Time Tricks
I’m a high school English teacher, so my job is exhausting in itself during the day, but I regularly have 1-2 hours of grading every night and 5-6 hours on the weekend. We also live thirty minutes away, so an hour commute eats into my time as well. Add in dinner, three kids, and bedtime…and I’ll be honest, sometimes I don’t know how it all happens either.
That being said, I have some disclaimers.
I have a wonderful husband. He’s also a teacher so we have exactly the same schedule and same days off work as our kids. He also does all the grocery shopping and the laundry—and likes them both. I know. I could end the post right here because that explains a lot
My kids do not play sports. Chauffeuring kids to other commitments is a huge time factor I don’t have to deal with (yet). They also go to bed early (7 and 8pm).
My kids are now old enough to help with some chores, but my house is usually cluttered (okay, messy).
I’m an achiever. My bucket is filled by accomplishing tasks. I love setting goals and then beating my own arbitrary deadline.
Still, I’ve become good at budgeting my time. Here are some tips and tricks that work for me.
It’s truly a budget
Time is money, right? Well, I’m naturally a saver, and spending money is really hard for me, especially spending it on myself; similarly, it’s hard for me to spend my time on myself too. Before my husband and I got married, we studied Dave Ramsey’s financial advice. Love him or hate him, it has worked for us for fourteen years. One of the things I learned was to budget “fun money” every month. If the money wasn’t budgeted, I would feel obligated to save it, but because we already ear-mark some money for saving every month, it helps knowing I am supposed to spend this money on myself, for whatever I want.
I have learned to budget my time this way too. Before my daughter was born, I decided to set some work boundaries in my life, and one day every week, I don’t touch anything to do with school. That became my one day to write. Yup, one day a week was all I gave myself. But it was enough, and then on breaks I wrote more. It was easier to not burn myself out on school work knowing I had time coming up for an intentional rest, and it was easier to devote the other days to work knowing that if I was focused during the other six days, the last day would be even more relaxing.
But even with a day off, I am still a mom of three. So I budget my time even further in blocks.
Block scheduling
At school, we have (mostly) four ninety minute periods every day. During first block, I am fully devoted to my AP Lit seniors. During second block, the room is empty and I have to plan, make copies, go to the bathroom, change my agendas, and create handouts, because once the bell rings, my juniors are coming in the room for the next ninety minutes.
Having a dedicated time blocked off that is budgeted for behind-the-scenes work really helps me make a routine at school, and I have carried this over to my home life. When my kids we young, we used a routine with wake-up times on the weekend and nap time in the afternoon. Even though my kids no longer nap, we follow that same routine. The kids are allowed to watch TV in the mornings until a designated time, and then we have another block of TV time in the afternoon. Subsequently, these are my blocks of Me-Time.
The kids are all content to get their TV time because it’s not available all day long, which leaves me mostly silence when they click the power buttons on. Once those screens shut off, I know I will be in mom-mode, and knowing I can’t open my Word doc any time during the day helps me use those blocks of time efficiently. The best part is, it absolves me of mom guilt.
Any mom knows this guilt. We’re told we should be watching and enjoying our kids at every waking moment—and maybe even some of their sleeping moments too—because we’re always reminded they grow up too fast and we’ll miss them being young when they get old. We’re told to hold onto every funny comment, to never forget a hug, to cherish everything. And frankly, it’s exhausting. I long ago accepted I won’t be able to remember it all, and it’s been freeing.
But even better, because I have budgeted time for the kids to be on their own during TV block, it means that this time is budgeted for me to be on my own too. It’s built into our routine, and knowing that we have all the other hours of the day to laugh and play (or whine and fight), makes it easier to use these hours while not taking the others for granted either.
Writing is fun!
I can’t say it will always be this way, but right now, writing is fun. I’d rather write and edit than watch a show on Netflix. I feel refreshed after drafting 2,000 new words or making it through fifty pages of edits. If writing wasn’t something I looked forward to doing, I probably wouldn’t find time to do it.
