August – Back in the Swing of Things

With August already here, we may find ourselves trying to take one more last minute vacation and then take on our mission get all the family a to begin again a more structured schedule. Here are a few things I suggest to make schedules easier.

Take an hour for each closet in the house and decide what isn’t worn anymore, what doesn’t fit, or what really is still good. Pull the unused or unwanted clothes and donate them to your favorite charity. What now is left in your closet spaces is really used, and appreciated. Also, you are not wasting time looking through clothes that are unwanted and unworn.

Make an area in your house that is the “TO-GO” area. This can be a mudroom or coat closet or coat cubbies that can contain the jackets, the backpacks, and keys for the family members that are going to and from work and school. That is where home is for the things we are going to need in the mornings. Be diligent about putting the things we will “go with” there in the evenings, the mornings will run extremely smooth to be able to walk out the door with your things ready to go.

Make time every day, even if it’s only fifteen minutes, to do paperwork. Sort mail, look at school papers and put filing where it needs to be. You may not have time to correspond to every invitation or set and pay your bills every day, but you will have it gathered and organized to process once you do have an hour or so to get it done.

Get in a routine. It may be that you have gym time, meals, kids schedules, work, social calendars, laundry, that you are trying to get all under control. The best way to manage it all is having a routine. Meals for breakfast, for example, can be simple if you know every Monday is pancakes, Tuesday is fruit and yogurt, Wednesday is oatmeal and toast, Thursday is cereal and Friday is eggs on English muffins. It’s not rocket science to duplicate that every week or change the menu every couple of months to include your favorites, but do it consistently so the planning and work part is easy.

Delegate what are shared responsibilities. If there are two people or six living in a household then you’re a team. If your office holds thirty employees, you divide responsibilities and conquer an objective. It is important for everyone to know what their part is in this team, and when the deadlines are. As a parent or an employer, it becomes our responsibility to explain the goal, each responsibility, and deadlines and also to lead by example. Having everyone participate in doing small chores around the house not only helps with the workload but teaches responsibility and ownership of individual and family.

Maintain what is good, learn from the bad. There are things that we do within our schedules that work and sometimes just work through a season. If that works for your office or home then maintain that schedule. But if you’ve outgrown it and need to adjust, realize that it doesn’t work for you any longer. If your office once needed team meetings every morning for a time with a young staff, for example, but now you are wasting more productivity time of actual sales and customer service, then perhaps it’s time to amend your schedule. Use your body clock to your advantage. We all operate most efficiently at certain times of the day; some of us are morning people and some are not, so schedule the tedious task for when you’re at your best when your mind is sharpest, and you will get more accomplished when you have the most energy.