Time Management Training for Parents Decreases Stress

No doubt about it, parenting is stressful. Children are 100 percent dependent upon us not to mess them up for life. At least not mess them up enough to need years of therapy. Something as simple as proper time management (or any time management for that matter) will assist you with decreasing your stress and your children's stress too. If you think of any business that works well, it works because certain tasks are done on certain days and at certain times. It is no different when it comes to managing a family!

It might sound like managing time is not very spontaneous and exciting or that it is too hard to manage your time and family. However, by creating a family routine and ground rules you'll actually be able to be more spontaneous and less stressed because you are not allowing time wasters and distractions impact your time together as a family. If you try these time management techniques for thirty days, you'll be surprised at how much less stress you have in your life.

Everything has a home -- Create an orderly environment by creating a place for every item in your house. Make it a rule that when anyone (including mom and dad) is done with an item it is put back in its home. This will decrease the stress of losing important papers and avoid time wasters like spending 20 minutes in the morning looking for shoes and keys. Having an organized household will reduce the time it takes to clean up when you have company, and it will take less time on deep cleaning days that may be scheduled for the weekend, leaving more fun time.

Create human time -- Limit "screen time" to no more than an hour or two a day, including time spent on non-homework or work items on the computer. Nobody really needs to spend six hours playing video games or sitting in front of the television set. Most gaming on the computer is a waste of time, but of course, adults and children still do it. Rather than ban all such activities, perhaps find a game that everyone can play that is more family friendly and creates a fun way to spend a family “game night.”

Segment work time -- For adults, leave work at work, or if you work from home leave work during work time. Homework for a child is a different story. Most teachers would be surprised to find out that any child is spending more than an hour or two a night doing all their homework, so if your child is spending an enormous amount of time on homework, ask their teachers if this is a normal expectation for the school. It could be the child is struggling and needs extra help, or they may be wasting time. Set up a special homework spot and monitor your child for time wasting behaviors like daydreaming or focusing too long on unimportant tasks.

Focus activities -- Limit extracurricular activities to one activity per day for every child and adult. For a four-person household, this is four extracurricular activities and already quite a large plate of fun. Over scheduling children has not proven to assist in their development or improve grades. Instead, it is responsible for stressing out overburdened children who have no free time and no joy in life. Children need some unstructured play time to allow their creativity and imagination to flourish.

These four time management techniques only touch the surface of ways to eliminate time wasters, reduce stress, and manage your household so that parenting becomes a joyful and nurturing experience for both you and your children. Decreasing stress and upping your joy quotient will rub off on your children too. Also, the value of modeling organized living will carry through to your children's adulthood and give your grandchildren the best start in life.