(LifeSiteNews) — Learning to balance housework, homeschooling and working from home all while being an attentive and loving wife and mother is as rewarding as it is challenging. Then again, maybe it’s rewarding because it is challenging. If you work from home, you can use time more effectively by committing to a few basic principles — and remember homeschooling is a job.
The fact is anyone looking to use time more wisely will benefit from implementing these time management strategies. I am currently homeschooling seven children, managing a household of 12, and running a website and a moviemaking business so my experience revolves around these activities, but the principles discussed can be put into practice by anyone. Time management is simple to master if you make and stick to a schedule, learn to prioritize and delegate, and keep up a strong devotional life.
Making a schedule that you are capable of following is the first step to effective time management. The difficulty lies in sticking to a schedule. Start by waking up at the same time every day. Set aside a time for prayer and spiritual reading, then make an effort to be well-groomed every day. Some time grooming is time well spent because if you look slovenly, you won’t be in the right frame of mind to have a productive day. Even if it is just you and the little ones all day, make yourself look presentable. If you take your work seriously, you will feel more satisfaction in your work. Do some housework first, then get to work at the same time each day. Remember to schedule yourself a lunch break and, if necessary, do more housework during this break. Don’t forget, set a time to end your workday and consistently stop working when you are scheduled to stop.
With this sort of schedule, you will get work consistently done and you won’t feel guilty about working during hours set aside for work. When you are done, you’re done. The tasks left undone can wait until tomorrow. At this time, another round of housework is in order. If you need a little time to relax before dinner, schedule that time as well.
In my home, I enjoy a cup of coffee with my husband before he leaves for work. Then I meditate on that day’s mysteries of the Rosary, which helps me stay focused during the family Rosary in the evening. I make a spiritual Communion, then pray a morning offering. After my morning prayers, I do a little spiritual reading. During this time I am sending different sets of children off to get dressed, make their beds — “like a Navy Seal,” and perform their morning hygiene routine so they too are in the right frame of mind for the school day.
When it comes to making a schedule, the importance of prioritizing what is important cannot be stressed enough. When making your schedule, list all the things you must do to reach your goals and then write the things in which you’d like to do. First fill in the must dos. If there is room, schedule in the like-to-dos. I put my duty to God first, then my duties to my state in life of which homeschooling belongs, then my obligations to my business. Finally, I add the fun extras that I enjoy.
There is an analogy that is helpful in demonstrating the impossibility of accomplishing great things if your priorities are out of order. This analogy concerns rice and beans. It is asked if you can fit a cup of rice and a cup of beans into a one cup container? The answer is yes, but the trick to making it all fit is by pouring the beans in first and then filling all the holes with the rice. It is impossible to make it all fit if you start with the rice. The beans represent the important duties in your day and the rice represents the enjoyable yet unnecessary activities. Always put your beans in first or neither will fit.
Delegating is sometimes viewed in a bad light, but determining what must be done yourself and what duties others can do in your place is important to effective time management. I’ve discovered that the only way a large family can do all the things that need to happen in a day some careful consideration must be given to delegation. Once all my children are dressed, they go about their morning chores. This is how delegation shakes out in our house. One older child is in charge of the kitchen crew, a second older child is in charge of the laundry crew that also tidies the house, and a third older child is in charge of the outside crew that feeds all the animals and gets firewood up to the house in winter. The crew leaders stay the same, but the crews shift each week. The crews are made up of younger children who always remain together. This way, a lot of my time is freed up to keep the household running smoothly. The older children are in their late teens and early 20s, so they are doing me a fantastic service of teaching their little brothers and sisters the ins and outs of cooking, cleaning laundry, and animal husbandry. In the past, I was busy instructing, but now I’m mostly overseeing the household operation.
Delegating effectively includes finding areas where you can pay someone else for their services. If someone else can do something that you are doing just as well as you can and you can hire them to do it, go ahead and hire someone. Likewise, if there is a product that you can purchase that will free up your time, purchase it. In my experience, in an effort to save a little money, I have wasted a lot of time. Lesson plans come to mind. I used to spend precious hours dedicated to teaching on writing my own lesson plans. Not only did I misuse this time, but later I discovered that I was assigning a lot more work to my students than the plans did. A $100 lesson plan is well worth the cost.
While the crews are busy getting breakfast cooked, laundry rolling and the animals cared for, I have a 30-minute meeting with my older children that are involved in our movie business. We make a list of daily goals. Mary Kay Ash of cosmetic fame called this the “$35,000 list.” We write our list and check off items as we get them accomplished. Monday morning meetings are a little longer as we write a list of weekly goals. Our daily goals include all the tasks that help us attain our weekly goals. In like manner, at our monthly meetings we make our monthly goals that are the focus of the weekly meetings. We are able to get a lot accomplished each year with this method of making monthly, weekly and daily lists. At the beginning of the year, we come up with five major goals and plan our product and event launches.
After this meeting I have a quick meeting with each of my high school students to see what their school goals are for the day. This helps keep them on track and gives them an opportunity to bring to my attention any difficulties they are having in their lessons. After this, I do my household work. Then I sit at the table and check emails and make my social media posts. After I’m all caught up there, I grade papers and get schoolwork organized until breakfast is ready. As I work throughout the day, I make a point to be available to my children. If they talk to me, I stop and make eye contact with them and listen.
After breakfast, I sit at the school table with all the students. My two children that are graduated and are still living at home teach science, Latin, and history. While my older children are teaching, I work on my business. We take lunch at noon, do chores and then get back to our lessons. I end school at 4 p.m. sharp. I can persevere through a long day if I know that I can clock out. We start where we left off the next morning. Another way I use this principle is by utilizing a 36-week school year. I love summer break as it gives me a chance to garden, go to the beach, visit family, and do home improvement projects. We check off 36 weeks and then take our summer break. We drop it all cold and start up again where we left off in the fall. I need a definite end time and the break. Not all homeschool families do this, but it works really well for me.
At 4 p.m., I check my emails and if a post is scheduled, I post on my assigned social media. I don’t relax at this time. When all my children were little, I did! I felt I needed to decompress before my husband came home. Now I work a bit during this brief window and when my husband comes home from work we relax together while the children get their evening chores done and dinner on the table. The children have plenty of free time to play and pursue their hobbies. The only outside class that we attend is a weekly PE class that I feel really enriches our homeschool. Other than this, we spend most of our time at home.
The final piece to the time management puzzle that has been touched upon is having a devotional life. Start your schedule with ensuring you have time for prayer and spiritual reading. The Rosary is a powerful armor against hell as it destroys vices and defeats heresy. It is responsible for military victories and has preserved the faith in times of persecution. Everyone should foster a devotion to the Rosary and consecrate themself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When young mothers ask me how I get it all done, my mind immediately goes to the fact that I have a devotion to Our Lady and she helps me. The Rosary is easy to pray. It can be done with little effort and can fit into a 12-minute slot of time. Susie Loyd calls this the rosarius rapidus. In all seriousness, we pray the family Rosary together at 8 p.m. every night, but since it can be distracting to pray with a group of children, I find my morning meditations are a great help during this evening family prayer time.
Keeping a schedule allows you to do all the things you need to do at an assigned time. This alleviates any guilt that seems to be a problem when things aren’t done at an appointed time. If you are doing a lot of activities outside the home, make sure you are scheduling them so they don’t interfere with sticking to your schedule. Find areas where you can delegate activities to others. Foster a strong prayer life and remember that you can do all things in Christ who strengthens you. Philippians 4:1