4 Time Management Essentials

Laura Rolands of My Attention Coach

Time management.  It can be different in the summer.  Depending on your personal circumstances, time management may be more complicated of more simple during summer vacation.  No matter what, if you have school-aged kids, things are likely to be different when your kids go back to school (or have already gone back).

I would like to offer four essential tips for managing your family’s valuable time.  I understand some of your kids are already back in school.  Whether your kids are back in school or will be in a few weeks, these tips will help ease the transition.

Family Calendars

If you know who is doing what and when they are doing it, you increase your ability to manage the free time you do have.  Without it, you will probably increase the chaos in your house and the requisite stress that comes along with the chaos.  When school starts again, activities will increase, homework sets in and everyone is generally busier.  A family calendar is a perfect place to put all of this information in one place.  Families with Purpose offers some excellent options for your family calendar.

Delegate

Time management challenges increase when you try to do everything yourself.  It may feel like it is easier to do it yourself rather than try to get help.  I propose that you are wrong about that.  If you delegate, you can free up valuable time for your bigger priorities.  There are many ways to delegate and many people to whom you can delegate.  My favorite option is my kids.  I make a new chore chart about once every three months.  On this chart, I include the items that I most want to delegate (read that as “the items I don’t want to do”).  For example, I recently added “putting clothes away” to the chore chart.  I have saved myself time, gotten rid of a chore I dislike and started teaching my kids a valuable life skill in the process.

Besides your kids, think of who else to whom you can delegate work.  Your spouse, someone you hire, someone at work or a neighbor you swap tasks with are all ideas.  The key is to get past that feeling of doing it yourself and move on to freeing up some valuable time.

Multitasking

Generally I am not a fan of multitasking, but I think it works well when you pair the activities carefully.  One activity For example, I drafted this article while riding the train into Chicago during a family trip.  I, of course, wouldn’t have done this is I were driving.  What activities can you combine for some effective multitasking?  Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Pay  bills while watching TV.
• Help your son with homework at your daughter’s soccer practice.
• Work on an assignment while waiting for a meeting to start.
• Wash dishes while preparing dinner.
• Listen to your favorite books in the car on the way to and from anywhere.

Plan Everyday

Laura Rolands of My Attention Coach

You have a family calendar now so you know where you need to be and when you need to be there.  Put that information to good use by planning every day.  If this is new to you, shoot for five or 10 minutes of planning to make a real impact.  If you already plan every day, congratulations!  Review your planning process to see where you can improve your processes and increase your planning effectiveness.

Implementing these four time management tips can help you keep control of your time in the new school year.  Let us know how it goes!

Laura Rolands is the founder of LSR Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She is a coach whose passion is to support, lead and inspire independence and success for people who have either been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or who are facing other attention-related challenges. Her clients include individuals with attention-related challenges and/or their parents. If you have any questions or more suggestions to add, please visit her website at www.MyAttentionCoach.com.

Remove Stress from School Mornings!

By Melanie Moore of Only a Breath

Are your school mornings stressful? There are few things worse than rushing around the house, yelling at your kids, tripping over the dog, and then realizing on your way out of the house that you forgot to pack lunches.

Have you been there too?

Mornings set the tone of the entire day. When our mornings are stressful, it begins the day with a nervous tension that certainly isn’t helpful for young children heading off to school. Here are a few simple tips that will help you take back your mornings and replace stress with joy.

• Prepare in advance! Do everything you can the night before to help facilitate an easier morning. For example, make sure that homework is done as soon as possible after school, and that you have signed all papers necessary to return to school. On Sunday night, it is very helpful to lay out complete outfits for yourself and your children for the whole week. This simple step can make a huge difference on your morning.

• Wake before your children, and get a head start on your morning. Whether you use this extra time for your quiet time, to take a shower, or just take some time to enjoy a cup of coffee, the extra time will help you start your morning in a calm manner and gather your thoughts for the day ahead.

• Get your children involved! I have been amazed at how much time is saved when children have chores they are responsible for doing in the morning to help get ready for school. Whether it is making the bed, dressing themselves, or taking dishes to the sink, each small task makes a huge difference — and children love to be involved and have “jobs” to do!

