Inspiration for this group of articles (listed below) comes from Jack Canfield’s bestseller - How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. I am taking the principles from the book and applying them to life as a parent.

Life as a parent is busy. Fact. So busy, sometimes (most of the time) you wonder how you’re going to fit it all in.

A quote from the book;

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Mark Twain

In my first article I talked about my shunning of the old multi-tasking system I employed and replacing it with compartmentalization. Here is how I organize the various activities - parenting, studying, working, housework, house management (finances, diy etc..), blogging.

Make a List

I’m an avid list-maker, in fact if list making were a sport I’d be representing at the Olympics.

Get yourself a notebook, or a ‘page-a-day’ diary, you need a page.

Prioritize

There are some things that must be done everyday. My must-do things are parenting (feeding, amusing, bathing etc..), general housework (dishes, picking stuff up and usually one load of laundry), work (usually two hours a day). These things must be done every day, so, instead of wasting time planning this stuff I just put myself on autopilot to do these first and foremost.

Fitting In The Rest

Each day I try to do one activity towards each thing. For example housework - I pick one think like ironing, clean car, hoover everywhere, and I complete that task, I find one task a day is manageable, usually Alex does one task too, so that’s two major tasks done each day.

House management - I automate bill paying, we plan our budget in three month chunks, I basically keep an eye on things daily which takes about five minutes.

Blogging - I am trying to write articles in advance, I want to try and get a week in advance. I’d like to be able to spend one blogging session a week focussing on marketing, monetizing and new projects.

Studying - The one area, that is not quite fitting yet…I’m not sure whether I will adopt the ‘few hours once a week method’ or the ‘half an hour four times a week’ method.

I’d love to hear about your methods of organisation…

Other Articles in the Series:

Compartmentalizing Time
Remember Your Purpose Outside of Parenting
Aim High

Photo by flickr user cote