All too often we simply don't have enough time to play, talk or even just sit & relax with our children. A few simple changes can make all the difference.
How can we reclaim that oh-so-precious commodity, family time? Is it possible to keep up with the demands of children, career and housework without hiring an army of nannies, cooks, cleaners & secretaries? The answer is yes. Here are four tips to get you started.
Prioritise
ou are about to run out of nappies. The lounge needs vacuuming. There is not enough food in the kitchen cupboard to feed a small family of mice and yes; tomorrow is the tax credit form return deadline. The list goes on. And on. And on….
Go back to basics & make a list of three, and only three, ‘must-dos’ for the day. Forget everything else: you will only feel daunted by a list as long as your arm that you will not be able to stick to.
Minimise Your Mess
You have five minutes until you have to take your toddler to a friend's birthday party. You are all ready to leave the house but for one small detail: a size 6 trainer. You are certain it is buried deep in the bowels of the cupboard under the stairs, but there is no time to find it. The footwear-related tantrum that you are presently witnessing would have been avoided had you tidied up. But when do you ever actually find the time to have that big clear out?
Chandra Nova
Organisation coach Chandra Nova suggests spending ten or fifteen minutes each day tidying up, which “will eat away at the clutter monster far quicker than if you wait for the right day, or the free weekend, to get started.” Decide ahead when that 15 minutes will be, and stick to it rigidly. Doing it at the same time every day will help you keep this resolution.
Save Time Shopping
One of life’s biggest pains has to be the weekly supermarket trawl. Save time here by buying all your non-perishables for the month in one go, leaving a smaller weekly shop for fruit & vegetables. This has the added bonus of saving you money, as you will now be buying tinned beans, nappies, etc. in bulk economy size. This is of course not counting the petrol & stress saved by never having to go on the emergency 4.30pm bread/tea/cheese run again.
Internet Shopping
This is an alternative that can save you even more time! Most supermarket websites allow you to save your order so you can do the weekly shop with the minimum time lost.
Cook In Bulk
Now you have food in bulk you can cook in bulk. There is nothing wrong with jarred food & ready meals as long as they are not your only back up when you rush in, exhausted, from work and hunger has driven your children to do their best impressions of Dennis the Menace. A diet of instant food saps your family's energy, creating a vicious circle where you then feel too lethargic to cook (or indeed do much else) properly.
Make friends with your freezer. Pasta sauce, soups, curries & shepherd’s pie are all healthy alternatives that can be cooked in bulk and frozen. They are a godsend on days when you cannot face the kitchen. As nutritional guru Gillian McKeith says in the You Are What You Eat Cookbook (Michael Joseph, 2005), ‘If you ever have any spare cash, go out and buy the biggest fridge-freezer you can find.’
You will have to set some time aside to actually do the cooking, but it will pay dividends in terms of calm & rest. Take it one step further and, if they are old enough, get the kids involved – peeling, grating, and of course tasting!
Planning a month’s shopping, cooking 30 portions of soup and finding that elusive quarter of an hour to tidy up all initially require exactly what you’re trying to save: time & energy! Begin on a small scale: tackle the one thing that really drives you up the wall. Use the time you save to tackle the next most important job. In this way, the time saved will hopefully build up until you feel more in control of everything.
