Time Management Tips for Stay-at-Home Mums
How a Full-time Mother Can Make the Best of her Day
Aug 19, 2009
While it’s true that stay-at-home mums have more flexible time, they don’t often have more time than their working sisters. In fact, many have busier schedules than working mums. That’s why a full-time mother needs to make the best of her day, everyday.
Here are some time management tips that stay-at-home mums may find useful.
Plan and Organize Chores and Activities ahead
Those who meticulously plan and organize everything ahead certainly know how to save time. Virtually everything can be planned. Some mums find planning weekly menus, designating each day in the week for certain tasks, organizing children’s activities, buying holiday gifts and booking family holidays ahead extremely useful.
Planning and organizing chores and activities are easy. A pen and notebook are often enough. But mums can also use other time management tools such as whiteboards, school diaries with holidays clearly marked, electronic organizers, stickers and markers.
Set up a Family Routine
Again, this involves some sort of planning but it should be carried out on a daily or regular basis. Set up a family routine in the morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night. For instance, a mum’s morning routine may involve driving older kids to school and having morning snacks and playtime with a younger child. In the afternoon, the little one naps before Mum has to take her along to pick up the older kids from school. In the afternoon, it’s time for homework and after school activities. This will be followed by dinner plans and bedtime routines. Family routines also offer another advantage – they help young children feel settled and more secure.
Avoid Procrastinating
As tempting as it is to leave something until later, this approach rarely works. To save time, deal with chores that have already been planned or little domestic emergencies like milk stains on the carpet right away. Avoid leaving things half done. It’s more time efficient to complete a chore from the start than doing something halfway and trying to complete it later on.
Reduce Household Chores
Doing household chores is a big part of being a stay-at-home parent. But she doesn’t have to let the chores rule her. Instead, to manage time better, mums should reduce household chores as much as possible. Simplifying meals (most kids don’t need gourmet meals), doing laundry less regularly (some clothes can be worn a few times before being washed), reducing the number of times the carpet is vacuumed and getting the spouse and kids to help out will save mums a lot of time.
Time management skills are important for stay-at-home mums to get everything running smoothly. To make the most of their day, these mums should plan and organize chores ahead, establish a family routine, avoid procrastinating and reduce household chores.
Found this article useful? Read also Get Organized at Home, Becoming a Time Efficient Stay-at-home Mum and Organizing Time Effectively for Full-time Mums.
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