Managing Your Family’s Time
With multiple schedules and lots of opinions, managing your family’s time can be tough, even in the best of times. We know you want to make sure you’re focusing on the important things—here’s how you can make that happen.
Many of us have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that our lives don’t always have to look the same for us to continue going to work, school, social events, and the many other tasks and activities that make up our day. As we’ve adjusted to the pandemic, many of us have transferred our offices to our homes or learned to stay safe while continuing to go to work. We’ve limited in-person contact with our friends and loved ones. Many of us have children who now receive some (or all) of their education in the living room or at the kitchen table.
We’ve learned to be flexible with how – and where – we spend our time. How can we take this same focus on the important things into our day-to-day lives as the pandemic ends?
REBUILD YOUR HIERARCHY
Your daily life is filled with priorities. Take a brief moment every day – while you’re sipping coffee or brushing your teeth – and consider everyone’s needs. What activities, tasks, and appointments are the most important to you and your family? Some days, it might be an important doctor’s visit, eating dinner together, or just getting to bed on time. Know what’s most important so that when things get busy, your priorities are straight.
COMMUNICATE
Once you know what’s most important, make a plan together. Managing the logistics of a whole family can be tough, so work together to assign pickups, drop-offs, chores, and errands throughout the family.
KEEP IT EFFICIENT
Unfortunately, there are certain tasks that feel annoyingly time consuming – grocery shopping, doctor’s visits, and making dinner, to name a few. Finding ways to make these tasks more efficient will save you time and energy, whether it’s by placing a pickup order for groceries, utilizing a Walk-In Care location or telemedicine for a quick and easy doctor’s visit, or making a tried-and-true crockpot dinner.
GIVE YOURSELF SPACE
Even after you’ve established a plan and found your efficiencies, life gets busy.
Get serious about cutting back plans to make time for the highest priorities each day. Add time between appointments, plan for an extra-long dinner time,
or create ‘plan-free’ nights throughout the week to create space for agility and flexibility as you and yours focus on the important things.
When runny noses or small injuries are slowing your family down, Beebe Walk-In Care is there for you. Visit beebehealthcare.org/services/walk-care to find the location nearest you.
