How To Focus On The Family?

Loes Knetsch ©

Long hours at work and raising children needs a lot of organization. You have to take the children to the daycare of sports clubs. You have to do the grocery shopping. As young parents with a daytime job or a small business to run, there is coming much at you. How to organize your life and put the focus on the family and to stop juggling and become productive? Here are some productivity, motivational and organization rules I want to share with you.

First, I will show you a time schedule, to give you some insight into the available time an average working person has.

Your timeline for a year

A year has 365 days
that is 8760 hours
When you sleep 7 hours a night you use 2555 hours
a working day of 8 hours will consume 1900 hours

4305 hours left a year for your family and other stuff

82 hours per week average

No time? Sleep an hour shorter, 6 hours is enough
Focus these 365 hours on the family

We have never had so much free time ever.

We have just created some time to focus on the family

How can you spend that time in a better way?

1. Be ignorant

Don’t try to do everything by yourself, ask for help. Stop tampering yourself. When you want to do it yourself, and you are not familiar with the concept, it will cost you so much extra time, and time is valuable. So be ignorant and ask help from someone who is better and faster than you are.

2. TV time

In these modern times, you can record all TV programs you definitely can’t live without. Make a strict selection of which programs you find valuable enough to spend your time on, instead of on your family. Record those programs, and schedule to watch these programs when the kids are in bed or are attending school.

3. Early bird

Get out of bed early. Before dawn, you can have your laundry done, put your garbage out and walked the dog. You are much more productive early in the morning than at night after working hours.

4. Social Media addiction

Is is really so important to follow all the whereabouts of friends you never even met in person? More important than your loving family? Set your priorities right!

5. The myth of multitasking

It is been proven that multitasking is not working. You can do quicker several chores when you concentrate on one chore at the time than when you want to do them all at once.

6. Give your children responsibilities and rewards

As a family, you are all responsible for the chores in the house. It really isn’t child labor when you ask your child to be an active helper. There are all kinds of chores, even little children can help out with. To set the table. Clean up their own toys. Fetch the mail. Fetch the laundry. Feeding the pets. Bring out the garbage. Water the plants. Put away coats, shoes, and school bags, etc. Just be sure, the whole family takes the surroundings seriously and helps out. The reward is time together. Time to go to a football match. To go to the park. Or just stay home and play a game with a nice cup of tea and a treat.

7. Perfect house

Let is be! Ok, then your child is spilling some water for the pets. Let it be! Something falls on the ground, give a dustpan. Relax. It’s much more important to give time to your family than if the windows are clean or the car is washed. Prioritize!

8. Yes, learn to say NO

Take your responsibility at all times. When it is YOUR responsibility. In all other cases, weigh what’s more important, your family or the club. And say NO.

9. Up-to-date

Do you really need to read everything in your inbox, glossy, the newspapers, and folders that you receive every week? Get a no-no sticker for your postbox. That saves enormously much time.

10. Be Smart with your smartphone

Accessible at all times? Is that really necessary? Wordfeud? WhatsApp? Facebook? Do you really want to know what Catherine from Arizona is eating at the KFC? And that the daughter of Karin in the UK has felt from her bike? Come on! Be smart with your smartphone and focus on YOUR family.

11. Stressed out

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time to relax. Set boundaries. The world turns around too without you. Take the time to sit down and drink some tea with your family and friends.

12. Schedule

Make a daily schedule, who does what and when. And maintain. The most important piece of a schedule is enforcement.

13. Orderly

Be strict in maintaining the rules in your house. I have a whole list of handy household tips and tricks on my other website “This is kids art“ you can find there all kind of time-saving ideas.

Procrastination. Yesterday you said ... tomorrow ... what is stopping you? Click To Tweet

14. Procrastinator?

Use a timer. When you or someone in your household is a procrastinator, schedule time for the chore, and set a timer. When it’s done in time, there will be a reward! Works like a charm!

15. 2-minute rule

The 2-minute rule is, do everything you encounter, which will only cost you no more than 2 minutes, right away. And teach your household the same rule. What falls under the 2-minute rule? Replenishing toilet paper. Get a piece of paper over the toilet edge. Dry the sink with a towel after using (I have a hook next to my sink with a towel especially for that purpose). Empty the green-bin into the container. Clean up the used cups and dishes right away. Do you have a dishwasher? Teach the kids to put their stuff into is after using. Is the dishwasher full? It takes less than 2 minutes to get it empty. Hang a list of names on the dishwasher and with 5 crosses after a name (clearing the dishwasher) your child will receive a reward. No dishwasher? Put a tub into the sink cupboard and collect it there. A tidy house is a tidy mind.

Put your focus on the family, and you will see, when everything in the house runs smoothly, the rest will become much easier to deal with too.

Written by Loes, married, mother of 6, granny of a couple of rascals, affiliate marketing entrepreneur, daycare at home. If you want to share this article with your followers, please click one or more of the buttons on top. That would be much appreciated.

* The images are from Pixabay & DesignWizard