Creating routines and schedules is often a hard concept for many to grasp. I like to think of them as scaffolding for my week rather than concrete plans that I have to stick to. My routines and schedules simply help remind me of the things I’d like to accomplish each week. If I don’t get them done, I don’t let myself feel guilty.

Guidelines for Routines and Schedules

Here are some guidelines that I use when creating my routines and schedules for the week.

• Determine what is important to you and your family, and how you’d like to run your household. Once you have determined your priorities, then you can create your routines and schedules from there. If your top priority is spending time with your family, but you constantly feel the need to keep your home super clean, then you need to figure out a way to balance the two by determining how much time is really necessary for certain tasks. Perhaps you can even delegate different cleaning tasks to family members so that things get done more quickly, leaving you more time to spend with each other.

• Create a master schedule or plan for important daily or weekly tasks. I use a document that I created called “daily plan”. On this plan I have sections to break down my day with everything that I mustn’t forget to do. These tasks include our dinner menu, 3 most important tasks to complete for the day, other to-dos for the day (if I can get to them), daily to-dos (which are typed right into the template, so they’re completed daily – i.e., do the dishes, file paperwork, etc.), and weekly to-dos that are broken down by day (i.e., on Monday I pay bills, on Thursday I menu plan and make the grocery list, etc.). By having this template that I print daily and use to organize my day, I never forget to do those daily and weekly tasks that I have determined are important to me to effectively run of my household.

• Use scheduling for things that aren’t routine or done on a regular basis. Scheduling should be something you’re willing to look at over and over again. It allows you to ensure that you don’t double book your life. Use a day planner or family wall calendar — whatever works best for you and your family. The whole point of using a calendar system is to allow each family member to add their own events and see what is coming up in the week ahead. I will even use my calendar to schedule in things that I consider a priority – such as spending time with my family.

How do you prioritize your time and schedule your day or week? Is it working for you or is it time to reevaluate where you’re standing?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Tiffany Ford is a wife, 2nd grade teacher, and DIY organizer. She lives in Salt Lake City, UT with her husband, Chris, and adorable dog, Jazz. Tiffany is the writer behind The Nest Effect, a mash up blog about teaching, organization, life, home, and everything in between. She also runs an Etsy store, where she sells printable documents to help others organize their home.

We, as parents, are so busy keeping our kids busy that we may not really know our children. We talk about our day in passing from one activity to the next but often do not take the time to discuss our children’s lives. Some kids are great at hiding emotions, grades, or problems. So, let’s slow down, spend quality time together, and get to know our kids!

I am as guilty as the next when it comes to being an on-the-go mom. I feel like keeping my kids involved in activities will help them understand the importance of team work, giving 110 percent, and responsibility.

I have come to realize that making time for the family is important. The kids are involved in one activity each, which still keeps us very busy. We find ways to spend quality time together that interest everyone. We watch football and baseball, play volleyball in the front yard, play card games or dominoes, go bowling, or just sit around a bond fire together and talk. I love to take the kids to school every morning — it is our special time to talk. It is amazing what you can learn about your child on the way to school!

Spending family time together is very important for your children. While the extra sports and activities are great for the kids, they need to have a relationship with mom and dad. It is important for parents to know their kids — know them well enough to see when they are happy and even when they are sad or have a problem. Take advantage of free time with your kids and get them talking!

How do you keep your family? What is your favorite part of the day with your kids?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Robin Greene is a mother of two teenagers, a wife and a Kindergarten teacher. Robin enjoys spending as much time with her family as possible. She also enjoys teaching, participating in church activities and freelance writing for mybabyclothes.com.  Your little one will be the talk of the town in their unique baby clothes, cute baby hat or beautiful tutu.

January is a great time to get organized. It’s a new year and you can start off fresh by getting rid of items in your home you no longer use or need. But getting organized isn’t just about purging junk in your home, it’s about making your home a place where you can relax. Having organization systems in place for things such as finances, paper clutter, and closets can make life a lot less stressful and create a home that everyone can enjoy.

4 Ways to Stay Organized

Many people don’t know where to start when organizing, so they refuse to even try. Organization can definitely be a daunting task – especially when you don’t consider yourself to be an organized person. Here are a few simple tips to help get you started.

Start small.

