- Time management not only helps you work more efficiently but cuts down on unnecessary stresses.
- Prioritizing, making a schedule, establishing a routine, planning ahead, setting reasonable goals, avoiding overcommitments, and managing distractions all help in your daily productivity.
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Time Management
Ever feel like there just are not enough hours in the day? You are not alone. Managing your time so that you can get everything done that you want in a day is hard, and it is even harder when you are managing multiple people’s day. Finding an easy to manage yet effective schedule for not only your school day, but also for the rest of your day, is an important part of homeschooling. Setting specific times for schooling, activities, and meals, but allowing time for leniency as well as breaks, will make your day go by a lot smoother. Here are some of my top time management tips to help you on your homeschooling journey.
Prioritize
Make a list of your top priorities. These may include activities such as schooling, preparation of meals, and sleep schedules. This set of priorities should be the most important things that need to be completed throughout the day. It is best to schedule these activities first then all other activities that are less important can be scheduled around them.
Make sure to prioritize relaxation or self-care time. While this may seem trivial and near impossible if you have small children, having time for yourself, even if only for 10-15 minutes, is important for your physical and mental health as well as for your children as it will cut down on your overall stress levels.
Make a Schedule
When you are first getting started, whether you are beginning homeschooling or just trying to get more organized with your time management, there is no need to try to schedule and maximize every minute of your day. Start off with a general time frame for activities and go from there. You can always get more specific with times later on when everyone is more comfortable in their routine and you are more familiar with what you need to schedule.
Timing is Key
Another important matter to keep in mind is knowing when you are most productive and when your kids are most productive. Schedule activities that require more focus at times when that focus can easily be given. For example, having children work on subjects like math and language arts may be easier either early in the morning when they are well rested and fed after breakfast, or after lunch when they are just coming off of a brain break. If you know that you will have an hour when the toddler is down for a nap of uninterrupted time, use that for housework or meal prepping.
Planning Tools
Using some sort of planning tool has been key for my family. We tend to work best with a written copy of our daily schedule out where we can see it and then mark off things as we go. I have used both planner books that I buy at the beginning of the school year as well as printed out versions. This method helps me easily see what I have already completed and what I still need to complete. Having a schedule online is also an option, and there are many apps available for phones as well.
If you are looking for a simple free printable scheduler, check out our worksheets page.
Utilizing Timelines
When you have more than one child that you are teaching, you will need to take into account when you will be able to personally work with each child. For example, while one child is doing some reading on their own, you can review a math concept with another one. Or while one is working on a worksheet or other assignment that they can do on their own, you can work on an art project with another. Even with multiple children doing multiple activities, you can still make a manageable timeline to work with. Just remember, being flexible is key.
Not every day will work out how you planned: someone is having trouble with a subject and needs extra practice, a project takes much longer to finish than expected, the internet is down, someone is sick and needs to go to the doctor. Things can go in an unexpected direction and that is ok. Don’t get stressed if everything doesn’t go as planned. Schooling from home means that you can make up schoolwork anytime. You can finish a project over the weekend or a worksheet in the car on the way to softball practice. Finding a good balance of ‘staying on top of things’ but being flexible and able to adapt will help you tremendously.
Setting up the Schedule
While I am a big fan of time specific schedules, I have learned that leniency is the most important part of any day. There will almost certainly be something that comes up during the day that throws you, or everyone, off. The baby will have a blowout that takes nothing short of the garden hose to clean up, someone will get sick, you will realize that you are missing a key ingredient for dinner after you have already started cooking. We all know how these inconveniences pop up quickly and daily. Learning to really roll with the punches has been a very slow yet important part of my own learning experience as a homeschooling parent.
Not sure where to start or how to set up your schedule? Try working backwards. If you know that you want to be done with schoolwork by 1pm, then your last 30-min class would need to start at 12:30pm, and the one before at 12:00 pm, and so on. Just make sure you are scheduling in time for breaks as well.
Want a free printable scheduler to help you stay on task? Check out our worksheets. And if you are looking for a more in-depth guide to scheduling, check out our How to Set Up a Homeschool Schedule blog.
