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can't believe how fast it goes
168 hours - that's how many hours there are in a week and the title of Laura Vanderkam's new book "168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think". Join Laura and a fantastic group of mom bloggers to talk about how we spend our time and how we can look at our schedules differently and free up more time. Here's how Martha Beck describes her reaction to the book, "Within a few pages, Laura Vanderkam's crisp, entertaining book convinced me I had time to read it. Then it convinced me I had time to reread War and Peace. In the original Russian. Thank you, Laura, for freeing up my schedule." -Martha Beck, bestselling author of Steering by Starlight
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You Have More Time Than You Think
Oct 12, 2010 Tuesday, 1:00pm EST - Add as Favorites
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TALK HOSTS:
FEATURED GUESTS:
Category:BODY AND SOUL
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- laura vanderkam 25 comments
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Fill in the blank: "I spend way too much time on _____!"
about 1 year ago
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- Holland 16 comments
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I really like Productive Mom's "train the family" below. Does anyone else have a favorite tip that they instill at home that helps you manage your time / stay better organized?
about 1 year ago
Brandie
True. I think we have a choice to make: Have it all the exact way I want it and have to do it all myself (in which I case I give up the right to complain about having to do it all myself) OR allow others to do it in a way that it is good enough for them and not have to do it all myself (in which case I give up the right to complain about them not doing it the way I would have). And when I look it at that way, the second option makes so much more sense!
about 1 year ago
Grace Hester
Brandie, you raise an excellent point about not freaking out because they are still learning. :o) We can be so tempted to just do it ourselves.
about 1 year ago
laura vanderkam
Point taken - we will be singing the clean-up song tonight.
about 1 year ago
Brandie
We do chore charts too - mostly with picture clues for the little ones. I'm going to switch over to magnets I think. My current charts are falling apart.
about 1 year ago
Deborah
Some days nobody is in a mood for a full-on cleaning job. That is what I use the microwave timer for. 10 minute tidy. Do as much as possible in 10 minutes. You'd be surprised.
about 1 year ago
Joy
We do the clean up song too... My almost year old loves to sing it, but the cleaning part - we're still working on it!
about 1 year ago
altdotanise
@Joy, we do that too. Every Sunday evening, we get out our electronic calendars, and figure out who's doing what. It's helped us a LOT.
about 1 year ago
NancyS
We review the weekly calendar/schedule at the beginning of the week - so the boys and hubby are aware of what's coming, esp. if it is A-Typical of the week, and helpful for middle school son to start thinking about how to manage homework and projects.
about 1 year ago
Brandie
Laura, they are not too little! Start now, with small things. Your oldest is 3, right? He can put laundry away in drawers (just make sure you have drawers he can reach). Take his dirty dishes to the sink. Put dirty clothes in hamper. Start now, when they are young ... it helps later on =) (Just remember to not freak out when the clothes aren't in the drawer still perfectly folded)
about 1 year ago
Grace Hester
The "clean up song" and an older sibling who she looks up to and who picks up, helps alot.
about 1 year ago
Melissa
we're all about the chore charts!
about 1 year ago
Joy
We do a family/financial meeting over the weekend to look over what's ahead - to get our schedules in sync, etc. We plan on involving the kids on the weekly family/financial meetings.
about 1 year ago
laura vanderkam
Glad you got the 2-year-old to understand the idea of picking up! We are working on that...
about 1 year ago
24/7 MOMS
We have family meetings go over chore charts, the week ahead of activities, needs, etc
about 1 year ago
Grace Hester
Laura, mine are 5 and 2. *laugh*
about 1 year ago
laura vanderkam
My kids are too little for much of that, but I'm certainly looking for advice as they get older -- how to make them self-sufficient as possible.
about 1 year ago
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Deborah
Laundry is never ending, unless of course you are a nudist. Well, and the rest of your family is too. I accept laundry as my nemesis.
about 1 year agojneuman88
The computer and personal reading time.
about 1 year agoGrace Hester
julie, groovy :o)
about 1 year agoBrandie
Productive mom - my piles are everywhere. Sigh. No, the kitchen is priority and I do a pretty good job in there. Part of the problem is I don't have my own desk/work area. So my stuff gets spread out based on where I can fit it in. I need to create an area all for me. I need to. I just haven't found a way to fit it into the house. I think I need to significantly rearrange a few spots in our house to get it. Having one spot would make a huge difference!
about 1 year agoJoy
We're trying the same thing, Laura - our solution is to get rid of all the furniture :)... In the past weeks, we have sold a bunch of stuff on craigslist, so now, we only have the necessary things that we really need and I have less to clean!
about 1 year agolaura vanderkam
I don't spend much time cleaning, but I'm trying to spend even less. After I got all the kids' books put on the shelf the other night, the baby pulled them all back down 10 minutes later. Lesson: stop trying.
about 1 year agoJoy
Ok, so I too am in love with Gmail/gcal - because it syncs with my - yep, you guessed it - ical! :) (and my phone). Plus, I love that it's web based.
about 1 year agojuliepippert
Deborah, you need to potty train your kitties. Best thing I ever did. No more litter box! No more litter! No more litter box odor! No more cleaning up after cats. And oh...the SWEEPING! I like my cats much more now lol
about 1 year agojuliepippert
ProductiveMom, you can do the same in Gmail. It lets you build task lists that link directly to the emails, or you can add additional tasks unrelated to any specific email.
about 1 year agoGrace Hester
Brandie, maybe you can identify one area that you is the biggest time drain for you due to disorganization and allocate some time to organizing just that one area?
about 1 year agoJoy
LOL, Deborah! I seem to never be done with laundry and Jude's not even two! As for email, Emily, I try to keep my inbox to zero and I utilize folders to prioritize my messages. If it's something I can reply to in a couple of clicks, then, I do that... But if it will take longer, I mark it as unread and move it to the "Now" folder, etc.
about 1 year agoGrace Hester
Hmm . . . I should blog about that one day. :o)
about 1 year agoGrace Hester
Emily - if you use MS Outlook, you can use categories to flag where each email is and schedule follow-ups on the emails. It totally rocks for me.
about 1 year agoNancyS
twitter, facebook, email . . .
about 1 year agojuliepippert
I admit I like the Google Priority mail feature. It lets me keep the most important at the top, so I can scan that quickly and take care of anything urgent, while the rest is hidden below. It makes my mail look like 10 or less things at any given time, which is a big mental help lol.
about 1 year agoDeborah
laundry. And sweeping kitty litter.
about 1 year agoEmily
Email is so tricky. I want my accounts to be organized and follow up with everyone, but it takes SO MUCH time to stay on top of them!!!! Any help here is HUGELY appreciated!!!
about 1 year agoBrandie
Also, if I'm being honest. I spend too much time each day searching for lost/misplaced items because I'm disorganized. It sucks. It's where I'm at though. I have to get more organized. It's stressful to be otherwise!
about 1 year agoErin O
My email accounts.
about 1 year agolaura vanderkam
Email is definitely a biggie for me. I try to remind myself that it will still be there in an hour!
about 1 year agoJoy
the computer... for sure!
about 1 year agoannaed
the internet.
about 1 year agoBrandie
ditto Holland - too much time on the computer!
about 1 year agojuliepippert
worrying! Thinking about what hasn't been done instead of what has!
about 1 year agoHolland
the computer! :-)
about 1 year ago