How annoying can it be when you sleep late because you’re busy planning ahead, you wake earlier so as to get set sooner, only to be hastily ready at the eleventh hour? Your husband says you’re never prompt, your boss gives you that ‘you again?’ eyeing and your friends are used to your extra hour of delay.
You blame me? I’m a mom of two teenagers, a toddler and a preschooler!
If you can relate to this daily time-is-not-enough syndrome, let’s gather to have a…selfie?…no! a mom to mom ideas on better time management.
Early to bed, early to rise
Better mornings are often preceded by orderly nights. If we must wake with a renewed vigor and energy, we must sleep early and encourage the children to do same. If sleeping early would mean missing the latest celebrity gist trending, or jilting our favorite tv shows, we wouldn’t mind because a better organized morning awaits us. We sure can do this! Can’t we?
Bathroom revolution
Since we embarked on our bathroom revolution, our mornings became quite orderly. We have enough time to clear our breakfast trays and the school driver needed no horns as the children were already outside waiting. Think you can use this hint?
Well, all you need do is skip the morning bath routine. Yes! I mean bath the kids the night before and get them tucked in their pajamas. If you’re someone like me who baths the children once a day, you will be reaping the same benefits as those who baths morning and night (wink wink!). A quicker, better and cleaner sleep plus a morning saved from the familiar bathroom scandals. All that the morning requires is brushing and refreshing. Yipeee!
Keep tasks minimum and achievable
Don’t begin your day thinking every deed has to be done. Set minimal and achievable tasks as your time, efforts and schedule can allow. You’re in no race with anybody neither will your overzealousness mean there will be no more work left. You want to work productively not continually.
Prioritize
Setting priorities is key to achieving the desired goals without having to be timed out. If there’s a client to hook up with and some laundry to do, weigh your choices and consequences rather than try to squeeze in a time that would slip bye.
Don’t follow the crowd
We wish we realized this earlier and those precious moments spent on stereotypical tasks would have been put into judicious use. As FTMs, we were told laundries were meant to be a daily ritual, babies’ clothes needed to be changed every now and then and bla bla bla. Eventually, we would tire out our body after a whole day of doing nothing but ‘baby caring’.
Now we know how not to be engrossed in a single task at the expense of others.
Being the host that we are
Most of us can relate to that situation when we’re set to begin a crucial chore and then our gist partner stops by for ‘update’. Do we leave the job undone or tell the August visitor to check back another time? I say we do both. After all hands is to work as ears is to hearing.
Most of our time are mismanaged entertaining visitors. A visiting relative should not necessarily mean a disrupted plan. Because we are the host, we take care of the visitor without letting our time waste away. An understanding friend would rather keep your company as you go about your business than leave hastily. Abi na?
Shopping wisely
It may amaze us that making the right choice as we go about our buying goes a long way in saving time and making life easier. Consider the time and efforts saved if your 3 years old has to wear his canvass and tie the laces with the time he would take to fit his feet into a pair of loafers. The world is in a hurry, that’s why almost every item has a simpler version.
Set time limits
A greater part of our goals would be realized if we learn to set time limits for different tasks rather than aim at completing them. The zeal to complete a task compels us to continue doing it, often taking extra time, since our aim is the completion. But when a time limit is fixed for a task, we are more likely to fit in the task within the time frame no matter how time consuming it is.
Be conscious of time
Though we seem to have all the time in the world to ourselves, it may never be sufficient if we don’t treat each passing second as a lost treasure. We will make it a duty to be conversant with the calendar, know the dates of each day and the stride of each hour. By so doing, we would realize how much time is put into productivity.
Don’t be more super than human
That mothers have the ability to combine and execute tasks at a time does not mean they have many hands. They’re not superhuman. We should learn to delegate duties and accept help from others. We would be saving up some time and energy.
