Tag Archives: scheduling

Ways to Avoid Stress: Time Management

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Some stresses are unavoidable; others can be reduced or avoided entirely! Here are some tips to help manage and/or avoid stress. Good time management can be a great way to avoid stress — you’ll get more time with family and friends, increase work performance and productivity, and have free time to relax and do the things you love. Keep records of how you spend your time — look at how much time you’re spending on work, family, and other things. Prioritize your time — rate tasks by importance and urgency. Focus on the things that are most important; other things … Continue reading →

The Pros and Cons of Working Long Hours

There are times in my home business when I work what I consider to be long days—10, 11 or 12 hours of work. While it can sometimes seem as though these long days cannot be avoided, I have learned that there can be pros and cons to working such long days of work in a home business— The pros, of course, are that I can often get a lot of work done in one fell swoop and then have a whole day or some big chunks of time to dedicate to family or other interests. Since I do not have … Continue reading →

Getting Things off Your Plate

Working in a more traditional job with coworkers, departments, and “teams” means that a person can delegate. We get to pass things off onto someone else or shift it to another department. Working for ourselves in our home businesses usually means that we are chief cook and bottle washer and there is not anyone we can really delegate to. This can result in our getting overwhelmed, overextended and having far too much on our plate. Even if we are a one-person show, we do need to find ways to shift some things off of that plate so we can focus … Continue reading →

Do You Need to Get Out More?

One of the perks of working from the home business that many of us take advantage of is that we do not have to stay tied down to a desk or office. The home business tends to lend itself to more flexibility and motion. This being said, I know there are also plenty of us who are not getting out as much as we would like, or as much as we could… I will be the first to share my confession—when I first started my home business, I went out and about a great deal (maybe too much). I seemed … Continue reading →

Consider Substitutions

I wrote earlier today about how sometimes the best time management choices we can make as single parents is to make changes and adjustments to what we are trying to do in the course of a day or week. The same thing goes for other areas of our lives. Instead of trying to force something or holding out for perfection, the best thing might be to consider making a substitution. What can we do instead? Is there something that will satisfy our need or want as well that does not cost as much or take as long? I am not … Continue reading →

Taking Advantage of Kid-Free Time

What parent does not know and appreciate the rareness of alone time or time when the kids are “elsewhere?” For a single parent, those hours of kid-free time can be valuable and cherished indeed. Whether the kids are with their other parent, or even at school, soccer practice or a birthday party, we might feel the pressure to make the most of that time without a child underfoot. I still covet my child-free time even though my kids are older. To be honest, I actually think I have the house all to myself less now than ever! I know that … Continue reading →

Breaking it Down by the Hour

I am constantly on the look-out for ways to stay motivated and measure my productivity. I do not want to be uptight about it, but it is easy for me to get distracted sometimes and at other times, I am not entirely confident that I am make efficient and productive use of my time. Recently, a colleague shared with me that he keeps track of his tasks and efforts by the hour–in order to make sure that he is getting stuff done throughout the day. His approach is to start with a master “to do” list and then break things … Continue reading →

“Where Are You Working Today, Mom?”

I have often written about how I have a tendency to have a self-directed and sometimes chaotic work-schedule. Because I have pieced together my work world to support my family life as a single parent, I definitely do not have a traditional 9-5 work life. For my kids, who have grown up around this arrangement, they are often asking me to clarify. It has kept them on their toes a bit as they have a tendency to ask me: “Where are you working today, Mom?” I work based from my “home office” but that doesn’t always mean that I am … Continue reading →

Do Kids in Single Parent Families Get to Stay Up Later?

I had a debate recently with a couple other single parents about whether we think our children got LATER bedtimes because of our single parent status or EARLIER ones. I argued that when my children were younger, they probably had an earlier bedtime than their peers because I had to get up early for work and during the years I was going to college, I really needed those nights for my study time. As they got older, however, I know that the bedtime got a little more lax so that we could have time to spend together over dinner, homework, … Continue reading →

There Is Not Enough Time in the Day

I am convinced that ever since I started homeschooling, the days have gotten shorter. I’m positive this is occurring and as proof I homeschooled until 5pm yesterday. That meant we ate dinner at almost 6:30pm which apparently if you’re under the age of 8, is akin to virtually starving. I am positive that before I started homeschooling, I was able to keep my house clean. Completely clean. . .even the tops of the shelves were sparkly. Nary a crumb in the crevices and crannies of my floors went unnoticed. One would think that this lack of time occurred when we … Continue reading →