Practical tips for reclaiming your time to better serve your family
It is easy to be swept up in caring for others but you can serve your family without losing yourself. Families are busy and the demands on parents are constant. Sometimes the needs of others seem to steal the hours away from us. It doesn’t have to be that way. Do you need to reclaim your time and better serve your family? Here are 5 tips for practical family life that lead to simple and efficient changes. You can reclaim your time and better service your family without losing yourself.
- Be organized. Think of organization on a continuum. As a parent, you must have the flexibility to respond to others needs. At the same time, you frequently have small batches of time you can utilize if you are organized. For example, can you sort the mail daily and respond without it piling up? This only worked for me when I set aside stamps, envelopes, pens, return labels, and my checkbook in a box together. Otherwise, I spent too much time each day looking for a pen.
- Don’t distract yourself. It is easy to distract ourselves with screens whenever we can. When you finally have a minute to pause, take that minute to breathe and think, not just click and scroll. Contrary to our beliefs, we are NOT more effective when we multitask.
- Prioritize. Decide each week what is essential versus ideal – then protect the essential and strive to incorporate the ideal. If it is essential that you pray for 5 minutes in the morning, protect that time. If it is essential that you hit the grocery store Monday morning or attend an important meeting then make it happen. If you want to have coffee with a friend, schedule it, and build the rest of your time around that appointment. If you have to cancel, be sure to reschedule right away. Thinking wistfully about doing something won’t get you there. Take the small steps to make the important things happen.
- Use your quiet time carefully. Separate your tasks into things you can do with others around (fold laundry, wash dishes), and things you need quiet time to do (read, pray, respond to calls or emails). Use your quiet time for the things that you do better or more efficiently when you are not distracted. Using your quiet time carefully facilitates being more present to your family when they want attention.
- Work towards a simple routine. This helps your family anticipate when you are and are not available. My family knows I am awake before 6, but I am not responsive until closer to 645. They know I do my weekly planning on Sunday. They know I am usually in the kitchen from 5-630 each night looking for company and conversation. Even young children can learn the best time to come to you for snuggles or reading time or conversation based on your schedule, not their impulses.
We all have just 24 hours in a day and we all have a responsibility to be better stewards of the time we are given.
Being at home with the family can be personally taxing as the demands seem constant. With intentionality and purpose though you can still serve with love and devotion, maintain some semblance of self, and grow through your vocation. Reclaim your time and you too can serve your family without losing yourself.
“We must take all the care that God wishes to take about perfecting ourselves,
and yet leave the care of arriving at perfection entirely to God”. – St. Francis de Sales
Thanks for stopping by!
Want to delve a little deeper into parenting theory? Click to read about Discernment and Decision-making in Family Life.
This post first appeared at my old blog Parenting with Peer Review.