Look around the room you’re in right now. What is driving you absolutely crazy? Or what is something you’d like to change? Maybe it’s a pile of papers on your desk or a bookshelf that has been carelessly used as a dumping ground for knickknacks and books. Whatever that one section is in your room, go conquer it right now. When you start small, you can complete one task at a time and won’t end up overwhelmed by looking at the big picture all at once — especially if the room is a complete disaster.

Take your time completing the task.

Don’t feel like you have to overhaul that bookshelf in 10 minutes. Thorough organization is best. Once you take the time to actually fully organize something, and you’re proud of the system you’ve created (or the mess you’ve cleaned up), you’ll feel like you want to keep up with what you’ve done and your organization will last a lot longer.

Make an organization list.

Many people feel a sense of accomplishment when they make lists and cross of tasks they’ve completed. Make an organization to-do list of places in your home you’d like to organize. Be specific. Don’t just write down “kitchen” – it’s too big of an area. Break it down into tasks such as “food storage containers, pantry, spices, silverware drawer, etc.”, and then you’ll know exactly what you’re going to tackle when you choose a task from your list.

Make time for organization.

Schedule organizing into your weekly routine. Even if you only have 15 minutes once a week to organize, it’s better than no time at all.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned”. Try it out for yourself and get organized in 2012.

How much time can you save yourself, and family, by simply organizing and creating organization systems in your home?

I’ll be back next week with tips on how to manage your time more effectively with routines and schedules.

Tiffany Ford is a wife, 2nd grade teacher, and DIY organizer. She lives in Salt Lake City, UT with her husband, Chris, and adorable dog, Jazz. Tiffany is the writer behind The Nest Effect, a mash up blog about teaching, organization, life, home, and everything in between. She also runs an Etsy store, where she sells printable documents to help others organize their home.

If things are done right, a busy person can also be a fit person. We’ve offered some tips on how to do that here and here. Here are some more tips, provided by Tweeters at a MomItForward Girls’ Night Out Twitter party (#gno) sponsored by McDonald’s back in June.

6 Tips for Managing Time and Fitness

1. Use Google Calendar. This was the most tweeted tip. Both @MomInManagement and @MrsWndr say they use a mix of that and paper calendars to bring organization to their busy lives.
2. Check out FitDay.com, a free online diet journal and calorie tracker. This tip came from @KellyOlexa, who says, “@CraigRichard1 and I use FitDay.com to track my stuff. If I don’t track, I get way off.“
3. Check out Cozi.com if you have a smart phone. Recommended by our own @jylmomIF, it is a free online organizer and mobile that has family calendar, to-do list, shopping list, family journal, and meal planning features. She says, “It’s an awesome way to schedule appointments. Syncs with your phone. Great for grocery shopping too.”
4. Put nutritious snacks in single-serving baggies right after buying them, then put the filled baggies back in the box the snacks came in, so they’re ready to eat on-the-go, says @Katm21. Also, try putting smaller portions of less-nutritious snacks like chips into baggies and then back in their original container, so as to make portion control easier.
5. Give healthy options. While taking the unhealthy food options (i.e., ones with high sugar, fat, or sodium) out of the pantry altogether, give yourself and your kids lots of healthy options to choose from, so that no one feels deprived and it’s easy to pick some healthy as you’re heading out the door.
6. Check out this link from @CybraryMan1 for instructions on how to make a snow fort, Star Wars paper snowflakes, and other awesome winter activities with your kids.

How do you stay fit with a busy schedule? What helps you and your family to stay fit and stay on time for appointments, practice, school, work, etc.?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

If you aren’t sure, ask yourself: “If I achieved success on this project, task, or endeavor, what would that success look like?” Or, “If I arrived at the end of this path and was really happy, what would that happiness look like? What would my journey have included?”

Often times, we’ll plan all of the steps to get us from A to Z on a particular project without first stopping and asking ourselves what we hope to achieve. Regardless of whether we are going on a trip to reconnect with a loved one, are helping out in our kids’ classroom to be more involved in their education, or are volunteering at a homeless shelter to better our community, knowing the end before planning the beginning and middle is what will help us achieve the success we’re after.

Simply put: You must know your end goal before setting out on the path to accomplish it.

