Time Management for 2015

Home management involves a lot of things, not the least of which is time management. Now that my precious kids are all in school, I find that my need for organization and time management is at an all-time high. It's true that I do have more free time in the sense that I don't have anyone at home demanding my attention from 8am to 3pm. However, I have a lot of things on my to-do list that still will not get done if I'm not organized about it. Time is so very easily wasted. {And we can't always blame it on the kids.} I am learning that having a list to follow everyday of the things I need to accomplish is the best way for me to get it all done. I love checking things off of a list. There's a big sense of accomplishment from that. The older I get the more I need a list to follow because I cannot do it all from memory.
Do this little exercise in time management to see if you are using your valuable time wisely.

• Journal your day starting from when you wake up until you go to bed.
• Write down what you did that day in 15 minute increments. You may want to stop every hour for a second to write it down otherwise you may forget. We do SO MUCH everyday!
• At the end of the day, look over it and analyze how your time was spent.
• Did you find you had several sections of time that were not productive? I know that I do have some that I could be using to do those small things on my list. I'll give you some ideas below.
• Do you have too much on your to do list? It's possible you need to rethink your list and determine what things you need to remove or move to another day/time.

Now, if you have slots of time that are not productive, here are some things you can do in small amounts of time:

• Clean out a drawer.
• Fold a basket of clothes.
• Distribute clothes to a room.
• Wash windows in one room.
• Dust one room.
• Vacuum one room.
• Sweep the porch.
• Clean a half bath.
• Refill paper products - toilet paper, napkins, paper towels.
• Clean mirrors.
• Hang up clothes.
• Write a thank you note.
• Send a card or email or text to someone you need to connect with.
• Write a grocery list
• Pick up everything in one room that doesn't belong and put it away.
• Throw in a load of laundry.
• Switch clothes to dryer.
• Wipe down counters
• Wipe down kitchen sink.
• Clean out refrigerator.
• Empty dishwasher
• Load dishwasher
• ETC.

During this time, you can also make a phone call to return a call, make an appt., pay a bill, etc.

The goal is to multitask when you can and use every slot of time in the best possible way. Schedule some down time if you need it, by all means, but make sure you're not just wasting time when there are a million things to be done.

If there are things on your list that never get done, ask yourself:

• Is this item absolutely necessary?
• Does it benefit my family or cause me to neglect my family?
• Is doing this item causing frustration in me or in my family members? {Maybe from lack of planning, feeling rushed, doing too much...}

Sometimes we place unneeded stress on ourselves by taking on too many committments. I mean, school is demanding, family obligations can be demanding, ministry can be very demanding, sports, etc. We don't have to do it all or be involved in everything that is available to us. In fact, it's impossible to do it all and maintain a balanced family life. Sometimes, we just have to say no. Sometimes, we can say 'later' and even fewer times we can readily commit where the whole family benefits and doesn't suffer. You just have to take these things one at a time as they come because some seasons of life are busier than others and one month we may feel like taking on the world, but the next month be completely maxed out. Balance is the key. Life is a balancing act.

• Determine your priorities ahead of time. {Family, Church, Work, School, etc.}
• What are you willing to sacrifice and not sacrifice from time to time?
• What kind of demands fall into each of those categories?

Plan ahead and when opportunities/demands present themselves, you will already have a plan in place to determine whether or not you should commit.

How do you manage your time? Do you use a daily to-do list? Do you plan each item for a specific time? Or does it work for you to just fly by the seat of your pants? I'd love to hear your tips!

Here are some great day planners for 2015 you can get for a good deal!

The Inner Guide 2015 Planner - 5 Star Reviews! From Amazon...

• OTHER PLANNERS HELP YOU PLAN YOUR DAY; WE HELP YOU PLAN YOUR LIFE!
• 8"x9" light-weight and convenient carrying size, 204 pages
• 2-page spread per week for appointments including a structure for developing awareness, accountability and reflection
• 2-page spread BEFORE each month to help you plan ahead and a 2-page spread AFTER each month to help you assess the quality of your month. Plus, a BONUS 2-page Mid-Year section
• Unique goal-setting chart featuring nine important areas of life to help you brainstorm your yearly and monthly goals

At a Glance Monthly Planner 2015 - Perfect for looking at your whole month. I like to use monthly planners for doing bills, keeping track of family appointments, events, etc.

2015 Mom Do-it-All Weekly Planner - Great reviews and perfect for all the busy moms running from this place to that with a van full of kids or teens.

This is part of my 31 Days of Home Economics series. You can find the full list at the tab above {Home Economics}.

