How to Organize Your Schedule as a Parent

Remember those days when you were single, had a full time job and barely had any time left for leisure? Fast forward a few years, here you are with the same full time job, two kids and a hundred house chores to take care of. And used to think you have no time. The current you would probably give anything to have your single life’s routine! Not only do you have to organize your own busy schedule now but also that of your kid’s. Fret not because urSTORE has come up with a few simple tricks to help you have a productive and less chaotic week as a parent.

1. Use an app.
Technology will come to your rescue when it comes to organizing your schedule and help you make the most of your time with the kids around. You can use native calendar apps on your mobile phone or download a free or paid alternative. Such apps allow you to even share your calendar with your spouse and loved ones. You can also merge your work calendar to ensure you are on top of your workload.

2. Get your spouse involved.
To ease the burden, it’s best to encourage your spouse early on to take take responsibilities for everything related to child care. If you think he or she can’t be trusted with a certain task, (s)he will not get a chance to improve on it. You’ll thank yourself for taking the leap of faith for letting your spouse what they’re not otherwise comfortable with because it’s true when they say that practice makes perfect.

3. Start your day right.
Mornings determine how the rest of your day will go so starting the day on the right foot is the key to a productive and stress-free day. Let’s start with the morning don’ts: don’t go to bed late, don’t watch TV in the morning and most importantly, don’t skip breakfast. With the right nutrition, you’ll have the energy to pull off an eight-hour work shift before working your second job as a parent until bedtime.

4. Create a routine.
Create a routine that involves your spouse and kids and break it into tasks that you already do every day and tasks you’d like to add to improve your family’s overall quality of life. Some new things to do with your family members are short meditation and yoga sessions. Expressing words of gratitude before meals and communicating loving words towards one another can help create a warm atmosphere in the house. These may seem mundane activities but the impact it creates on your family’s mental health will be invaluable.

5. Reward yourself for sticking to the schedule.
Each time you stick to the schedule and get tasks done, reward yourself right away. By using positive reinforcement, you will train your brain to look forward to completing your list of taks because it will associate the reward with those particular activities.

6. Don’t follow your schedule to a T.
This may sound contradictory to everything I’ve said before but the point is that schedules are supposed to make your life easier. If you let your schedule dictate your life and create more stress than ease, then you’re better off without one. As a parent, you get to bend some rules to deal with unexpected circumstances you find yourself and your kids in. As always, in life quality matters over quantity so be realistic with can be achieved and don’t forget to be kind to yourself no matter what.