• Pack lunches/car the night before — If possible, pack school lunches the night before. If food needs to be refrigerated, have it ready to go so that you just have to grab it and pack it in the lunchbox. Also, packing up the car the night before with backpacks, sports equipment, and any extra projects ensures that necessary items will not be forgotten in the morning rush.to do!

• Buy gas on the weekend — That little, yellow fuel light? You do NOT want to see that on Monday morning after already leaving the house late… Trust me, on that! I speak from experience!

Do you have any tips that will help improve mornings for our moms? We would love for you to comment below this post and share with our community of readers!

Let’s take back our mornings and start each day with happy attitudes!

Melanie writes at “Only A Breath” about life as a small-town, southern, girly-girl mommy of two rough and rowdy little boys. She is so thankful for a wonderful, hard-working husband who makes her laugh and is a wonderful daddy. She works full-time as an industrial software developer (“computer geek”) and offers practical tips and encouragement for moms who work outside the home. Her heart’s desire is to encourage others to celebrate life and cherish each breath of this journey.

Handling Sibling Rivalry Successfully

By Susan Heid of The Confident Mom

Sibling rivalry is certainly one of the most prevalent problem parent’s face.  Every family (with more than one child) faces it, and every child participates in it. There just isn’t any way to get away from it if you have more than one child.  More often than not, parents attempt to do away with all fights and bickering completely. As if we are actually going to get two or more kids to get along all the time and agree peacefully on everything. It isn’t realistic and more importantly we really don’t want to eliminate the rivalry.

Sibling rivalry will happen – what is really important is how we respond to it.  Your response is what you can control and is key to helping your child learn how to deal with conflict in their lives. As parents we need to understand that our reactions as the primary example or mentor in their life need to demonstrate respect and calm authority. The relationship with our kids and our influence is built and tested by how we respond.  We’re being tested every time questions, conflict and challenges are raised and our children are looking to us for clues on how to treat us, their sibling and everyone they ever meet.

It is certainly frustrating and exhausting to deal with – your kids fighting with one another.  A household that’s full of conflict is stressful for everyone. Yet often it’s hard to know how to stop the fighting, and or even whether you should get involved at all. But you can take steps to promote peace in your household and help your kids get along and develop.

Parental attitude adjustment – Change your view!  Sibling rivalry will always happen – it is a given – but it doesn’t mean you have to enjoy.  Kids are kids – as if you already didn’t realize this – they will give you a steady diet of obnoxious behavior – challenging us as parent’s everyday!  It is nothing unusual.  There is a certain amount of peace we can find just accepting that fact.

Hold Back – Parents tend to intervene way too early!  Allow them time to work it out on their own, as long as they are within the parameters you have set up for what is acceptable in your home.  Never try to determine who started it!  Do not pick sides, hold both children accountable. Children will learn to work out their own differences when they know that you won’t mediate or referee.  Ironically, if they don’t get a crazy reaction from you when they fight most of their motive for fighting and bringing it to you is gone. If you don’t pick sides in their sibling rivalry then you have passed the test – you love both of them.

Get connected – Give both children positive attention and individual experiences with you. When kids are fighting they are looking for attention. If you’ve given them enough bonding time, their need to act out toward a sibling decreases.

Setting limits – communicate what is acceptable and what isn’t. If it’s against your rules for your kids to use certain words, like “hate” or “stupid” they need to know that.   You also need to decide beforehand what level of noise and conflict is acceptable and what isn’t. Clearly set these limits with your kids, perhaps even writing them down in a location where they can easily be viewed.

Have concrete, meaningful consequences – Have a strategy set in place and communicate it to them before there is a problem. For example, “If you hit, you sit.” Or “everyone loses TV privileges if you can’t work out what show to watch.”

Be consistent – 100% all the time!  This is probably the most challenging.  Keeping our perspective in place to keep calm, consistent and rational is difficult when you in the midst of perhaps a high volume, escalating situation – but do whatever it takes on your part to remain the calming authority in your home!

