Are you on a committee that takes more of your time than you wish it did? Do you put down your fork during dinner with the family in order to answer the phone? Manage your time with your family by learning to say no to distractions. Edit out tasks and committees that do not add to your life, making the most of your time should be spent showing your family that you love them.
Choose one day a week and save that time just to spend with the family. When someone wants you to volunteer, tell them you spend all of Sunday devoted to your family and that you never schedule anything for that day. It’s an important part of your commitment to your family, having boundaries. If you feel like an impromptu picnic with your family, go do it. Spontaneity is a wonderful way of spending your time.
Give yourself an hour a day to do whatever you want, just with yourself. The boundaries that you set at work and with your volunteer activities can mean the difference between a happy family home and one that is irritated all of the time because you have to keep running off to serve on a committee or deliver something. If you are the secretary for a committee, type up the minutes as soon as you get home the same night and then forget about it, your family is more important than running them over to someone’s house. The time you spend alone will help you be a better mother. You do need to make some time for you; the rest should be spent on your family and a few activities, not enough to fill all of the odd moments in a week. I mean do not join that gym because a friend wants you to help her remember to exercise, I mean go alone. Take all the time you want in the steam room.
It’s important to avoid feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. If you’re feeling like your life is out of control or that other people are making unreasonable demands on you, then it is imperative that you schedule some time just for yourself. Take the time to honor and reconnect with yourself, or you may begin to resent the very activities that you thought were so important to be a part of in the first place. The resentment will present from everything from headaches to the inability to eat to sleep loss, and who will you take it out on? Your family.
Find out what your sleeping habits are and use that to your advantage. Most people don’t fall into the “eight hour” category. Some need lots of rest, while others are happy and productive with six hours. The important thing to remember with sleeping patterns is that your body will make up for lost sleep, and it will do it when it wants to, so to avoid falling asleep during your child’s play, make sure you say no to staying up extra late to watch that movie.