Are you a full-time worker with children?
Many people who spend their days working in an office space or other work environment find themselves trying to balance life with children. Parenting and jobs are both full-time endeavors, and both require your full attention and energy.
So how do you manage your time when you’re a full-time working parent?
Fortunately, time management tips exist. If you and your partner are working parents, they will help you balance your careers and your time spent at home with your kids.
Keep reading to learn 5 proven time management techniques for parents!
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Define a Hierarchy of Importance
Do you know what’s most important to you?
If you don’t, sit down, either on your own or with your partner, and determine what you think is most important. Do you have certain goals you want to meet in your career? Do you want to spend time investing in your children?
In as many details as possible, talk about your different responsibilities and priorities. This will help you know how to divide your time.
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Involve Your Children
Let your children do age-appropriate chores.
This reduces the amount of time you need to spend keeping up your home and gives you more time to either work or spend with family. Teach younger children how to clean their spaces and help you dust and vacuum. Older children do deeper cleaning, run the washing machine, help you cook, etc.
Delegating responsibilities to your children gives them a sense of responsibility as well, makes them productive members of your family, and relieves responsibility from you.
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Set Boundaries
Do you find yourself routinely having to stay late at work?
If so, consider talking to your supervisor about shifting some of your duties. While this may seem daunting, it might end up freeing you to spend more time at home.
Try framing it in a way that emphasizes your maximum productivity. Say that if you could delegate a few of your tasks, you think you would be able to do better on your projects. Make sure you still work hard on those projects, but this should also give you more time at home.
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Set Time Limits
Do you often spend too long on each of your tasks?
If you do, consider setting time limits for yourself. Tell yourself that you’ll focus on one task for 30 minutes or an hour, and then set a timer. Once the time expires, move on to your next obligation.
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Allow Imperfection
Here’s one of our favorite tips: you don’t have to be perfect. In fact, don’t expect yourself to be.
Allowing yourself to not have a perfectly clean home or to even put off a non-essential task until tomorrow is alright. In fact, it might even help you maintain your mental health.
In fact, you should allow yourself to do whatever you need to take care of yourself. Set a schedule so that you can accomplish your core responsibilities while allowing a few minutes to breathe or relax. This will ensure you stay energized and ready to maximize your time.
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Liked These Time Management Tips?
Working parents often face the challenge of knowing how to balance going to work and caring for children.
Often, being a working parent boils down to knowing how to manage your time. With these working parent tips, you’ll be able to organize your schedule in a way that works for you.
Need more advice? Check out the rest of our articles today!