Adjust your plan – You will have to make some changes to limits and consequences that deal with behavior as your kids get older and the rivalry matures. It helps to preempt their bad behavior or address it as early as you can to keep the noise to the most peaceful level. Think back to what you and your siblings argued about and try to foresee situations that could arise.  Have in your mind a strategy for dealing with those – before they come into play.

Allowing our kids to learn how to negotiate the inevitable ups and downs of relationships with their brothers and sisters prepares them for learning to deal with people in general. It isn’t realistic to expect kids to agree all the time. Do you know any adults that agree all the time? The problem solving skills that they learn in the home will last them a lifetime and allow them to be the successful adult you so desire them to be.

Susan Heid loves inspiring Christian moms to make small changes managing their home and family life giving them more time, order and less stress! As a Certified Parent Coach and Family Manager Coach she enjoys sharing her expertise with moms through workshops, teleseminars, public speaking, and individual and group coaching.  She is a proud mom, step-mom and foster mom to 3, married to her very own prince charming, loves coffee, cloudy days, and does think the “bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle.”  Make sure you get a copy of her FREE ebook, “Getting Kids to Cooperate and Become Team Players.”

Getting Mom Ready for Back to School

By Jennifer Ascher of Organizing without Limits

It’s that time of the year again. Back to school! Typically when one thinks about back to school we think about getting our kids ready and organized, I however believe it is equally if not more important to get ourselves as moms ready for back to school as well.

Thru trial and error I have discovered that if I take the time to do the following things a few weeks before school starts it prevents a lot of headaches and chaos later one. This year it will be especially important since I will have kids in both elementary and middle school. Here are some suggestions that I hope will help you as well.

1. Earlier is always better. Make a list of what you need to get done in the morning before getting the kids up and how long it will take you. This includes brushing your teeth, getting dressed, hair, makeup, starting breakfast, perhaps a few minutes to yourself to have your first cup of coffee. Make sure to take in to account what time you need to be out the door and how much time the kiddos need in the morning to get ready. That is how much earlier you should be getting up before the kids. Start doing this now, so your body adjusts to the time change of getting up earlier.  This alone will prevent a lot of chaos in the morning because you will be ready for the day and once the kids are up you can fully concentrate on getting them ready and out the door on time.
2. Stock your car with school supplies and snacks. I can’t tell you how many time we would be driving to school and one of the kids would say mom I forgot I need more pencils. So now I keep a small basket in the car with extra school supplies such as pencils, pens, erasers, 1 ream of paper, couple of spiral notebooks and extra Kleenex. I also keep nonperishable snacks for days when we are going to an activity right after school. I check the basket on Sundays to see if anything needs to be replenished for the following week.
3. Take the time to do some bulk cooking and menu planning. Stock up on breakfast foods, snacks and stuff ready to go for quick dinners such as cooked ground beef for spaghetti or grilled chicken breast for subs or salads. Don’t forget to label and date the items. It all looks the same when frozen. Never do a menu plan without your upcoming weekly schedule in front of you. For those extra busy nights forget cooking and always plan for left overs.
4. Get your house cleaned and organized. Take the time now to do some of those extra cleaning and organizing projects that you may have been putting off. By starting the school year off with a clean and organized home it will make it a lot easier to keep up with your weekly chores once the craziness begins. To help you stay on track with keeping the house clean and organized, write out a weekly cleaning and chore list based on your families schedule.
5. Update calendars. Don’t forget to include days off and ½ days from school, after school activities, your work schedule and anything else that may be going on. I also like to keep track of my menu and cleaning schedule for the week in my planner as well. Make sure to also have a centrally posted calendar for your family. Color code for easy reference. Once papers start coming home field trip days, projects due, volunteering etc. Add them to your calendar immediately. Don’t wait, you will forget.
6. Things to do the night before.

• • Lay out your clothes, don’t forget your accessories.
  • Write out your to do list and check the menu for the next day. Take out anything that you may need to thaw out.
  • Gather anything you will need to take with you. Put by the door or in your car.
  • Pre make lunches and have them ready in the fridge.
  • Set up the coffee pot.
  • Go thru school papers and attend to anything that needs to be returned.
  • Double check that the kids have their backpacks ready for school and anything they may need for after school activities.

