Do you feel like you’re running from one thing to the next? You’re not alone. These days, there are so many activities for us to do. Whether it’s running errands, or bringing the kids to sports, it seems like we are always going someplace.
How do you know if you’re overscheduled?
It’s time to assess your schedule, to see where you’re spending your time. Use our time charts to fill out your schedule for the week.
Once you’ve entered your schedule, take a look to assess how you are spending your time. Are you spending your days the way you want to spend them? Do you have enough time to do everything? Is there time for fun activities? Do you have any free time? If not, consider using a blank schedule to make some changes to your weekly schedule.
Are children’s activities taking up too much time?
We limit our kids to one sport per season. However, sometimes the sports overlap. They are also involved in other activities such as Cub Scouts and Sunday School, which tend to have additional gatherings beyond the weekly meetings. Here are some of the things that made me realize we might be overscheduled:
- There is an activity scheduled for every weeknight.
- One activity was rained out, and we had two others to select from.
- We tried to set up a playdate with friends after school, and the first opening was in 3 weeks.
The solution?
Going forward, try to be selective about your activities. For example, we are opting not to sign up for basketball, since it will be held on Saturdays, the same day as our swim meets.
If you feel like there is something you just can’t fit in, treat it like an event. Since it’s so difficult to schedule playdates, we plan to set aside Fridays after school as days when we get together with friends. If we can fit another one in during the week, then that’s terrific. But at least we know that every Friday we can get together with friends.
Setting Priorities
An important part of managing your time is to determine your priorities. We opt to do this on a weekly basis. So once a week, usually over the weekend, we look at the upcoming week and write down our top 10 priorities for the week. You can print our Priorities Chart below:
We look at the priorities list each night and check off the completed items. It also helps us to plan for the upcoming days so that everything gets doing.
Happy planning!
Do you need more time management ideas? Check out the following articles:
It’s Last Day of the Month: Wrap It Up