Home Management: Simplified and Streamlined, Tracking Time

 

Last week's project for Home Management: Streamlined and Simplified was to track time and see how we were using it. I tracked my time for 5 days (skipping Sunday because our Sundays are pretty laid back family days once we actually make it out the door for church!).  Tracking how I was using my time helped me to be more intentional about the way I spent my time. 

One thing I realized was how much multitasking I do. Sometimes it was hard to know what to write down--since I check my facebook while I'm on hold on the phone, read for school while we're driving (while Ben is driving, that is!), etc. While sometimes multitasking does not help us be more efficient (like checking facebook while trying to write a blog post--ahem), there are definitely times when it allows me to do things I wouldn't otherwise have time to do.

I found there are a number of areas I would like to trim down if I can. I spent over an hour every morning doing my basic morning chores--tidying the living area, bedrooms, and cleaning the kitchen from breakfast. I have been working on teaching Katie to clean up the living area by herself, so teaching her account for part of that time. But, needless to say, I'd like to spend less time on basic cleaning if I can--because that didn't include bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, etc.! 

I also found that starting the day early made a big difference in productivity. If we get finished with breakfast and morning chores early, there is a lot more time for playing with the children, whereas if we get a late start, it seems like by the time I finish morning chores it's almost lunch time, and the nap-time follows, and then after nap it's time to start on dinner--so the days would go by without much intentional time playing with my babes!

I admit it was a wee bit tedious writing down everything I did for that long, but it was a profitable exercise and I know it will be useful in next week's project.

Week 2 Project:

Using our findings from last week's project, Rachel and I are going to be developing time budgets for ourselves this week. Like telling your money where to go in a written budget, telling your time where to go can help you insure you're spending your time on the things that matter most to you rather than frittering away 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there without ever accomplishing anything.

If you need more information on time budgeting, check out Money Saving Mom's helpful post on Creating a Time Budget. She also has an excellent free eBook called Time Management 101.

Be sure to read Rachel's post at Intentionally Simple about what she found this week tracking her time.