Time Management Tips for Working Moms

When you walk in the door, you see a stack of papers floating around your desk, and when you go home, just as at the office, you can’t find those important papers you need so desperately to stay out of trouble or make an excuse. When you come home at night, you and your spouse argue, and your children ignore you because you just aren’t spending family time with some of the important people in your life.

Does this sound familiar? Have you ever wondered why? Well, you are not managing your time accordingly so that you reap benefits and the ones you love are happy. You are not organized, so therefore how the heck can you find those important documents? Moms already have a big responsibility and when we neglect to manage our time, our responsibilities turn to chaos.

Let’s face it; it is never easy to stay organized when we have busy work schedules and a family to attend to, as well as other responsibilities. The traditional individuals often store files in a filing cabinet, and clean their room and desk once every week. However, there are people out there that are spontaneous. Some of us even store documents so they are out of sight and soon find those documents are out of mind, until someone calls their attention to the papers.

The key to success moms is getting your priorities straight. If you shop for groceries once per week, you can cut back time by buying enough to last longer, so that grocery shopping isn’t part of your weekly plan. The extra hour or more that you spend at the supermarket can be spent on quality time with the family. This is only one solution to managing your time, but it is certainly a start.

In addition, you can make up a list of your duties, starting with the most important tasks first, and working through the list one at a time. I found this to be a great solution for managing time, since when you work hard to complete one task, the rests fall into place with ease.

If you spend an hour or even one half hour in the mirror, it is probably because you are not feeling good about your self. It takes approximately five minutes to put make-up on, and to stand in the mirror longer is only taking up time.

Hair is also important since our person in general sets an impression. If you spend longer time than needed doing your hair, try finding nice looking hairstyles that are less complicated to style. This is also a great process of the time management solution.

Clothing should also be limited but appropriate for whatever it is that you doing and it should not take less than a couple of minutes to get dressed. Unless you are a model, or actress, overdressing is not appropriate in most cases for every day life situations. If you are spending extra time preparing meals, you might want to consider recipes that are quick and healthy to manage your time mom.

These are a few simple tips of managing your time so that you can spend more time doing the things in life that is most important to you.

Author: Connie Limon. Visit us online at: http://www.selfimprovementbook1.com Self Improvement Book is a guide to self improvement, personal growth and self help. It is an organized directory referencing information in other websites on the World Wide Web.

This article is FREE to publish with resource box.

About The Author

Connie Limon. Visit us online at: http://www.selfimprovementbook1.com Self Improvement Book is a guide to self improvement, personal growth and self help. It is an organized directory referencing information in other websites on the World Wide Web.

Time Management For Teachers: Why Start A New School Year With The Same Old Systems?

How can a teacher manage to find time during the day to get things done? In providing teacher time management training for school districts, I recognize that using time management in education at the teacher level is difficult because you face unique challenges:

Your time is booked every day. There is no leeway in altering a class schedule, so you must work within the very limited planning periods.

An important component of your job is to be available for students and parents beyond the actual classroom sessions.

One very effective method for teachers to save time is to group activities as much as possible. With this process you can use to maximize those all-too-short blocks of time so that you can lessen the amount of work you drag home every evening.

You are four times more productive when you can focus on one type of task rather than switching back and forth among assorted tasks. Constant multitasking slows you down. While you can never eliminate all of the interruptions in your day because you do need to be responsive to students, make the best use of the short periods of time that you do have.

What activities are effective when grouped?

Telephone: Set aside a time when you will make and return nonurgent phone calls. It might be fifteen minutes in the morning and another fifteen minutes in the afternoon. Work toward keeping routine calls within that block.

Email: Electronic messages can easily dominate your day. Turn off the sound or alert that advises you of incoming messag3es. Just as with telephone calls, set a block of time each day when you focus on just your email.

Discussions: If you confer several times a day with certain colleagues, set up a folder and collect items during the day so that you can cover all points during just one meeting. This limits interruptions for both of you. Encourage others to have a folder for you also.

Reading: For articles and publications that do not have an action date, keep them together and schedule time on your calendar to catch up on the reading. This reading block can include both paper and electronic information.