Establish a Routine
Establishing a routine helps to cut down on wasted time as well as creates an environment in which everyone knows what to expect and what is expected of them. Having a set wake-up time, learning time, play time, or whatever time will cut down on arguments over when certain activities should be completed or confusion on what should be done when.
We start classes at the same time every day, and we have snacks, breaks, and lunch at the same time every day as well. As the kids have gotten a bit older, I no longer have a minute-by-minute plan of their school day, but more of a timeline. For my youngest, I make sure that he gets done with all of his written work, and/or more cognitive work early on so that he is well rested, recently fed, and less likely to have a reason to become unfocused. For my middle child I suggest what order that she does things, trying to keep her on one subject at a time until all of that subject’s lessons are complete. As for my oldest, I make sure she has her to-do list written down but leave her to complete assignments as she sees fit.
This not only frees up some of my time to do things like housework or preparing meals but also helps them learn to manage their own time. With that being said, anything that will require either my assistance or my involvement has to be planned for a certain time so that I am not in the middle of working on something else.
Plan Ahead
Planning for the days and weeks ahead can be a little time consuming and may seem trivial, especially considering that there is no way that you can plan for everything, but trust me, it will make your days run much smoother. I especially like to plan ahead for schoolwork. Having any pages printed, materials gathered, and online resources bookmarked makes following my daily class schedule easier and my day less stressful.
This doesn’t just apply to school either, if you know that your kids have checkup appointments or dentist appointments coming up, plan around them. Have a vacation or family trip coming up? Make a packing list a week ahead of time and pack items slowly, marking them off the list as you go. Plan ahead for birthdays such as doing extra schoolwork in the surrounding days so that you can take the day off to go to the park or visit a location of your child’s choosing. If you are planning a field trip, make sure to plan ahead for food choices, snacks, and rest times.
Pack a Bag
I am that mom that takes the huge bag with them wherever they go. Thirsty? I have a water bottle. Cheese stick? Yes, I’ve got it. Napkin? Bug spray? Hair clip? I’ve got you. I even have an emergency bag in my car with an extra outfit for everyone, a blanket, and an emergency kit. I like to be prepared for random things. While I envy, a little, those that can walk out of their house, a handful of kids following behind them, carrying just a wallet and an extra diaper, that just isn’t something that I can do. Planning ahead means that I don’t have to stress about things later, and that means a lot to me.
Set a Reminder
I am also a mom that forgets… a lot. That dentist appointment that I made 6 months ago or the exam that my daughter needs to take 2 weeks from now tend to slip my mind. Setting reminders on my phone has become a must for me. Not only a calendar reminder but a time reminder. Having my alarm go off an hour or two before I need to be somewhere has saved me from missing something important more than once. Before you ask, yes, I also have a paper calendar hanging in my kitchen in a prominent place with all of our appointments, games, practices, etc. written on it but you can bet I walk right past that without even looking at it most of the time. My phone reminders have been a major quality-of-life improvement.
Set Reasonable Goals
Goal setting is part of life for everyone. There are big goals like buying a car or a home and small ones like losing 5 pounds before the summer. When it comes to homeschooling, having both year-long goals such as an ending date for the school year or strengthening a child’s handwriting and short-term goals such as completing a specific unit in math or finishing a chapter book all need to be considered. The important part here is setting reasonable goals.
Work Backwards
One way to help make goal setting easier is to consider the long-term goals first, such as when you want to finish the school year and work backwards from there. Let’s say you know you want to be done with school by the end of May and that you want to start in September, you will know how much work will need to be done each month and then each week, and finally, each day to be able to reach that goal. If you look at it this way, and the days are jammed packed, you may need to readjust your bigger goal.
Take into Consideration
There are many considerations for setting goals such as age, ability, and time. Setting a goal that you know you won’t be able to achieve, for example a 6-hour straight teaching schedule when you have a toddler to tend to, meals to make, and a dog to take for a walk, is unreasonable and only sets you up for disappointment and added stress. The same goes for your children. Setting a goal for a fourth grader to finish a large chapter book in a week while also working on other subjects and attending afternoon extracurricular activities may be setting them up for failure.
