Time Management in Homeschooling
Do you wish the day to be of 26 hours instead of 24, so that you could actually get enough sleep? Out of the 24 hours, specific time is allotted for sleeping, relaxing, eating, taking a shower and spending time with partner and kids and more. The remaining hours is the time that one has for doing the work of the day. Since, we cannot increase the hours; we should try our best to use our valuable and resourceful time, wisely.
In order to utilize the day in a better manner, the time needs to be viewed differently. During the day, if we are conscious about the manner of spending our time, we will be able to streamline it and better decisions can be made. A few tips can help you in better time management.
A look at the methods and manner of doing work can help you in becoming more efficient by making you time friendly. You should try to do more things at one time. For example, you can cook for two days at one time and keep the food in the freezer, thereby saving your effort of cooking for one day.
You should also keep your children on a routine and make them accountable for the jobs done by them, on a daily basis to decrease your wastage of time with daily chores. In order to increase your children’s morale values, the chores should be done at the same time and they should remain focused. You can also play some music while working, in order to enjoy your work. Slowly, they will be responsible for their laundry, sheets, rooms and assigned chores.
Since, outside responsibilities can rob you of your time; you need to refer to this list only when your participation in something is asked for. The list will remind you about your priorities and enable you to check whether a commitment made is compatible with the goals.
The telephone is also responsible for occupying a lot of your time. The advantage of not having a message machine is that you do not have to waste time by calling people back. If you do not want it to take up much of your time, you can even unplug it as people can always send you emails. You should be aware of the fact that several activities for children can also be very time-consuming.
Routines are considered to be one of the best tools of time management. It is basically a set regular habit of completing the tasks of the household. It helps you in following through the everyday tasks and keeping your day on the right track. The daily routines should be planned in such a manner that your life and all the daily tasks are accommodated. It is useless to compare your daily routine with someone else’s.
You should take care of the fact that a minimum amount of work needs to be done daily and the children should know this expectation. For example, the children should know that before anybody’s bedtime, a number of chores need to be done such as cleaning of the dishes, wiping of the bathroom, sweeping and washing of the floors and picking up of clutter.
The most important thing that you need to keep in mind is the amount of tasks that can be accomplished by you. The priorities should be kept in order and only that amount of work should be taken that you can handle. You should not have unreasonable expectation from yourself and should work on only important priorities of your life. There is always time for accomplishing other things.
Since time management is considered a proactive work, the important question is whether you have used the time well or there is need for improvement. You should always keep your priorities straight. You can always make changes to the routine to utilize your time completely.
Further Reading