Naptime Blog

Time management is an art form.  Whether you are a working mom, work at home mom or stay at home mom, there always seems to be a million and one things to get done.  As a mother of four young children, I always find myself running out of time by the end of the day.  I wish there were more hours in a day, maybe then I could manage to get all the laundry put away or have time to do all my writing in a timely manner. 

When I am asked how I manage my home, being wife and mom of four, family therapist and freelance writer, then adding in cooking, cleaning and other chores, plus my full time job as City Ambassador of New York City’s MomsLikeMe.com, I laugh.  I try to manage my time as effectively as possible.  That often means that I am on conference calls while nursing the baby or counseling a client by phone while cutting vegetables for dinner! 

Here are some tips for helping with the daily crunch, although I must admit I need to brush up on my own time management skills!
Prioritize

I try to make a mental note each morning of what absolutely needs to get done today and what can wait if necessary.  For instance, my daughter has gym class on Wednesdays and needs her gym outfit.  So I need to be sure on Tuesday morning, if I haven’t already, her laundry needs to be done so her gym clothes are ready for that evening.  May sound simple, but I cannot remember how many times I have been left doing laundry Tuesday night because I procrastinated doing the laundry all day and needed to get it done.

Luckily for me I have deadlines with work.  As I work from home, there is always work that needs to be done: Newsletters are due by Wednesday morning, content reports are due by Sunday afternoon, articles are due by month’s end, etc.  I live by the alarms on my blackberry and Outlook, so when “Newsletter Due – 4 hours” pops up on screen, I know I better make sure I am almost done with the week’s newsletter!

I enjoy my twice a month manicures and pedicures.  Those times are my “me” times, where I get peace and quiet (and even a little massage!), time to myself, and I walk out feeling that much better about myself when my nails look good.  Yes, it does take two hours out of my time, but for me, I am recharged and refueled for a little while.  So I am sure to add my nail salon time into my list of priorities.  I do recommend every mom does the same:  whether it is time to read that book, time for a bubble bath, time to go jogging, or whatever it is that helps keep you going, “me” time should be a priority.

Delegate

If you are anything like me, you have a hard time delegating chores out to other family members.  I need to get passed the “If you want something right, you have to do it yourself” mentality, because if I don’t, I will never get everything I need done.  Naturally, when you have children and a home to keep clean, laundry to do, whether you are a working mom or stay at home mom, it can become challenging to do it all by yourself week after week.

Obviously if you have very young children, you cannot ask them to help with your tasks.  However, even a young toddler can help clean up.  I like to go over to my fifteen month old twins and have them each pick up a toy to put back into the toy chest each evening before bedtime.  I find that now, I will see them occasionally putting a toy back in the toy chest without being asked to.  If we continue to do this regularly, it will become habit with the boys, and they will be on their way to keeping their own toys and putting things away themselves, which is one thing less that I will need to do after putting them to bed every night.

My daughter is seven years old.  I have asked her to sit with the baby and feed him his bottle while I am a few feet away writing an article or folding laundry.  I have also asked her to help out by putting the clothes from the washing machine into the dryer for me.  I still need to check everything she does and I still need to keep an eye on her, but the extra pair of hands really helps out every now and then.  Now if I can only get her to keep her room clean!

My husband washes the dishes every night.  I am very lucky to have had him volunteer to do this from when we first got married.  The plan was that if I cook, he will do the dishes.  And he has held up his end of the deal.  This allows me to finish up with what I have to get done while he is doing the dishes.  Maybe your spouse is not into doing dishes.  Ask him if he can help with bathing the children or some other duty that you would usually do.   

Organization

In some aspects I am extremely organized but in others I am a mess.  If I can only get my closets and drawers as organized as they should be, I would find a lot more time during the day that I waste on searching for the match to a shoe or a missing receipt in a pile of mail!  I am the first to admit this is one of my biggest downfalls in time management skills.  For as long as I can remember, I find myself spending way too much time searching for missing things.  My biggest problem with this issue is when I put something away for safe keeping and then cannot remember where I put it, therefore spending way too much time sorting through drawers and closets to find it!  Regardless of my own demons, it is always a good idea to be organized.  As you can see from my experiences, it can help save a ton of time!

While I may not be the best in organizing closets, cabinets, drawers and storage space, I am organized with most everything else.  My blackberry is priceless.  I have my daughter’s school schedule in my calendar, along with every doctor’s appointment, work event, party and other items which I have set with reminders to help me remember them.  I have my emails go through my blackberry as well, so when I get an important email, I save it it my blackberry so I can refer to it if away from my computer.  I have my entire address book in my blackberry as well, and try to add any contacts I meet daily in there, should I lose a business card or slip of paper with a name and address on it.  I include either the person’s company info or reason for contact in the entry, so I can search easily.  I even have Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint downloaded onto my blackberry so that I can open important files and get other information when I am on the go.   In addition to my blackberry, one can also often find notes all around my house:  sticky notes on my mirror, checklists on my desk or dining room table, and notes from my daughter’s school tacked on to the refrigerator.  I have even been known to tack a note onto the inside of my front door so that I won’t forget something when I leave.  Hey, whatever works, right?

There are only twenty-four hours in a day.  At least six or eight of those hours should be spent sleeping, to recharge for the next day.  Naturally, as parents, we are going to run out of the remaining sixteen hours.  They go by so quickly!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (Newborn)
www.nevaland.com

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 3:45 am and is filed under Article, Jennifer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.