 Streamlining Your Schedule
Streamlining your schedule is all about balance. Creating balance and harmony in a hectic life can be tricky. Some days you feel like you can't
get it all done and you're always in a mad dash to the next event. I understand this. We've had many chaotic days in our house. We've had the "running
out of milk, short tempered, can't find my notebook" mornings.
We've spent Saturday afternoons dashing from game to lesson to party.
But if you put a few systems in place, you should have less days feeling rushed and frazzled. And hopefully more days spent singing Time
is on my Side. When
your life is balanced, you feel more relaxed and have more patience for the unexpected.
Map out your schedule. If you can't seem to get it all done. Try this:
- List all of your primary responsibilities as a spouse, parent and employee. Write down everything: work, drive the carpool, volunteer in the
classroom, grocery shop, pay the bills, do the laundry and so forth. It really helps to see it all on paper.
- Add secondary activities to the list such as time you would like to spend with friends, hobbies you would like to pursue or volunteer
responsibilities in your church, school or community.
- Fill out a weekly schedule. I've prepared a simple downloadable form. First fill out the time blocks that are non-negotiable primary
activities.
- When possible consolidate tasks to leave a few larger blocks of available time. For instance, if you run all of your errands at one time
you will save time in commuting. If you make five stops in one night instead of stopping every night, you will build extra blocks of free time into
your schedule.
I used this technique when I started this website. The goal was to create blocks of time for work, without disrupting the status quo at home.
By consolidating jobs and completing errand and grocery shopping once a week, I was able to weave the extra hours into my life.
- Plan to use your stray minutes. Everyone has small blocks of time in-between appointments, while the kids are doing homework or while
dinner is cooking. Use these! It only takes a few minutes to accomplish small tasks like emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry or balancing
the checkbook.
- Next fit secondary activities in the remaining slots.
- Continue filling in the blanks until each activity has its own block of time.
The beauty of this system is that it establishes routines. In our family, I grocery shop on Monday, take the trash out on Tuesday, pay the bills on Wednesday and change the sheets on Saturday. There are no surprises. I know what's coming and I feel prepared.
What happens if you don't have enough time for everything you want to do?
- Negotiate with your spouse. I was going to give up singing in the choir because my sons had basketball practice. But then my
husband thought he would enjoy coaching. So it was added to his schedule and deleted from mine. (The basketball games were
on Saturdays, so I was still able to cheer the boys on.)
- Delegate some chores to your kids. Our family lives by this rule, "We all live here. We all help out." Kids can help out
in a multitude of small ways. And every task they complete is one less item on your list!
- Find creative ways to spend time with friends. Schedule a regular night to scrapbook, or go prepare meals together at a local meal assembly place. Another idea is to find a walking partner. Exercise and catch up at the same time!
- Rate your activities as if they were movies. Shoot for four stars. Eliminate all of the 1 and 1-1/2 star tasks. Rethink
an endless stream of activities for your kids. Avoid the trap of running from event to event. It can be stressful and exhausting. Sometimes your kids
just want
to spend time with you. Eliminate anything that isn't enriching your life.
Here are three of my favorite time savers:
- Beware of Time Traps. When I was first adjusting to motherhood, I picked up the book, The Sidetracked Home Executive, by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. They had a line that still makes me smile; IGAD (I've got all day!)
The two sisters who wrote the book talked about ambling through their days, getting sidetracked and not accomplishing things because they thought they had all day to get things done. Scheduling helps eliminate that problem.
Once you begin to schedule your time, you will become more aware and less tolerant of distractions. Here are a few of the culprits: long telephone
conversations, TV, surfing the internet, controlling email, sorting snail mail, endless daily errands, and searching for lost items.
Cut back on TV one or two nights a week. If the statistics are true, the average family watches four hours of TV per night. This would be a fast way to recapture four to eight hours per week!
- Think twice before you say yes. On a couple of occasions, I have agreed to serve on a board or committee without realizing how big of a time commitment I was agreeing to. I'm not suggesting that you avoid volunteering. I am saying, go into it with your eyes wide open.
- Think of your time as currency. Spend it wisely. There are many ways to spend your time. Some are useful and some are just frittering it away.
KAREN HENKE is a professional organizer and the owner of Come2Order. With a collection of 17 years work experience in design, space planning and organization, she now helps others come to order. |
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