If you ever take a glace over a busy parent’s calendar, you’ll leave under the impression that the parent is planning a world conspiracy. Coded calendars, abbreviations, permission forms, birthday invitations, these all are undoubtedly present there. And you may wonder how parents are remaining sane and ready for another day? Well, it’s all in a well-planned schedule for a busy parent of a busy child. It’s about keeping track of time and masterfully splitting it by seconds. Nonetheless, this is challenging. Below are some things that may help parents master better their time and their family member’s time. It’s all about fitting everybody into it, after all.

Write it down

Some have a real talent of keeping track of various activities in their head, but most of us, certainly need to write down all activities in which family members will be involved, but also our own schedule. If you’re having a hard time dealing with smartphone apps for managing this, the good-old pencil and paper method will certainly suit your cup of tea. You can download calendars online, weekly ones, or monthly. For those who are having a schedule that is the same every week, a weekly sheet would work wonderfully. Use it for the entire month, and you’ll be just fine. You won’t have to periodically change the sheet, but you have to make sure that you are really using it. If you find yourself always on the go, make sure to have a copy with you at all times. Keep it in your handbag or your vehicle and you’ll know at all times when you have to pick your children from school or various other activities. At home, you can keep it in a highly circulated area (the kitchen is a great place to begin with) and you’ll have all the info needed.

Time-tracking apps

For the techy parents out there, time-tracking apps are those things that shouldn’t miss from your smartphone. If you are a laptop fan, you can still choose apps such as the Google Calendar and you can be sure that your children’s schedule is orderly and in place, as well as your schedule as well. Juggling with all activities in which your family members are involved isn’t easy, but it certainly is manageable. The great thing about these apps is that you can keep track of family events, places, dates and reoccurring dates. And you should be proud of being able to juggle with these all, even if you use a time-tracking app. After all, everybody needs some apps for this purpose. Professional hair salons use salon scheduling software products, why wouldn’t you use a similar product? Your team manager certainly uses something like this to coordinate the team’s activity schedule, and you should do the same for the team at home.

Always be prepared

This should be your family’s motto. Besides installing and using dedicated apps to help with your time management, experts advise to always check with your partner and see if something unexpected appears. Discuss the schedule for the next few days and see if it remains unchanged. Also, being prepared means to check in with your family members for mundane tasks. See if your partner is still available to drive the children to school, check with your children if they approve with the meal plan that you created for the following week. All these will allow you to create a far more fluent and articulated plan for the week and will help you avoid unpleasant events. Such as not being able to take your children to and from school and having to cook a completely different meal because your children won’t approve with your broccoli rice menu. Also, this means that you have to prepare from time your children’s school uniforms from the night before, as well as preparing their lunches, filling their water bottles and even preparing your work attire for the next day. This will usually translate into more pleasant mornings and a better day, overall.

Buddy up with other parents

If your child is taking part in various extra-curricular activities, they most probably have a friend there. That friend will automatically have a parent or a legal guardian that has to take care of the driving duties, just like you do. You could make arrangements with the parent in discussion to alternate the driving duty of your children. This seems to be a highly effective manner to deal with various duties that you might have. Asking for help and splitting duties is nothing to be ashamed of. Nobody is asking you to be the perfect parent that always shows up to take their children home. A parent friend is more than qualified to help with this, and so are you.

Prioritize

It’s always great to create a hierarchy when establishing a schedule. Establish what tasks are urgent and which ones can wait. This should apply to your case and your children’s case. Should they first get a new haircut or is the dental appointment a more urgent matter? By following this pattern, you can be sure that your schedule is never too busy, and that they don’t end up being exhausted from not being home all day. We all know how difficult to handle is an exhausted child, and most probably we all want to avoid this.

Accept outside help

Many parents think that they are less capable parents if they hire nannies and babysitters. Well, chances are that both you and your partner are working full-time jobs and finding the necessary time to deal with everything, and most importantly, keep a close eye on your children is not always a suitable option. While you can always spend time with your children after work and during weekends, this doesn’t mean that you have to give up your work life for this. Line up some nannies and see which one is available when. This will certainly make your life considerably easier.

These are some time management tips for parents that always seem to work. Always use scheduling apps, prioritize, and think ahead. This will make your life so much easier.