Are there other things you have discovered to be helpful when it comes to getting yourself organized for back to school? I’d love to hear about them. Come share on our Facebook page, we can all learn from each other. http://www.organizingwithoutlimitsbiz.com

Jennifer Ascher is an Organizing Coach and owner of Organizing Without Limits. It is her belief that organizing goes beyond pantries, closets or even time management. It’s about taking control of your WHOLE LIFE.

Organizing Without Limits provides organizing solutions to transform your life and offers both hands-on and virtual organizing services. You can reach Jennifer at http://www.organizingwithoutlimits.com

Putting the FAST in BREAKFAST

By Beth Engelman and Jenna Riggs of Mommy on a Shoestring

Back to school means back to busy mornings.  Alarm clocks, school lunches and a 5-year-old who insists on wearing shorts year round (despite the fact we live in Chicago), breakfast often consists of cereal on the go.  Luckily we have a few recipes up our sleeve that are fast and easy to make in the morning…that’s right we are putting the fast back into breakfast!

“Make Ahead Burritos”

Makes 4 Servings

These burritos can stay in the freezer up to 2 weeks allowing you to just pop them into the microwave on busy mornings.

Ingredients

8 eggs

4 links pre-cooked turkey or chicken sausage

1/2 package frozen hash browns

1cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

½ cup salsa (optional)

4 whole wheat tortillas

Directions

• In a skillet scramble eggs until they are almost cooked.
• Add sausage and hash browns to egg mixture and continue cooking until everything is well done.
• Divide mixture between 4 tortillas top with shredded cheese.
• Wrap tortillas into Burritos by folding up the sides.
• Wrap with parchment paper inside a zippered freezer bag and place in the freezer.
• When you are ready to eat a burrito, take one out of the freezer and place it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes or until warm and cheese is melted.  Serve with salsa if desired.
• Burritos can be stored up to 2 weeks in the freezer.

Soy Butter and Jelly Smoothie

Makes 1 Serving

Perfect to make for a nutritious on-the-go treat. You can even have your kids drink it on the way to the bus stop.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons jelly (any flavor)

1 Frozen banana

1 ½ cup of low-fat milk

Crushed ice

Directions

• Place ingredients (in a blender) until smooth.
• Serve immediately

Breakfast Sundaes for Mondays

Makes 1 Serving

This recipe is super easy to make!  In fact your kids can help you pour the cereal and spoon on the fruit and yogurt

Ingredients

1 cup of Cinnamon Oat cereal

1 cup of Plain low-fat Greek yogurt sweetened to taste with syrup, honey or agave.

½ apple (pre-cut into bite-sized cubes)

1/2 pear (pre-cut into bite-sized cubes)

Crushed walnuts

Maraschino Cherry

Directions

• In parfait glass or cute ice cream bowl, layer the ingredients in the following order:  cereal, fruit, yogurt, fruit, cereal, and yogurt.
• Add crushed walnuts to the top layer of yogurt.
• Add a cherry on top (if desired)

Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 4 Servings

Okay, this recipe is a little more of a treat, but let’s face it sometimes we just need a cinnamon roll in our life!

Ingredients

1 small can of pre-made cinnamon rolls.

2 oranges

Directions

• Slice oranges in half.
• Open icing packet and place icing in a bowl.
• Squeeze 2-3 tablespoons of oranges juice into the icing and mix.  Set aside.
• Make orange cups by scooping the fruit out of each orange half.
• Place a pre-cooked cinnamon roll in each orange cup.
• Place orange cup on cookie sheet. Note:  If the oranges are wobbly, slice a small amount of peel off the bottom of each cup to help make the surface flat.
• Bake rolls according to directions on the package.
• When the rolls have cooled, top with orange flavored icing and some orange zest.

Thanks to Mandy Heaston and www.gourmetmomonthego.com for inspiring the sundaes and cinnamon roll ideas!  For more information about Mandy and to find more yummy recipes visit www.mandayheaston.com.

