Boost Your Organisation & Productivity With 4 Simple Tips!

Balancing your responsibilities as a parent with your work, social and everyday commitments is never an easy task! However, the good news for those with an intention to get a handle on things as soon as possible is that we have four very simple tips that could make the world of difference; making your days far more productive.

#01 Simplify Your Family Meals

Creating a weekly or fortnightly meal plan for your family is the best way to simplify the grocery shopping and give structure to your mealtime routine. Once you get into this habit, you can begin to batch cook key meals such as curries and stews so that you have one meal ready and another in the freezer for the following week.

Spending an afternoon prepping food for the following week, based on your planned meals, allows you to get a great deal done and dusted in one swoop, minimising the clean up during the week for faster, easier meals.

So many food items can be prepared, then frozen in advance, or preserved in the refrigerator until you need them. Create your meal plans in a digital file so that you can alter and adapt them as you go.

#02 Set Up A Family Calendar

Using a convenient online calendar such as Google Calendar is an efficient way to keep track of all of your appointments, important dates and events so that you know exactly what you are doing each day at a glance. Your personal calendar can be linked to your phones and shared with others in the household – keeping everyone up to speed with what is happening and when, with useful reminders.

#03 Keep A Personal Schedule

Whether digital or paper, a clear schedule for each day will give you greater direction and focus from the moment you wake up.

Use your schedule to highlight tasks that are a priority and focus on getting these done first. That way even if the day winds up going pear shaped, due to something unexpected you should have those all-important tasks behind you, which will help you to feel more relaxed and accomplished.

Include everything you can think of, from personal commitments, general things to do, meals and classes to create your own road map for each day of the week.

The process of planning your schedule and having a visual record of your upcoming tasks to reflect on can make a huge difference to the amount you achieve each day.

#04 Juggling Extraordinaire?

It is important to remember that even if your juggling skills are extraordinary, it pays to put those balls down occasionally and go easy on yourself! Many of us lead such busy lives that we risk burn out and therefore the ability to prioritise the most important tasks and evaluate the way we use our time, is essential.

If you find yourself faced with an impossible schedule, it is perhaps time to explore ways to trim your commitments to make it more realistic.

Another option is to delegate certain everyday tasks, such as your housekeeping, gardening or cooking to someone else, by employing an experienced professional to assist in your household, freeing up more hours in the day to focus on other tasks and responsibilities.