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Family
Controlling Family Chaos - Time Management for the Family
By Tracy Lyn Moland, B. Ed.
Balancing a family’s varying schedules can be near impossible.
Soccer, hockey, dance, skating, Brownies, Scouts, skiing, swimming,
school activities, homework, not to mention play and sleep time,
fill our children’s lives.
Now add in the parental activities, including work, fitness,
volunteering, and home maintenance and well, 24 hours just doesn’t
seem to be enough.
See if the following list of strategies can help
your family learn to gain control of their time:
1. Hold a Family Meeting
First parents need to objectively determine some
initial priorities for their family. These need to be based upon
last years schedule, the individual family member’s personalities,
finances, current commitments and the comfort level of the family.
Some questions that will guide this process are: Do they want to
focus on activities or academics based upon last years performances?
Will the demands of school or work change? Do they want to fill time
with activities or a balance of activities and free time?
Do different family members have different needs? Is everyone
enjoying their schedules? Is there time for friends, for family, for
quiet time, for reading, or for playing?
Once the family guidelines are determined, hold
the meeting and give everyone a chance to choose one or two
priorities for the session or year. If one member is having trouble
narrowing their list down, have them put them in order of
importance. Make sure everyone shares their list and explains why
they put it in that order.
2. Create a Family Calendar
Get a large calendar and input everyone’s current
schedules for the upcoming month into it.
Add or remove commitments based upon everyone’s
priorities determined in the family meeting.
Make sure this calendar includes school hours and
activities, work schedules, activity schedules, religious events,
family time, mealtime, homework time, sleep time and most
importantly NON-scheduled time.
Take into account hidden time- travel time,
preparation/clean up time, waiting time, etc.
Determine where conflicts lie and as a family
see if you can figure out solutions. Maybe one child can suggest a
friend they could car pool with, maybe another can walk to their
activity, or maybe one can bring their homework along and do it
while their sibling is in a lesson.
Depending on the comfort level of the family
activities may need to be removed or postponed. Some families thrive
on being busy while others need to have a more relaxed schedule.
Make sure that everyone is in agreement or can
live with the schedule.
Try it for one month and then have another meeting
and evaluate the schedule. Make sure it works for everyone and make
necessary changes.
How to Handle Those Schedules and Not Waste
Time
Once the priorities and scheduling are done, there
are few things that families need to do to make sure that they can
handle their schedules and not waste their precious time.
ESTABLISH ROUTINES If everyone follows a
routine that works, life will run much smoother. Some areas where
routines are a must are: before and after school, homework time,
chores and meals.
ELIMINATE CLUTTER Looking for things
wastes a lot of time. Have set places for the things you use daily
keys, school items, library books, bags, purses, lunch kits, etc.
DEAL WITH PAPER IMMEDIATELY Read and
recycle mail right at the mailbox, write all pertinent information
off school papers, newsletters, mail, flyers, etc on your family
calendar and recycle them.
AVOID PERFECTIONISM Aim for completion
and excellence. A little dust or a wrinkle won’t hurt.
LIMIT DETAILS We have so many choices
available to us in life. Limit the decisions you offer your family.
Ask questions like “Would you prefer a peanut butter or ham
sandwich?” rather than “What do you want for lunch?”
TIME WASTERS Limit the amount of time
family members do the following: watch TV, play video games, surf
the Internet, or talk on the phone unless you are a teenage girl!
When we have children in school, we can’t help but
be busy. But being busy with things that are important to us is very
different than being overwhelmed by disarray. If we take the time as
a family to determine our priorities and work together to eliminate
time wasters, we will be in control of our time!
Tracy Lyn Moland, B. Ed, is a Mom Expert. From
having written the best selling Mom Management, Managing Mom Before
Everybody Else (tgot, 2003) to being a highly sought after
consultant on the trillion dollar Mom Market, her advice and
information has been featured in over 300 media outlets and to many
conferences and corporations. For more information on Tracy Lyn's
consulting or presentations please visit
http://www.TracyLynMoland.com |
