When it comes to time management in a busy family, less is most definitely more. The less you have to juggle, the more you can quickly get done. This is where time management hacks come into play. As lovely as the idea of being organized 24/7 is, life doesn’t always work that way, and sometimes we need a little bit of help staying on track.
Meal Prep
Sometimes after a busy day, the last thing you want to do is cook a full family meal. This is where meal prepping comes into play. It doesn’t need to be a military operation once a week to plan your meals and make them in advance to freeze. It can simply be making extra portions of your favorite meal to refrigerate or freeze for another night. Why not make this sloppy joes recipe for dinner this week and make an extra portion for the next night, or you make a chicken pot pie you can freeze for another night? Doing this frequently can give you some easy heatable meal options for those nights when you don’t want to cook or have the time to make a complete meal from scratch.
Emergency Car Pack
How often do you forget something when you leave the house, or the kids don’t have time to grab snacks or drinks for school or long trips? It happens to everyone from time to time. However, keeping an emergency car pack in the trunk for exactly these times can be a good idea. Include water bottles, juice packs, medicines, snack bars, crackers, gloves, socks, wipes, and so on. Anything that will come in handy for those “oops” moments.
Online Shopping
Shopping with kids can be stressful, yet finding the time to shop alone can be tricky. Take the stress from your shopping trips by having your shopping delivered to your home. This way, you can get on with other things, and all you need to do is put it away when it arrives.
Delegate
While this might not work with younger family members, delegating tasks to one person’s sole responsibility can help you to ease your load without missing anything. This needs to be age appropriate for your children, but it can be instrumental in giving them extra responsibilities, all while helping you out.
Tasks such as packing their own school bags, loading the dishwasher, beginning the laundry to your washing machine, or tidying up their own toys and cleaning dishes away, for example. Delegate more important tasks to older family members based on your lifestyle and needs so everyone knows precisely what is expected of them and when which can relieve some of the mental load of parenting.
Use A Family Calendar
Whether you use a digital calendar or print one, having a calendar so everyone can enter important dates and remember appointments can help you to stay on track. For digital calendars, you can set reminders so you don’t forget. Whether you use a monthly or weekly conversion or both, keeping it somewhere you can see or check it quickly is vital. Make sure everyone in the family has access to it, and everyone knows what is happening and when.
Conclusion
Family life can get hectic; there is no denying that. But working towards being more organized and incorporating hacks can make things easier for everyone and help you get everything done on time without missing a beat.
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