4 Tips to Successful Goal Setting

Here’s some simple ways to identify your end goals:

1. Identify your values. Ask yourself: “What do I value most?” Examples could include reliability, honesty, and respect.
2. Create your mission and vision. Creating a vision board and a mission statement are two great starting point. A family manifesto is also a great idea. I particularly like this one by Isabel from Alphamom. Start by identifying what, if you accomplished it, would have the greatest impact on you, what you want to be, do, and have. If you are creating a mission or vision for a project or for your family, expand that to identify what you’d want your family, for example, to accomplish. And, what you’d want your family to be, do, and have.
3. Set your goal. Figure out what you will accomplish and by when. For example: “I will lose 10 pounds and increase my strength by December 31, 2011.”
4. Identify the Steps to reach your goal. Once you have identified your end goal and are clear on your direction, you are ready to create the steps to reach that goal. Based on the above example, some possible steps could include: “Work out 3 times per week. Meet weekly with a personal trainer to assess my progress.”

What goal-setting process do you follow? What helps you achieve success when working toward a goal? How does identifying your values, mission, and vision up front make a difference?

I was listening to a bi-annual conference for my church today and one of the speakers shared that love is spelled t-i-m-e. He then asked us to ponder: “Where are you dedicating your time?” In other words, what (or who) do you love?

For me, it is relationships with family, including my husband @TroyPattee…

Relationships with my kids…

Relationships with my closest friends…

The challenge many of us face is figuring out how to spend our time on what matters most instead of those things that matter least, as necessary as some of them may be or seem.

When I think about time management and achieving that balance, the immediate thought that comes to my mind is: “I wish I had more hours in a day.” But, I was reminded today as I listened to this conference that it’s not about having more hours in a day or crossing off every item on your to-do list, but rather focusing on those things that matter most. Things like my family…

I decided to analyze my day and where I had dedicated my time. Here’s what I found (based on 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for today only):

• 3 hours listening to my church conference with my kids while archiving photos online and cleaning up my desktop
• 2 hours taking my kids swimming on a play date with one of my friends and her two kids
• 30 minutes picking up my house and “encouraging” my kids to help me (I’ll be honest that I probably spent 20 minutes on the “encouragement” part!)
• 1 hour eating (breakfast and lunch combined)

I’m feeling pretty good about my day and where I’ve focused my time. There’s me and mom time in there, including both wants and needs. I even felt like I crossed some items off my to-do list. But…

…Today is not like most other days in my life. And typically, in my average day, I need a constant reminder to stop working at the end of my work day; to spend more time with my kids, my friends, my family; to make time for myself; and to be more dedicated to church and community.

5 Tips to Focusing on What Matters Most to You

If you are anything like me and need reminders to help you to stay focused on what truly matters most in your life, here’s a few tips on how to get started (taken from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People):

1. Identify those things that matter the very most to you. As part of this process, evaluate your mission, vision, and values.
2. Identify what’s urgent, important, and those things that are sucking your time, but not helping you to focus on what’s most important in your life.
3. Schedule your week first around what’s most important to you (those things that matter the very most) and then add in tasks for the lesser important things, but those that need to get done.
4. Say “no,” delegate, re-prioritize, get help, or push back any item that does not help you put first things first. (Tips for helping you learn to say “no.”)
5. Replace any feelings of guilt you may have over not getting to your entire task list with feelings of accomplishment for focusing on what truly matters most in your life.

What are your most important priorities? What distractions get in the way of you accomplishing them? How can you review/revise your schedule to first them in your life?

Choosing stress-relieving actvities—those that help calm you down, give you time to think, help you gain perspective, get your endorphins up, and get your creative juices flowing—can actually increase your productivity.

10 Stress-Relieving Hobbies That Can Increase Your Productivity

Check out these 10 ideas for relieving stress and focusing on what matters most:

1. Clean. Having an organized house and office in and of itself can be calming. But, doing the actual cleaning can be a healthy distraction as well as boost your endorphins.

2. Cook. Personally, I like the creativity and the stress-relieving process of cooking. I love to make up recipes, combining different ingredients for awesome results. And my favorite? I love to chop vegetables. I find something very stress relieving about it. Veggie trays are my favorite to make!

3. Exercise. Working out has several benefits. I love the natural high I get as well as spending an hour listening to upbeat music.

