How to take back your weeknights

We have all been there before. Pulling our hair out frantically trying to juggle 5 different things at once. Whether it’s speed thawing a piece of chicken or talking on the telephone or even trying to help the kids figure out that math problem. There is just one portion of time during any given weeknight that all hell breaks loose. This time is usually around 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm depending on the time you might get off work or finally get home.

The really sad part here is that this stress that comes from having to juggle all of these things at once accumulates and rolls over to the next day unless you get it under control. By getting everything under control then you can take back your weeknights again and have more time for family time, movie time, decluttering your house, or just some personal time that you need to get back in touch with yourself.

To help meet that end, here are a few quick tips to help you in your quest to take back your weeknights:

1. Stay on Time – This is probably one of the most difficult things to do because there are so many variables that cause us grief, whether its a late phone call, traffic or even a super yap happy co-worker, there always seems to be something that seems to try and keep us from getting out of work on time. Things that are out of your control are obviously things that you can’t change, so don’t worry about those things. You should always appropriate a 10-20% change in time due to these random acts that are out of your control, but for hose that you can control you definitely need to take control of the situation.
2. Have a plan – During your spare time, possibly on your break, decide what you are going to need to finish at home. If you need to prepare food, or handle an errand make sure you include that into your plan. Try to be efficient as possible, for instance, if you are running multiple errands, try to group them by location. If you need help from other family members make sure you delegate and get them involved as well.
3. Organize your family members – A nice and easy way to deal with issues is to provide each family member with their own folder. Inside of that folder should be anything that you need to deal with that night. It could be permission slips, things that have to be signed, tests, or anything that needs your attention. You can go over these items at dinner. Make sure to let them know that they should only interrupt your action if it is an absolute emergency and emergencies are things that require going to the hospital.
4. Organize your To Do List – You know what you need to get done for the night. Try to get as much help as possible from other members of the family. For those items that only you can do, you should try to be as efficient with it as possible. There are always ways that you can improve your efficiency. For example.. you could group your tasks together. If you have to make phone calls, set them up at a certain time, if you have to pay bills have all of your bills ready prior to going home. You could have a folder that you take with you to work that contain all of the bills that you need to take care of. Organize them on your break and have them ready by the time you go home.
5. Make You time – It can be as much time as you like but at least find a 15 minute escape from everything. The best Idea is to do this as soon as you get home so that you can unwind a little bit. If you just got through a hectic day, take a little bit of extra time for yourself. Take a hot bath an relax, or at least slip into some comfortable clothes and maybe listen to a little bit of soothing music. If you like a healthy thing to do would be a quick 20 minute home Yoga session. Close the doors put on the cd and just get back to where you need to be so that you can recharge your batteries so to speak.

Tags: easy weeknights, more time weeknights, organize weeknights, quality time, weeknight favorites, weeknight fun, weeknights