While I feel that the line between having high expectations and setting unreasonable goals can be blurry, that’s where homeschooling really shines. You know your kids. You know what they are capable of and what will only add unnecessary stress to them. That means that you can set well thought out reasonable goals while allowing them to flourish.
Avoid Overcommitment
We have all been guilty of it, stretching ourselves too thin trying to be everywhere doing everything all at the same time. Face it, you just cannot be in two places at once, no matter how hard you try. Avoiding overcommitment is an important step in making your day more manageable and productive.
Make Tough Decisions
One way to achieve this is by making tough decisions on which and how many extracurriculars that your children are a part of. I have three children, all of whom enjoy playing sports; and I mean all sports. They have all played basketball, soccer, tennis, softball/baseball, and gymnastics. We had one hectic six months where I let them each play 2 sports in one season. That was 6 sets of practices, games, tournaments, and performances. We ultimately realized that even with the help of family members and friends we were just not able to make it to everything. Sometimes the same child had both sports scheduled at the same time. Once that season was over, I had to make the decision that they could only commit to one sport per season unless we were absolutely certain that we could make it to all practices and games without thoroughly straining ourselves.
While this means that sometimes my children have to choose between two sports that they really enjoy, it cuts out having to run from one thing to another and lets them focus and practice solely on one activity at a time.
Manage Your Own Schedule
This also applies to schoolwork. Managing your schedule so that you can spend adequate amounts of time with your child(ren) per subject may mean that you just can’t teach everything every day. And that’s okay. Homeschooling allows you to adjust your schedule however needed and realizing what you do and do not have time for in a day will help lower stress for both you and your children.
Learning to say no plays a big part in avoiding overcommitment. It may be hard at first, saying no to an extracurricular, to some of those homeschool meetups, to meeting up with friends and family often, but trust me, it will benefit everyone in the long run.
Housework
Housework also tends to put a strain on time somedays. For those with young children who are homeschooling and taking on the role of homemaker this is especially true. Delegating tasks, accounting for both ability and time, is a helpful way to get more work done while not wasting time. Maybe an older child can load and unload the dishwasher daily, one child can help clear the table, the toddler can help put away clothes into drawers. These simple tasks, while seemingly trivial in your overall day, do add up to time saved. Giving each child a five to ten-minute activity to complete will not interfere with their time for learning or play and will keep you from having to worry about those small daily tasks.
Manage Distractions
These days, who doesn’t seem to get caught up in those ever-scrolling social media pages sometimes? I know I have fallen victim to that “just this one short video” thought and then I look up and 45 minutes have passed. If you know you are prone to scroll through social media or fall into the Pinterest time-hole when given a free moment, or if you tend to respond to every email and text message as soon as they come in, you may need to leave your phone in another room while donning the teacher hat.
If that is inconvenient for you or just unattainable, try setting aside a specific time of the day to do those things. Strolling through the internet could be an activity that you do while having lunch or during an afternoon break. Maybe you can address emails first thing in the morning or after dinner. Setting aside specific times, and sticking to them, will help you manage certain distractions and make you more productive.
Stay Organized
Staying organized also cuts down on distractions, especially for kids. If you need to constantly send them to another room or area to look for school supplies, more likely than not, they will become distracted by something else. The same is true for us as adults. If I ever have to leave mid lesson to go to another room and look for something there is no doubt that I will see something that needs to be put away ,thrown away, laundry that needs to be checked; and by the time I actually get back to teaching I have forgotten what I was doing and I still do not have whatever it was that I left to go get to begin with.
Keeping school supplies organized and easily accessible, as well as having time set aside for other activities such as cleaning, checking emails, and scrolling through my phone keeps me focused and on target.
I hope that you find some of these time management ideas helpful. While there is no way to completely plan out every day, putting some of these suggestions into practice may help you feel more in control and less stressed. Then you can use your ‘extra time’ to teach, learn, create, and have fun. If you found this blog helpful please consider subscribing to and liking this post as it will help to grow the community as well as let me know which type of posts are more beneficial for you. If you are just starting out on your homeschooling journey my Quick Homeschooling Start Here Guide can give you some great information on how to get started.
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For more ideas on time management specifically for homeschooling, check out this video:
Do you have some time management tips that have worked well for you? Please share with the community in the comments below!
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