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The Well-Managed Home: The Kitchen

You're reading Day 16 of my 31 Days of Home Economics series! I've touched on a few topics already and currently we're on the topic of a well-managed home. The past two days we talked about time management in general and then started on some of the busiest and/or messiest rooms of the house - The Laundry Room and now the Kitchen. I hope that by going through some of the rooms in our house we can learn better ways to manage our homes and find helpful tips along the way. I hope you'll join in the comments and share your tips with us, too!
The Kitchen
Is this the busiest place in your house? It's pretty much Grand Central in my house. Everything gets dumped in the kitchen for some reason. It also has the most traffic of any room in the house and has to be cleaned more often than any other room in the house. I guess you could say it's high maintenance. I have organized and reorganized my kitchen many times over and I am starting to feel the urge to do it again.
Here's my thought process for my kitchen organization. I'm sure this is one area we are all very different and could benefit from each other's ideas.

• Have a place for all the 'stuff' the family brings in and dumps. I don't have a mudroom in my house so I've had to improvise. Several years ago, I found a great idea of a shelf being hung at counter height in an entry and I saved it in my idea file. Then, about 7 years later, we moved into our current house and I found the perfect place for it. Only the idea evolved to meet even more of a need.

We found this entry shelf at an outlet on clearance. It is clearly suppose to be hung in an entry about head height, but we decided to hang it at counter height. This gave us an extra counter space + baskets to hold all the 'stuff' we bring in and dump in the kitchen + hooks for hanging backpacks, purses, small jackets, etc. It works so well for us on a wall in our kitchen. I think it's my favorite DIY in the kitchen.

You can read about my chalkboard here. Another favorite in my kitchen.

• Think through your kitchen layout and see if you're wasting steps. Are your coffee mugs near your coffee & coffee maker, as well as, all the supplies for your coffee? {filters, sugar, coffee, grinder} What about pots/pans? Are they close to your stove/oven? Where do you stand to do your mixing and food prep? Are your utensils and cutting boards in that area?
• If not, then, you might consider reorganizing your kitchen so that it saves you steps. You don't need to be running circles around the kitchen while preparing meals, etc. That's a waste of energy and a waste of time. Keep like things together. I can think of a couple things in my kitchen right now that need to be moved. {My husband will be so confused again!} There is always room for improvement no matter how many times you've rearranged.

{excuse the Christmas decorations - I took this pic last year!}

This is our butler's pantry that my husband built for us so that we could have a little more counter space. This butler's pantry houses the coffee maker, electric kettle, mugs, tea bags, coffee & all the necessary items to make hot drinks. The upper section displays pieces we don't use every day. It's good storage, but also a nice way to display and dress up the area.
A few more tips:

• Keep the plastic containers for leftovers near the area you're going to load them up. Mine are in two drawers next to my refrigerator.
• Keep mixing bowls/baking pans/pie plates/measuring cups in the same general area.
• Utensils used most often while cooking on the stovetop should be kept right beside the stove in the top drawer. Also, keep hot mitts near this area.
• My refrigerator has the water/ice in the door, so I keep all glasses and cups in the cabinet next to the fridge. One step further - keep kid friendly cups on the first shelf so that the kids can get their own cup without knocking down glass ones in the process.
• Dinner plates/bowls/salad plates are all kept in the cabinet above my dishwasher. I like this because it's quick and easy to put them away when unloading the dishwasher. I don't have to move from my spot in order to put those away.

Do you organize your kitchen in this way? What time-saving and step-saving tips can you give us? I'm always looking to improve on this area. In fact, now I can't wait to get busy reorganizing my kitchen!

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The Well Managed Home: Time Management

Home management involves a lot of things, not the least of which is time management. Now that my precious kids are all in school, I find that my need for organization and time management is at an all-time high. It's true that I do have more free time in the sense that I don't have anyone at home demanding my attention from 8am to 3pm. However, I have a lot of things on my to-do list that still will not get done if I'm not organized about it. Time is so very easily wasted. {And we can't always blame it on the kids.} I am learning that having a list to follow everyday of the things I need to accomplish is the best way for me to get it all done. I love checking things off of a list. There's a big sense of accomplishment from that. The older I get the more I need a list to follow because I cannot do it all from memory.
Do this little exercise in time management to see if you are using your valuable time wisely.

• Journal your day starting from when you wake up until you go to bed.
• Write down what you did that day in 15 minute increments. You may want to stop every hour for a second to write it down otherwise you may forget. We do SO MUCH everyday!
• At the end of the day, look over it and analyze how your time was spent.
• Did you find you had several sections of time that were not productive? I know that I do have some that I could be using to do those small things on my list. I'll give you some ideas below.
• Do you have too much on your to do list? It's possible you need to rethink your list and determine what things you need to remove or move to another day/time.

