Some days it seems like you wake up and are already immediately running out the door, continue running until you pass out at night, just to wake up in the morning and do it all over again. It’s a common saying, but sometimes it really does feel like there just are not enough hours in the day to do all the things that we need to accomplish, not to mention the things we enjoy doing. Between work, child care management, and personal obligations it might seem that you are spread super thin. What you may not realize is that many of your every day habits might actually be costing you time. It’s hard to look at our personal time management systems objectively, but it might be time to take a step back and ask, “am I using my hours effectively.”
How to Maximize Your Childcare Efficiency
If you are a working parent than your child is probably in some type of daycare or after school program. According to studies 32.7 million children are currently in some type of childcare arrangement. While these arrangements help working families they can also be sources of stress. Pick ups have to be arranged, lunches have to be packed, and daycare payments have to be given. Luckily many of these processes can be streamlined. In terms of pickups and drop-offs, considering carpooling. By sharing the responsibility of transport with other parents you can maximize your work time or your time at home to accomplish tasks. In regards to lunches, preparing and portioning a large batch of food in the beginning of the week is a good food management system. That way you can just place the prepared food in lunch bags with other treats to mix things up. When it comes to making payments, skip the weekly or monthly check writing and see if your daycare provider accepts auto-payment directly from your bank. This will be one less thing to worry or forget about. Now that your childcare management system is in place it’s time to tackle efficiency in the workplace.
Optimizing Your Time at Work
Sometimes it’s hard to be productive at work, but studies show that by taking short breaks you can actually improve your productivity. This is because your brain can only focus for so long, it needs time to refocus on a task at hand. Another way to maximize productivity is to set daily goals for yourself. Even if you don’t have great deal of oversight in your workplace setting goals is a good way to stay motivated. For example, delaying having lunch until you accomplish a certain task gives you motivation to keep working. It’s important to keep in mind the more efficient that you are, the more extra time you will have.
Optimizing your Private Life
Friends and Family are arguably the most important part of our lives. But sometimes it seems impossible to make time for the needs of everybody in our lives and still get enough time for ourselves. There is a solution for this however, learn the power of saying no. It is important to understand that we all h ave limitations, if things seem like they are piling up, it is ok to say no. In the long run it will be more beneficial than harboring a grudge against a friend or a family member.
Twenty four hours, may not be enough time to fit all the things you need and want into the day, but you an get closer by developing your personal time management systems. There are several resources on the internet that can you tips about ho to be more productive in your every day life.