Jenna Riggs and Beth Engelman are the creative talents and owners of Mommy on a Shoestring, a website and weekly radio show chock full of ideas on how families can live creatively and large on a small budget.

Who Sets the Pace in Your Life?

By Bobbie Friedman of Simplified by Bobbie

Have you ever thought about your relationship with time?  Do you find that all the activities and to-do’s on your calendar control you, instead of you controlling them?  Maybe the pace of your life is moving faster than you’d like.  If so, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your priorities and the way you manage your time and routines.

It’s natural for our priorities to change as the “seasons” in our lives change.  Perhaps one of the most evident places to see this is when you’re transitioning from a relaxing Summer break back into a structured school schedule.  This back-to-school time can quicken the pace of life, adding more “have to-do’s” into our everyday.  At this time it will be more important than ever to control the pace of your schedule and efficiently manage your time.  But how?

Here are a few tips to keep you on track:

• Set Priorities: Create a life based around what is most important to you.  Whatever that may be for you, decide upon it and work everything else around it.  Then when you’re faced with another activity for your child, committee to chair, or party to attend give yourself a moment to think before you reflexively say yes.  Consider whether or not this additional thing is important to you and whether it will bring joy into your life.  And if so, is it enough joy (payoff) to balance out the time and energy you’ll expel in the process?  Adding yet another thing to your list means making less time for something else, so before you say yes, make sure it’s really worth it.

• Streamline Processes: Ask yourself, “How can I make this task easier or more efficient?”  For example, when you’re preparing dinner go ahead and make lunches for the next day (or enlist the kids to do this while you’re cooking).  You already have the food & fixin’s out, why put them away and then take them out again later in the evening or during the busy morning just to make lunch?  Another time to streamline is when you bring the mail & daily dose of paperwork into your home, stop and do a quick sort instead of saving it in a pile for later.  Place junk mail into the recycle bin and have folders ready to hold action items such as “to pay”, “to file”, “to read”, etc.

• Use it While you Have it: Energy that is!  Plan your work when you’re at your most energetic and motivated.  For some people this is first thing in the morning, yet others might be best at night.  Go with whatever comes naturally to you, and schedule your most tasking to-do’s during this time (and leave the down-time for relaxing and family moments).  For me personally, I know that if I wait until the evening to get a big job done, it just won’t happen!  So I’d better get to it in the morning while I still have the drive and motivation to do it and do it well!  Then I know that when evening comes I’ll be set to read books with my son or play a family board game.

• Plan Your Time: Want to know the easiest way to kill time?  Don’t plan for it!  On those days where you don’t have any plan in place time will simply get away from you.  So each day write down at least a loose plan for what needs to get done and how much time you’d like to devote to these things (then follow it).  I bet you’ll find that you get more done and have more time left over than if you don’t plan at all.

• Make Time for Yourself & Your Family: When you’re planning out your time & to-do’s make certain to put yourself on the list!  It is important to not lose yourself in all that you do on a daily basis.  Also setting time aside for family fun & outings shows your kids that they are just as important (more important of course) than all of the errands, activities, and housework that take up the rest of your day.

Setting the pace for your life is going to help you and it will also set a good example for your children.  It teaches them how to manage their time, schedules, homework, & activities without these things becoming overwhelming.  And in our faster than fast-paced world, this skill is more important than ever.

Just remember it should be you setting the pace in your life.  Not life setting the pace for you.  I hope these tips will help you gain perspective with your relationship to time and make your back-to-school transition easier than ever.

Bobbie Friedman is a Professional Organizer, Home Management Consultant, and the owner of Simplified by Bobbie located in Pennsylvania.  She is dedicated to helping individuals and families simplify their lives!  Through personalized organizing services, hands-on help, and knowledgeable guidance she’ll help you establish effective ways to manage your schedule and home; turning CoMpLiCaTeD into Simplified.

Visit www.simplifiedbybobbie.com to learn more, view before & after photos, and read helpful organizing tips.  Contact Bobbie for your FREE phone consultation, and make your space & time work for you