How to Parent: 3 Great Time-Management Tools for Parents

I have found that parenting has a lot to do with how well you manage time. Time-management techniques that work are at a premium, especially when they help with the small everyday task that we are engaged in as parents, employees and spouse.

Here are three time management techniques that have made a big impact on my ability to parent:

Coordinating the Weeks Meals
The first one deals with the task of lunches and dinners. We seem to handle breakfast with ease, but with lunch and dinner it is a different matter. So we take time on Sunday to plan the meals and what we need to purchase at the grocery store. We then decide who has the time to go to the grocery and when so they can accept responsibility for that chore.

Lunch is a matter of packing them in the morning when we are not exactly up on our game so the schedule takes all the thinking out of it and helps us to get through that morning chore quickly.

My wife doesn't get home until about 7:30pm so I am usually the one who fixes dinner. It sure is nice to know we have the ingredients and all I have to do is check the list.

It really is a nice time saver as well as relieves some stress about who is fixing dinner and who can drop by the store.

Coordinating Sport Activities
Second idea that works well is a baseball schedule. I am a coach for my son's team and they have a fall and spring season. So I have to be up on this schedule so I can coordinate with dinners on nights we have practice or games.

First thing I do when I get the schedule is put it on the family calendar. Who we play, what field, what time and are we visitors or home. All of this is important information for a head coach and parent.

When we sit down on Sunday night to do the dinner and lunch schedule I always have the family calendar in front of me to help coordinate dinners on those nights.

Keeping Up with the Grocery List
The third time management technique we employ is a grocery list. We have a grocery list on our refrigerator and when anyone is in the kitchen and we run out of something we are all held accountable for putting it on the list. This way on Sunday when we plan meals we can add to the list so we are only going once a week to the grocery store. Saves a lot in gas and aggravation.

The great thing about these three techniques is how connected they are, but yet enables us to save money. I know this probably seems very intuitive, but until you design a system that works you will continue to spin your wheels and add stress to your life.

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