4. Play calming music. Whether you put on a CD or play a musical instrument, making time to play some softer songs has a calming effect on any environment.

5. Spend time by yourself or with loved ones. I don’t know anything more welcoming than being around people who love you precisely because of who you are.

6. Travel. Exploring foreign places, even within your own city or state, can be exciting, fun, and at the same time, stress relieving.

7. Write. Writing comes in so many forms: blogging, journaling, scrapbooking, creative writing, writing a book, emailing, texting, writing thank you cards by hand, and more. For me, journaling helps me get perspective and make more well thought out decisions.

8. Spend time in nature. My happy spot is a local flower garden called Thanksgiving Point. I can be having the toughest day in the world and have it all wash away after a couple of hours in that place.

9. Get some sun. If I’m too busy, don’t have a lot of time, but need to lose the stress and a boost in productivity, I will often go lay on the trampoline and soak up the sun. Even 15 minutes can make all the difference in my day!

10. Ponder. Focusing on areas other than those that bring stress into your life is a quick way to reduce stress. Activities that allow you to ponder can include prayer, mediation, yoga, and others. Make time for this every day and watch your productivity increase.

Aside from adding stress reducing hobbies, one of the most important things you can do to relieve stress in your life and to be more productive is to remove stress-increasing relationships and activities when possible.

What are your favorite hobbies and activities that help you reduce stress? How does making time for yourself help you to be more productive?

Photo courtesy of  Flickr.

Fall season rushes in and the obligations seem to multiply. Taking the kids to sports, school, fundraisers, and other activities, while making sure homework is done, the house is clean, and your own needs are met isn’t easy. But one small strategy can change your life.

This season, vow to let go. Let go of the people, places, and things that clog up the pathways and arteries of your life. This might mean saying no, when you want to say yes. You might need to take some time away from facebook or the phone. But most of all, let go of your worries and limitations. When you let go, you’ll be amazed at how much freer you feel.

This season, be sure to simplify. One of the simplest and happiest people I know has taught me to do just that. Kanae is a gorgeous brunette and the simplest girl I know. She shops at thrift stores and looks like a runway model. She does her own nails and cuts her own hair, eliminating the time that would take out of her month.She recently got engaged to another friend of mine, Nick Vujucic. I introduced them one night and the rest is history. Nick is a talented speaker and the author of Life Without Limits, an amazing book, and he’s just released a music video. But despite all the success, they are committed to protecting their time together.

Think of the way most busy suburban families rush around. It’s hard to find any time at all and it’s easy to drift apart. But even in their giving back to the world, they’ve learned to simplify. Kanae is always centered on living and giving love. And her belief that anything is possible, makes her the perfect mate for Nick.

Both have simple needs and a desire to create a legacy. Nick is invited to speak all across the globe, in stadiums filled with thousands of people from Mexico, to Singapore, and other nations. They were recently invited to meet with Billy Graham, at his home. And it turned out to be a very simple moment. Aren’t your best times that way?

To create a legacy of love, giving, and a peace centered household, you might just have to subtract something. But you know what? It’ll be worth it. Start today by making a list of 3 things you’ll eliminate. Focus on the time suckers that drain your energy. What is it you want to let go of today in order to grow the one-on-one connections that matter most?

What are the top three time suckers in your life? What three things will you eliminate to free up more of your time?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Tammy Kling is a life coach, advocate for the homeless, and international author of 29 books including The Compass. Tammy is also the founderr of Write it Out, an organization that helps gang members, the homeless, and those living on the street write out their hopes & dreams via writers workshops, free journals and various other resources.

In addition to writing and coaching, Tammy is a mom of two boys, an avid trail and mountain runner, blogger, and adventure travel writer.

Focusing on your highest priorities often requires saying no to lesser important things.

Stephen Covey says:

It’s easy to say ”no!” when there’s a deeper ”yes!” burning inside.

