When was the last time you feel you had a proper break from your parenthood? We’ve all been there. As we all feel the push, either in a mental, physical, or emotional sense, we need that all-important break to give us a respite from life.
But, can we take a leaf out of the professional’s books? The art of time management is something that can feel like it’s always just out of our reach. As such, we’ve got to think about working smarter, rather than working harder. While we can feel that if we put in a bit of extra effort, the results will improve, when we have children, this isn’t necessarily the case!
What are the ways that we can begin to make the balance work firmly in everyone’s favor?
4 Time Saving Tricks for Stressed Out Parents
Get Smart
Yes, a smart home could be part of the modern landscape, but a lot of people are pretty cynical as to what it can do for you. Well, we are here to tell you that if you upgrade certain components and make them smart, it will cut out the hours of housework for you. A Roomba, a robot vacuum, can take out the stress and strain of vacuuming the entire house, and if you look on https://parentingpod.com/best-roomba-comparison/ you can see if it is worth your while. And it’s not just about the more digital items of equipment that you can take advantage of. When it comes to making food, the crockpot or slow cooker is a vital tool.
Putting food on in the morning before everybody leaves the house and letting it cook over a few hours means that, as soon as you get home, you can all sit down and have that all-important family meal.
Making The Most Of The Little Moments
It’s about maximizing your efficiency. When you look at the little moments of downtime you have, however minimal they are, are you making the most of them? You could argue that this is your opportunity to have a breather. And if so, what are you doing to have that little moment of relaxation to yourself? Is it actually going to benefit you?
Because if you sit there and sneakily tuck into that chocolate bar, you know that you’re going to feel guilty for it later, especially if you keep telling your children about the importance of a healthy diet. We sit in traffic, wait in our cars to pick up our kids from school, and all of these little moments where we are doing nothing can add up to a significant amount of time. This means that we should think about the activities we can complete in these little moments.
You could create a “while-you-wait” list, which could comprise of writing “thank you” cards, making notes, paying a bill on your phone, and so forth. Or if you are looking for something a bit more beneficial you could do a quick meditation. On https://www.headspace.com/blog/2016/05/23/meditate-while-you-wait/ there is a lovely little meditation that you could do to bring you back to the present, especially if you feel frazzled by everyday life.
Add up all those little moments where you are doing nothing, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much time goes to waste!
Create A Buddy Parent System
We’re not in it by ourselves; we have other friends going through exactly the same sorts of stress. And when we have additional pressures, like deadlines, we tend to vent to those who know exactly how we feel got there but we don’t think we can do anything else about it.
Instead, let’s get proactive! If you’ve got a friend nearby that is able to help you in a moment of crisis, whether this is because you’re not able to pick up the children from school, or you are stuck in traffic, if you’ve got friends nearby that are able to do that little thing, it’s a major lifesaver. Likewise, you could do the same thing for them.
And perhaps this may mean that you will have a more full-on week part of the time, if you were to look at the list of tasks that need completing, it will give you that little bit more breathing space.
Start The Night Before
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, yes, but by being more methodical in your preparations, it minimizes the stress, and you are able to cope with the pressures better. If the children have gone to bed and we need to have a sit down, this is where we can set ourselves up for a fall.
Much like those people that don’t want to exercise, it’s about pushing through the temptation to relax and getting it out of the way. But rather than having an hour long gym session, all you need is 10 productive minutes. Do a list of the things that need to be ready for the morning, and get them done!
Get everyone’s clothes out, make those sandwiches, but also, give yourself a reward after you’ve completed this. Having 10 minutes to get, at the very least, the basic tasks out of the way the night before means that you will breathe easier come the morning time. There is nothing worse than when you just get out of bed and you’ve got to go from 0 to 100 miles per hour. If you can ease into the day, you will be happier, but more importantly, you will be productive.
We can feel that we have to run ourselves into the ground in order to accomplish everything.
This is not the case.
We’ve got to get it into our heads that in the modern world where there are a million things to do and seemingly not enough time to do it in; we’ve got to start working smart. If you feel like you’re being pulled in numerous directions, and you don’t have a grip on this thing they call parenthood, it starts with one simple thing, making a list.
As soon as you start to take control over the situation by being, at the very least, 20% more prepared, it’s going to benefit every part of your life.
Kori
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