Welcome to Day 8 of 31 Days of Mom Mojo – Tackling Time Management.
“Living your life without a plan is like watching television with someone else holding the remote control.”– Peter Turla
You’ve heard that saying before, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result” Albert Einstein said it. There’s a lot of truth to it.
It is a phrase I use a lot in my coaching with moms, because people tend to continue to repeat the same patterns, even when that pattern does not fill the need they are looking for. As I said in Day 1 – We love to complain rather than change.
When you do the same thing over and over hoping that something better will happen, then you are fooling yourself. For example, if you tend to oversleep in the mornings, start your day behind from the beginning and rush out of the house yelling at the kids – yet you don’t get up earlier, then you are doing the same ineffective thing over and over. If you think that you will magically have a better start to your day without changing any time wasting behaviors, then you are definitely living in a fantasy.
Too often people balk at applying systems or routines to their schedules claiming it would “be too much like a straight jacket” or “take too much time to learn to use a schedule.”
The opposite is true. Using time and self management techniques along with routines will free yourself – you will know what you have to do and what time is open for personal or social choices. I love routines, and especially like when school is back in session and my whole family has a set routine. It is much easier to flow from one task to the next when you have routine. Your mind and body does not have to think about the next step daily.
Any change can be difficult, but even more difficult is continuing the pattern of behavior that is unproductive.
Examine your routines.
Is your morning routine meeting the needs of your family? What about afternoon and evening routines? How about the dinner hour? When everyone knows what is expected of them things just run smoother. I cannot imagine running a house with 4 children not having a standard routine in place for our family to follow. It saves me the time and energy of explaining, reminding and nagging my kids and it helps them become more responsible.
Make small changes
Often times all that is needed is a small change which can make a big difference. Tweaking the time you get up in the morning by fifteen minutes or starting dinner preparation 30 minutes earlier might be just enough of a shift to overflow into other areas and make improvements.
I love helping moms come up with those small changes that have big impact. You do not need to revamp an entire schedule, which can be overwhelming – look at some trouble areas and decide on a few things that you can change and then implement them. Look for things that YOU can do without relying on the cooperation of others.
Have a main family calendar
With children you absolutely must have a main calendar where you keep activities for everyone mapped out. This is one area that can be troublesome for moms, which is exactly why I created the Master Family Planner for the school year in my Back 2 School Survival Guide. This planner will also be available as an addition to the 2013 Weekly Household Planner too, keeping your household tasks and family commitments all together in one place. (BTW, for those of you who keep wondering, it should release in November!)
For older children, I highly suggest getting them their own planner. Helping them understand how to keep track of appointments, assignments, and commitments is a life skill that often gets overlooked.
Check your planner
It is great to have a planner, but if you do not use it, than the system has failed and provides no positive benefit. You will want to learn to say, “let me check my planner” instead of saying “yes” to an invitation only to realize later that you don’t really have time for it. That technique alone will save you from over-commitment and the frustration that goes with it, which causes us anxiety and feed into the insanity! Plus one more thing you will have to add to you to-do list, calling back the person and cancelling!
If you are frustrated, late to commitments, confused and get far less accomplished then you would like, I suggest looking at the areas highlighted and see what small changes can be made. If you do not make a change – tomorrow will be the same way as today and will get the same result.
Take Action today and fine one new habit to create.
What new action can you start today that will change your tomorrow?
