Whether you’ve recently started growing your family or you have been feeling overwhelmed for a few years now, chances are you know just how hard it can be to balance work and family life. Because there likely never seems to be enough time in a day to do it all!
Having a full-time job and a couple of growing kids can often leave you feeling rushed, stressed, tired and always behind on your to-do lists. If you’re looking for ways to save time as a hard-working parent, here are a few simple steps to help you!
Consider How You’ve Been Spending Your Time
In order to make future improvements, you’ll need to first understand where most of your time has been spent in the past. Take a look back on the last few weeks as an example.
Which activities took the largest amounts of time? Which tasks always seem to be the hardest to complete with the amount of time you have? It may be helpful to write this information down so you can view it visually.
Re-Organize Your Priorities
This step can be a tough one, but it can drastically optimize your schedule with even the smallest of tweaks.
If you love taking your time in the morning to enjoy breakfast with the kids, maybe consider adjusting your schedule to make their lunches for the day the night before while you cook dinner. Or if you’d rather spend the whole weekend together focused on quality time as a family, spread out errand-running time throughout the week on lunch breaks or on your way home from work.
Plan Ahead
Sometimes saving time is less about “not having enough time” and more about planning in advance.
Try having a large white board calendar at home hanging in a centralized location, such as the kitchen or hallway. Fill out activities, events and to-dos for the entire month so you know when something is coming up or needs to get done.
Prefer something digital you can take with you everywhere? Consider using a Google calendar (which you can even share with a friend, family member, partner or spouse!) so you can add items and events to the calendar on-the-go.
Get Organized
Set aside an afternoon or a day to organize areas of your home that consistently seem to be the messiest. A disorganized home can often cause you to take up extra time looking for specific items, papers, etc.
Invest in a handful of containers, bins or shelf boxes to use as a way of sorting these things so that it will be easier to find them later. You might also try labeling each one so it’s easier to search through without having to open each one, such as one for pencils/pens/scissors, another one for important documents, and a third for small toys that would otherwise be spread out all over the floor.
Hire a Cleaning & Concierge Company
Save time by contacting a cleaning company or concierge service to tackle your least favorite tasks!
Little Bit Cleaning is a leading provider of cleaning and concierge services in Denver, Colorado. Let us help you with regular cleanings, after-party cleanup, move in or out cleaning jobs, deep cleans and more! Reach out to us online to get a free in-home estimate, or give us a call at 720-515-0129.
