If you haven’t already, sit down and make a schedule.  Do you feel like you’re always behind or can’t keep track of your schedule, your partners, and the kids?  Even the pets?  I always thought that as my boys got older it would be easier and that’s true in some ways, but life is just as hectic if not more.  Now with two teenagers and a toddler I realize that is far from true.

Children thrive in an environment that has structure and it turns out adults do too!  If you plan ahead and give yourself some flexibility it just makes the rest of your life easier and there’s so many free tools are your fingertips that there’s no excuse not to manage your day to day.  You just have to get started.

Scheduling Tools

I use Google Calendar as a means to schedule reoccurring duties and events.  If I have a doctors appointment for the kids I can just add it right to my calendar and you can set it to give you alerts and notifications as well.  There’s plenty of other calendar apps out there as well.  The internet is full of other editorial options you can use as well.  Examples of what I post in there is:

• Weekly Grocery Shopping
• Commuting Times
• Work Projects and Daily Duties
• Dragon’s Events
• Appointments
• My Fitness Schedule
• Times To Prep Dinner (and weekly meal prep)
• Laundry and other duties that I do on a weekly basis

I don’t always consult it for every detail because so much has become habit, but when I’m adding a new project or planning to meet a friend for lunch this is my go-to to check my availability.

The second app I use is Trello and you can also download the free version of this one.  This is where I get specific about not only my day to day duties, but it breaks down my long term plans and goals.  I have tabs broken into daily, weekly, and long term goals/projects.  From there I can make lists, post notes, make edits and keep track of my daily to-do’s while glancing at long term plans.

Because of this schedule I find I have a lot more free time, BUT I also am far more productive.  It’s a rare occasion that I’m running behind or can’t switch around an unforeseen event.  I also block out a little “too much” time for activities in order to give myself wiggle room.

So write down your reoccurring events, your daily to-do’s and add in mundane activities we forget about like the laundry.  Then set up a schedule that is manageable and you’ll be ready to go.  You’ll have to stay focused and fervent at first, but after awhile it will run like a well oiled machine and your life will feel so much more relaxed!