There are many challenges to being a parent, but because the thing that messes with us the most is the lack of time that we have. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done, and that can make things pretty stressful. If you find yourself continually racing against the blog, then it’s recommended to find ways to save more time as a parent. There are plenty of ways you can do this, as we’ll see below. Once you’ve incorporated them into your lifestyle, you’ll find that your days seem much longer. OK, so you won’t be walking around wondering what to do with all this time on your hands, but it will be easier!
How Can You Save More Time As a Parent?
Forget About Perfection
How much time we all lose, trying to be perfect! It’s like with any job. If you’re trying to make every aspect of the task perfect, then of course you’re not going to have any time — how could you? It’s all about picking your battles. There are some things that you have to take seriously (let’s say, getting the right health insurance for your family), other things, you can leave at an “it’s good enough” level. You’ll only end up wasting time and causing yourself stress, both of which will, ironically, make it even more time to achieve perfect moving forward. So forget it.
Bulk Meals
If you were to take a snapshot of your week and take a look at where all your time is going, then you’d likely find that you spend a significant amount of time researching and making meals. While it’s nice to create a special meal from time to time, in large part, our food is just the fuel that keeps us going. Of course, you do need to serve a meal each night, and it should be good (by that, we mean healthy — and also delicious). So why not look at saving some time by making bulk meals? You can serve them one night, then put them in the freezer, and then serve it again a few nights down the line. It’ll be the simplest thing in the world — you’ll essentially just be heating the food up.
Divide the Chores
You and your partner are a team. While there’ll be times when you want to spend time as a family, there’ll also be times when you divide the roles. For example, one parent handles the responsibility of taking the kids to school. The other makes breakfast. When it comes to dividing the role, it’s best to allocate jobs related to a person’s speciality. For example, if one of you is great at cooking — and enjoys it — then they should be in charge of dinner, while the other should be in charge of breakfast.
Tidy As You Go
You might need to set aside some time each couple of weeks to give your home a “deep clean,” but you can limit the amount of time that this task takes by tidying up as you go. You’ll be amazed at what can be achieved with just five minutes of work. Once you’ve given your home a real tidy, you’ll find that you’re able to keep things relatively spotless just by engaging in small amounts of tidying each day. Also, try to keep tidiness at the forefront of your mind. For example, if you’re going to the kitchen, and you see a cup that’s to go in the dishwasher, then take it with you. Of course, each individual task won’t save you mountains of time, but it’ll save you enough.
Speed Up Common Processes
There are some things that you just have to do as a parent. Get your kids dressed for school, bathe them, make sure they’re ready for bed, things like that. These are the things that you do all the time, so it’s worthwhile looking at ways to streamline and speed up the tasks. If you know how to detangle kids hair, can plan their outfits, and have an efficient and consistent pre-bed routine, then you’ll find that you’re able to enter a flow state and do these things on autopilot. Sometimes, speeding up these things is just a matter of practicing again and again; at others, it’s about reading the best methods for doing them. Some things can seem straightforward and intuitive, but in some cases, there’s a right and wrong way to do them. Make sure you’re doing things the correct way!
Nail the Morning Routine
And talking of doing things on autopilot: make sure that you nail the morning routine. This is the time when time is the most important. You have to get everything done and ready in a limited amount of time. There isn’t much time for mistakes! So look at coming up with a plan. Breakfast should be a straightforward affair, everyone should have a time when they can jump in the shower, and you should begin the journey to school in enough time. Consistency is key. If you do the same thing over and over again, then eventually you’ll have a smooth operation.
Household Responsibilities
Bills to pay? Things to arrange? Do it all online. It’s all so much easier. You’ll find that, providing you’re pretty good at all things tech, then this can be a lot easier than writing checks or talking on the phone. Also, try to set up direct payments wherever possible.
Have a Family Calendar
Spending too much time trying to rally the family, who have forgotten where they need to be and when? Then get a family calendar, either a digital one or a real one. We can lose a lot of time just organizing things, and this will handle that issue.
Toy Room
How much time do you spend going around the home, just picking up your child’s toys and other items? Probably quite a lot. It’s not that this is a task in itself, but that it can disrupt any other momentum that you’re building. And all you’re doing is simply putting stuff back where they belong — not all that important! But of course, it has to be done. You can cut down the time you spend doing this considerably by creating a playroom in your house. That’ll be where your children get up to mischief, and where all their toys will be. There’ll be no need to go around picking up toys, because they’ll always be just where they need to be. This approach will also reduce the amount of cleaning that you need to do, since all the mess that your children create will be confined to one room.
Friend Exchanges
We all know how much easier it is to get some tasks done when your children aren’t around. It’s not a criticism against your child, it’s just a fact — you can focus your attention much better on the task at hand, when you don’t need to keep an eye on your kid. So why not look at trying to create this scenario? There’ll be times when you can ask family members (such as your parents) to babysit your kids, but you might not want to take advantage of their goodwill all that much. One fair arrangement is to have a deal with a friend who also has a child. For a few hours one week, you’ll look after their kid. The following week, they’ll look after yours. This will give you both a break to focus on other things, and you’ll also be building a friendship between your child and theirs, too.