. Once you identify those that are taking up your time, cut them out. Or, perhaps a more realistic way to deal with them is to set a time for them.  For example, if you're an early riser, you may be able to check email and read blogs first thing--before the day is started with your family. For me, I typically do things either first thing or last thing.  I take a break in the middle of the day to check while we're doing lunch. One days when I keep to this schedule I find I have all the time I need.

3. Set Boundaries
Your time is valuable. Are you overcommitted? Have you said yes to activities in your homeschool group, church/mosque, community group, extended family? How much are you working? Have you agreed to tasks that are putting a strain on your time and your family's? If you are overbooked in activities and responsibilities outside of your home it becomes nearly impossible to take care of things within your home without a lot of undo stress.  Set boundaries. Saying no may feel uncomfortable at the beginning but it will free you up to do the things you really want to say yes to.

4. Cut Out Unnecessary Tasks
Are there things on your 'To Do List' that you don't actually need to be doing? For example, are you doing the lion share of cleaning around your house? Can your spouse/partner or children join you in those tasks or take them over? Would creating a weekly schedule for laundry work better for your use of time instead of doing it daily? Identify tasks that others can help you with--and let them do it! You may find much more time by spreading your load and focusing on your priorities.

5. Continue Personal Development
When we use our time for personal growth and development--learning something new and/or giving our time to what we enjoy--we find that we have time and energy to give to all the other responsibilities. Challenging ourselves mentally and physically makes for a better emotional state and can add a breath of fresh air to all those mundane tasks we must do to keep life moving forward.

An added bonus:
Children learn best from good examples. By being intentional in the way we manage our time we'll also be teaching our children to do that same.  Something we all want.

What else would you add to this list? Please comment below.  Thanks.

Be well.

8 Things: Enormous Time Suckers

Wow! This week's 8 Things deals with what sucks up all my time. I must say that just this week I've curbed a few already because I know they are eating up the little bit of time I have. Thanks Rachelle for this one!

My 8 Enormous Time Suckers (random order)

1. Networking sites--I belong to quite a few, I've cut back on a good number of them (meaning I've stopped going to them) but I can waste a good amount of time reading 'friends' posts, filling out lists of things, viewing new photos, etc.

2. Cleaning--there is always so much that needs to get done and when I give my attention to it, I want to do a thorough job. Which can take a good portion of my day. I've already starting working on this one and have given my children MORE responsibilities around the house. Once I get an area cleaned, we set up some 'up keep' jobs to maintain the area. Just this week the girls have starting washing the day's dishes (since I've finally gotten on top of all our dishes! whew!)

3. Organizing & Planning--somehow I'm always in the midst of doing one or both. I get these great ideas on how better to do something or how putting things in "this order" will simply my life. Thinking about, reading about, writing about these things takes a good bit of time. I can get fixated on it and voila' my time is gone!

4. Blogging & Reading Others' Blogs--I must admit that as much as I LOVE doing this, when I do it during the time I should be with my children it ends of eating away more of my time than when I wait until after they have gone to bed. I've stopped myself from reading blogs until my children are either napping or are in bed for the night. Now, I've reserved the right to blog on immediate happenings in my life (posting photos, etc) but that is all. So far, things are working well.

5. Meal Prep & Planning--this is something that I've FINALLY gotten a handle on. Just two months ago I felt as though my life was spent in the kitchen. Washing dishes, preparing the meal, cleaning up, deciding what lunch was going to be. Then spending the rest of the afternoon deciding what dinner was going to be (do we have that? we ate that yesterday. but I'm tired of beans!). What I have started doing is meal planning on Sunday. I write out the entire week's menu and make my shopping list based upon that. It's not only cut down on all the mental energy I was giving to daily meals but has cut down on our grocery bill as I'm only getting what we're going to be eating that week! (Bonus: no more wasted produce & meat!)

6. Repeating Myself--and if you're a mother of young children I'm sure at some point you, too, feel like a broken record or CD w/ a scratch! Not sure when this will change, but hopeful that it will at some point.

7. Watching TV Design Star & Project Runway). I've found so much time in my day now that the TV isn't apart of it! --now most of the TV watching is of children's shows, PBS mainly & On Demand but this does eat up our time. I am able to get some of my major project done without the kids demanding my attention when I do this, but I've found that when I am finished, the show isn't or another has just started and I've given in to them seeing it. Plus, it has given me time to engage in some of my other 'time suckers' (internet, networking sites). Well, I've remedied this last week. No more excessive TV viewing--for all of us! We will still watch videos when they add to what we're learning and as a treat on the weekend. I've also curbed my personal viewing to twice a week (I follow HGTVs Design Star and Project Runway). I'm amazed at just how much more time in the day we have without the TV!!

8. General Internet Usage--unless I'm working on something specific. I can waste hours 'surfin' the net.' Really. I'm doing a lot better and guarding the daytime hours I've set aside for the children. But this is still something I can get caught up in without realizing it (checking email, reading a message with a link, following that link, reading something there and following another link--you get the drift! lol).