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managing your time is a skill
When I was younger there always seemed to be enough time for everything I wanted to do. Managing my
time was never even a thought in my mind. Fast forward a few years, a marriage and two kids later and
where did all that time go?
If you’re like me, it seems like the perfect solution
to this would be to add more hours to the day. In
a perfect world this would be great. This would
mean more time to fit in all of the need-to-do’s as
well as the things you really want to do. But the
truth is, not many of us can actually juggle it all
without completely falling apart by the end of the
day. The solution is finding your own way to
balance it all.
When my kids were babies, I always felt compelled
to have everything perfect. I was a stay-at home-
Mom after all. Didn’t that mean the house should
be spotless, kids bathed and dinner on the table?
In my mind, perfect was what needed to be
achieved every day. Of course, with two young
children, this rarely every happed.
I spent most of my time changing diapers, feeding kids and trying to find new ways to keep them occupied just so I could
take a shower. Getting out the door to run an errand was an adventure in itself and I was completely stressed if we
weren’t back in time for naps and feedings. I was so worried that if I didn’t stick to a daily routine, my kids would be a
complete disaster. At the end of the day, all of this left me feeling inadequate and exhausted.
I often asked myself why I couldn’t manage everything like other stay-home-Moms. Why was I always waiting for my husband to come home and rescue me from the craziness? I never knew that most stay-at-home-Moms had the same daily struggles. As the children got older, I started to realize that life did not have to be as “perfect” as I expected it to be. In fact, “perfect” wasn’t even something that anyone else expected of me. It was what I expected of myself.
"perfect" does not have to happen every day
Fast forward a few years and my children are now in school and I still struggle with what I see as
“perfect”. I’ve learned that letting go of things that are not a priority of the day does not make me a
horrible person. It makes me a less stressed person to know that those things will get done tomorrow.
I’ve also learned that time management is one of the most important skills you can have. By organizing
your time, you will become more productive and procrastinate less. By creating a plan that I can stick to,
I am able to get the need-to-dos done and make time for something I really enjoy doing. Click here to
find out how to increase your productivity as a stay-at-home-Mom and find out How I stopped Wasting Time.
One tip I found helpful is to make a list (I know it’s another list!) of how much time it takes you to
complete daily tasks. This will help you see what things you spend the most time on. Then you can
decide what things are really important and what might just be wasting your time.
Let’s face it, when it comes to managing your time, you have to be realistic. As a stay-at-home Mom it is
easy to be overwhelmed with tons of things on your daily to-do list. In my mind I used to feel like a
failure if I didn’t have all of those things accomplished by the time my husband came home. After all, he
was at work and I wasn’t. What I finally realized is that life happens and I don’t need to accomplish
hundreds of things in one day to have the life I want.