5 Tips to Saying Yes to Your Highest Priorities

1. Identify your “deeper yes!” What is most important to you? Knowing your highest priorities and scheduling your week accordingly will help you more easily say no to your lesser important tasks.
   X
2. Plan your entire week around your highest priorities. If you have a major deadline at work and your child has a performance at school and those are the two most important things for you to accomplish during your upcoming week, make sure they go on the calendar first. Then, schedule the other, lesser important tasks around them.
   X
3. Plan ahead. Procrastinating often adds unnecessary work and stress, taking you away from what matters most to you. Planning ahead ensures you are meeting your obligations and deadlines while at the same time, helps you put first things first.
   X
4. Ask for Help and Delegate. Remember, you aren’t in this alone. Whether you are a single parent, have a partner, have family nearby or far away, resources are available for you to tap into as a parent, an employee, a business owner, a volunteer, etc. Online research will produce more tools than you can possibly imagine, but it will be up to you to ask for help and delegate the tasks that are taking you away from your highest priorities.
   X
5. Say “no”! If you view saying “no!” as letting someone down, try shifting your mindset so that you view saying “no!” as a way to make your “deeper yes!” a possibility. If the person persists, offer alternative solutions, including a different resource to complete the task or another time frame. If that person is your boss, explain that by saying “yes!” to their urgent task, you’ll need to put off “X (your more important priority).”  Help him or her see that your saying “no!” is helping the entire team. (The same can be done with your kids!)

The more you focus on what matters most to you, the more you will move away from feeling a short-term high from all of the to-dos you crossed off your list to long-term happiness from accomplishing those things that move you closer and closer to your most important goals.

What are your most important priorities and what will you do this week to move closer to accomplishing them?

It wasn’t that I didn’t actually have enough time to get cleaned up (although it sure felt that way). Instead, I had other things to do that were more important. Like sleep. Or eating. Or the non-stop care of my baby. I was used to showering every morning around 6:30 a.m., eating breakfast around 7:00 a.m., dressing and heading for work around 8:00 a.m., and so forth. But having children rearranged the rhythm of my days. Nine years and three children later, I have grown used to the new timing that governs my life. Even though it took a lot of adjustment, now I’ve learned how to consider the way timing affects a lot of the choices I have to make as a mom and as a business owner.

Priorities Dictate Timing

Take, for instance, my desire to start and run my business. I decided to start my business when my first son was three and my second son was a newborn. And shortly thereafter, I had my third child. So I was running a business with three children under the age of five. Despite the desire and passion I had for my business, despite the careful, planned action I was taking to grow my business, get more clients and make more money, and despite a very strong, selfish (in a healthy way) urge to do something for myself that had nothing to do with motherhood, the timing wasn’t right for me to start a million-dollar, 80-hour-per-week empire. That didn’t fit with my priorities and values around raising my family.

So I had to adjust my business-building plan to one that accommodated my value system. I had to slow down, set smaller goals, create a schedule that only had me working a few hours each week, since all the rest of my time was devoted to the little people who needed me so much at that point.

Timing Will Change Over Time

With each year that passes, I am grateful for the time that I have been able to spend with my children. And I am thrilled that I’ve been able to slowly build a business that allows me to adjust how much time, effort, and energy I put into it depending on the fluctuations of my family’s schedule. I work like crazy in the fall and winter during the hours the kids are at school. I take the month of December off completely to travel and enjoy the holidays. I slow down in the summer and rarely take on new clients then, since summertime is my favorite time for making memories with my family.

My baby is heading to Kindergarten in September. My timing is going to change again. With all three children in school Monday through Friday, I’ll be able to work about 30 hours a week (doubling the 15 hours per week I’m working right now). I’m planning to adjust my schedule again to spend more time working and building a business I’ve been keeping on a slow growth schedule for a long time.

I have several clients who are experiencing a lot of anxiety around making tough choices about how to grow their businesses or take advantage of a fantastic opportunity that has presented itself to them, since in each case, the opportunity would cause a lot of changes to their family’s routine. For each of them, I’m coaching them to consider the timing of their choices. Being a mom requires flexibility. That said, it doesn’t mean sacrificing your plans and goals and dreams. But it might mean that you need to consider the timing of them.

Do you have a big choice to make in your life right now? How does timing factor into your options? Have you ever made choices that put two or more of your priorities in conflict with each other?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach, is a speaker, a business coach and the founder of the Mom Biz Academy, the “MBA” for mompreneurs. She teaches moms how to do what they love without compromising their priorities. Grab her “Six Steps for Creating a Sustainable Mompreneur Business” audio course here!