Filing: Even if you have a terrific filing system and you know where to put all your reference papers, do not stop and file each individual item as it comes in. Wait until you have a folder of papers, and then note on your calendar when you will file.

It will take practice to develop the habit of grouping your activities in order to limit multitasking, but the resulting increase in productivity is worth the effort.

©2006, Key Organization Systems, Inc., All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Helping teachers and administrators accomplish more in less time is one of the benefits of the training that Denise Landers provides. Denise is the author of Destination: Organization and the owner of Key Organization Systems, Inc. Learn to work smarter at http://www.keyorganization.com.

Time Management Systems Help Us Soar!

On a recent airplane flight, I thought of all the systems that are in place to get us from one destination to another as efficiently as possible.

Boarding

Consider the rapid turnaround of planes these days. When the arriving passengers disembark, their luggage is taken off, the plane is refueled, a maintenance check is done, the interior is cleaned, a new crew boards, luggage is loaded, food and drinks placed on board, and the new passengers settle in – often all within 30 minutes. Then we’re soaring to our next destination.

Taking Off

We don't buckle up in our seats and then wait while the pilot rummages through stacks of papers, old charts, unread magazines, and empty food containers, trying to figure out what the present destination will be and then where the directions are for that destination.

We expect these procedures to go smoothly and rarely give the process any thought. The pilot boards knowing exactly what he is going to do. There is nothing in that cockpit that is not specific to the job at hand. He has a set of procedures that he follows, in a set order, to make sure nothing is skipped. We count on that, for both punctuality and safety. When something does goes awry and we are delayed for any reason, we're disappointed. If a plane has an accident, we're shocked.

Yet do we expect the same of ourselves in our business endeavors? Consider your desk or your work area as the cockpit, driving the segment of the business for which you are responsible. Take a look around you. Is everything as streamlined as it could be? Are there any extraneous materials that do not pertain to the job at hand? When you come to work in the morning, do you know immediately where to begin, or are you shifting through papers and clutter to determine where to focus first?

With a good system in place, your work has been prioritized the night before. When you come in, you know what your schedule is and what you want to accomplish this day – your destination. Nothing will fall through the cracks because you have a procedure to record every task and follow-up that has to happen.

The Crew

You also should expect those around you to be handling their work spaces with the same efficiency. Consider what would happen to our flight if everyone were following the systems needed to get the plane turned around except for one group.

Suppose the cleaning crew didn’t pay much attention to the exact timing on their schedule. They knew they were going to clean planes today, but some friends from another unit stopped by so they had a brief visit and chat. Then someone had to make a personal telephone call. When they got to the plane, they found they didn't bring all the supplies they needed, so someone had to go borrow materials from another cleaning crew. Meanwhile the boarding and subsequent take-off is delayed.

Even though everyone else did their jobs, following procedures and schedules, the repercussions of this one group's delay trickle on down to all of the planes following after.

This may sound far-fetched but it occurs in some form every day in offices everywhere. We may be efficient ourselves, but there’s often one person whose desk is stacked, who has to constantly ask for duplicates because they can't find what they need, who is easily distracted, and who forgets to follow up. We tolerate that and make jokes about it, but ultimately it’s not just that one person in the organization that's affected, it's everyone around that person. If you are working with someone like that, you are subjected to disarray, interruptions from them, and not being able to count on them to be as efficient as they could be in doing their share of the work. All of these results impact on the rest of the team.

Each of us needs to be working like the pilot. Know what your schedule is, establish a prioritized plan of action, have the materials you need on hand, and get rid of any unnecessary matter around you that does not pertain to the job at hand so that you can focus on what needs to be done now.

We count on that when we do business with other companies. Shouldn't they be able to expect the same from us? If you want to get your business off the ground, set up systems that will help you soar!

©2006, Key Organization Systems, Inc., All Rights Reserved

About The Author

As the owner of Key Organization Systems, time management expert Denise Landers shows businesses, governments, and educational institutions how to manage daily workflow for maximum productivity and minimum stress. Learn how your business can benefit immediately at http://www.keyorganization.com.