Now, if you have slots of time that are not productive, here are some things you can do in small amounts of time:

• Clean out a drawer.
• Fold a basket of clothes.
• Distribute clothes to a room.
• Wash windows in one room.
• Dust one room.
• Vacuum one room.
• Sweep the porch.
• Clean a half bath.
• Refill paper products - toilet paper, napkins, paper towels.
• Clean mirrors.
• Hang up clothes.
• Write a thank you note.
• Send a card or email or text to someone you need to connect with.
• Write a grocery list
• Pick up everything in one room that doesn't belong and put it away.
• Throw in a load of laundry.
• Switch clothes to dryer.
• Wipe down counters
• Wipe down kitchen sink.
• Clean out refrigerator.
• Empty dishwasher
• Load dishwasher
• ETC.

During this time, you can also make a phone call to return a call, make an appt., pay a bill, etc.

The goal is to multitask when you can and use every slot of time in the best possible way. Schedule some down time if you need it, by all means, but make sure you're not just wasting time when there are a million things to be done.

If there are things on your list that never get done, ask yourself:

• Is this item absolutely necessary?
• Does it benefit my family or cause me to neglect my family?
• Is doing this item causing frustration in me or in my family members? {Maybe from lack of planning, feeling rushed, doing too much...}

Sometimes we place unneeded stress on ourselves by taking on too many committments. I mean, school is demanding, family obligations can be demanding, ministry can be very demanding, sports, etc. We don't have to do it all or be involved in everything that is available to us. In fact, it's impossible to do it all and maintain a balanced family life. Sometimes, we just have to say no. Sometimes, we can say 'later' and even fewer times we can readily commit where the whole family benefits and doesn't suffer. You just have to take these things one at a time as they come because some seasons of life are busier than others and one month we may feel like taking on the world, but the next month be completely maxed out. Balance is the key. Life is a balancing act.

• Determine your priorities ahead of time. {Family, Church, Work, School, etc.}
• What are you willing to sacrifice and not sacrifice from time to time?
• What kind of demands fall into each of those categories?

Plan ahead and when opportunities/demands present themselves, you will already have a plan in place to determine whether or not you should commit.

How do you manage your time? Do you use a daily to-do list? Do you plan each item for a specific time? Or does it work for you to just fly by the seat of your pants? I'd love to hear your tips!

Here are some great day planners you can get for a good deal!
Plan Ahead Mom's 18 Months Planner, July 2013 - December 2014, Assorted Designs, Design May Vary, 1 Planner (85097)

Personal Organizer Notepad Jotter Planner w File Divider Cell Phone Pocket and Calculator

Plan Ahead Medium Home/Office 18 Months Planner, July 2013 - December 2014, Assorted Colors, Color May Vary, 1 Planner (85095)

This is part of my 31 Days of Home Economics series. You can find the full list at the tab above {Home Economics}.

Like this post? Will you please share it with your friends on your social media? You can also follow me on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter. Click the social media icon of your choice in the right sidebar.

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The 5 Minute Pick Up

The hardest places in my house to keep clean are my kids' bedrooms. That's where they play, get dressed, sleep, rest, etc. We have no playroom or other play area in the house so their rooms are where all the action happens - and where the piles and clutter grow rapidly. So, when they hear the words, "Go clean your room." they feel slightly overwhelmed. {I know the feeling.} Looking at the big picture, it seems impossible, but I started implementing a technique I personally use often and there has been much less drama and a lot more confidence in their own cleaning skills around here.

If you map out your day from the time you wake until the time you go to bed, you'll see that you do have periods of time {maybe even just minutes} where you're just wandering or sitting idle or waiting or doing nothing. Wasted time. I try to be conscious of those times and get short chores done. For instance, while the kids are brushing their teeth at night, I'll throw in a load of laundry to wash {otherwise I'd just be sitting and waiting on them}. Then, in the morning after my shower I'll go throw those clothes in the dryer real quick before I head downstairs to pack lunchboxes. Both chores took just a few minutes and saved me time. I didn't have to wait for the clothes to wash because I was well on my way to dreamland. In the morning, I didn't have to wait for them to dry because I put them in the dryer just before a busy time for me. By the time I'm ready to fold clothes, they will be dry.

{photo source}

Throughout the day, I take 15 minutes and go through one room and pick up anything out of place, hang up clothes, dust or whatever needs to be done. The time frame of 15 minutes is a challenge to me to get as much done as possible in that time frame. And believe it or not, you can get a lot done in 15 minutes!! I do this same thing when I get a phone call from my mom or sister. Otherwise, I'd just be sitting there talking when my hands could be working. It's really quite effective.
So, I decided to teach this to my kids. Since they are mainly responsible for their own rooms, I give them 5 minutes on the timer and have them run through their rooms picking up toys, putting clothes in the laudry, hanging up clean clothes, etc. They typically come out with a sense of accomplishment and pride in how their room now looks. This can be expanded as they get older, but for now 5 minutes at a time is a good fit for us. So, next time they say, "I'm bored!" they'll be sent to their rooms with the timer.
What 'tricks' do you use to get your kids cleaning?

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